Swarovski does not open its archive often. When it does, it tends to do it properly.
Masters of Light: From Vienna to Milan ran at Palazzo Citterio, the newly restored extension of the Pinacoteca di Brera, and it was the first full retrospective the company had staged in its 129-year history. Swarovski invited us out to see it, and Amanda and I went.
We were given a personal tour by Swarovski's own experts, which meant hearing about the pieces from people who knew the archive rather than reading the wall text. This is what we saw, and why it mattered to us as a supplier rather than as visitors.
What the exhibition actually was
The show was conceived by Swarovski's Global Creative Director Giovanna Engelbert and curated by the fashion critic and author Alexander Fury. It had premiered in Shanghai the previous autumn before arriving in Milan during Men's Fashion Week.
It was arranged as a series of chambers, each taking a different route into the same subject. The Time Chamber traced the company from its Vienna origins through three centuries of manufacturing, drawing on the Swarovski Heritage Collection. Future History set twenty pairs of outfits in visual dialogue with one another, historic against contemporary. The Mathemagical Chamber dealt with the geometry. And the Pop Icons Chamber held the pieces most people came for.
More than fifty crystal-embellished couture designs were on display, including work from Prada and Miu Miu, Gucci, Fendi Couture, Atelier Versace under both Gianni and Donatella, and Armani Privé. Alongside them sat stage and red carpet pieces worn by Harry Styles, Katy Perry and Beyoncé. The Galaxy collection, Swarovski's fine jewellery line built around lab-grown Swarovski Created Diamonds, was shown alongside them.
Of everything in the building, the piece that stopped us was a Vivienne Westwood corset. Westwood sat alongside Alexander McQueen, Louis Vuitton and Thierry Mugler Couture in the couture selection, much of it on public display for the first time, and it turned out we weren't the only ones drawn to it. Madelaine Petsch, at the opening, called it the corset of her dreams.
Afterwards we sat with the group over coffee in the café, housed in the palazzo's orangery with a menu created by the Milanese chef Carlo Cracco.
What you notice when you work with the material
Most visitors were looking at the clothes. We spent a lot of the time looking at the stones.
We know the cuts, the shapes and the colours, so walking through the exhibition was partly an exercise in recognition. Spotting which stones a designer had reached for, and how they had used them, was fascinating in a way it simply wouldn't be for someone seeing the garments as garments. It is the difference between reading a book and knowing the alphabet it is written in.
Seeing 129 years of output in one building also puts the current range in context. The shapes and effects we sell every day are the latest step in a very long line of them, and the exhibition made that lineage visible in a way a catalogue never can.
The largest Swarovski store in Europe
Swarovski flew us out and put us up at the Principe di Savoia for the night, and we spent the evening with the team over cocktails and dinner. The following day we spent time at Swarovski's Milan store, which we were told is the largest in Europe. Three floors, and nothing like what most people picture when they think of a Swarovski shop.
The part that interested us most was the separate showroom given over entirely to crystal components. Not finished jewellery, not figurines, but the raw material laid out the way a fabric house lays out cloth. It is the side of Swarovski most customers never see, and it is the side we work with every day.
Elsewhere in the store were three of the large-scale figurines, each valued at around half a million. Seeing those and then walking back into a room of loose flatbacks tells you something about the range of what this material does. The same glass, cut to the same standards, at both ends of that scale.
The store also had a dedicated Swarovski Created Diamonds section, and the manager took us through the pieces himself. He told us the Milan store sells more of them than any other in the network, which says something about how quickly lab-grown has been accepted in a city that knows fine jewellery as well as any in the world. It was a useful conversation to have on the same trip as the exhibition, where the Galaxy collection built around those same stones was on display. Seeing the concept in a curated setting and then seeing it selling on a shop floor is a rare thing.
Why we were there
Bluestreak Crystals is a Swarovski Authorised Distribution Partner, a Swarovski Authorised Application Center, and a Swarovski Stockist. There are not many businesses holding all three, and the invitation to Milan came out of that relationship.
The relationship runs beyond a certificate. We meet Swarovski to see the new Innovations in person twice a year for components, and twice a year for the finished retail ranges. Every new shape, cut, colour and effect is seen and assessed before it reaches our catalogue, which is why we can advise on what is coming rather than only on what is in stock.
We mention it because authenticity in this industry is difficult for a customer to verify. Anyone can put the word Swarovski on a listing. Being supplied directly, certified annually and invited to the brand's own retrospective is a different thing, and it is the reason we can say with confidence that every Swarovski crystal we sell is genuine and comes from Wattens.
What we brought home
What we came away with was a greater respect for the brand and for the sheer scale of the business behind it. It is easy to think of Swarovski as a supplier when you order from them every week. Seeing 129 years of it in one building corrects that.
The other thing that stayed with us was how much of it we already knew without knowing. The Pop Icons chamber held pieces worn by Josephine Baker, Tina Turner, Madonna and Kylie Minogue, and standing among them you realise that a lot of the most recognisable moments in film, music and fashion have crystal somewhere in them. Often the same crystal, from the same factory in Wattens, that arrives in our warehouse in cartons.
That is a good thing to be reminded of when you spend your days counting stock.
You can browse the full Swarovski crystals range, or read more about our Authorised Distribution Partner status.
