Image courtesy of Matteo Carcelli

Swarovski Collective’s new designers

For over 15 years now, Swarovski Collective has encouraged designers by giving them financial support, providing them with crystal products and a giving them chance to win the Swarovski Collective Award for Innovation, along with a 25,000$ check. This season, three new designers joined Chinese designer and existing member Masha Ma: Iris Van Herpen, Christian Wijnants and Damir Doma.

Image courtesy of Gio Staiano

For her Spring-Summer 2015 collection, Masha Ma was inspired by the idea of an “urban garden” and used Swarovski crystals that seemed to flourish on sportswear fabrics symbolizing concrete. Overall, the use of the Swarovski crystals helped her create a delicate and so poetic urban universe.

Image courtesy of Giovanni Giannoni

Iris Van Herpen based her collection on magnetic fields after visiting the CERN in Switzerland. Her crystal-covered dresses were like armors, made in nude colors and decorated with Swarovski crystals. Her black ensembles in mat and satin textures reproduced the visual representation of magnetic forces. As always, her collection was science-based, futuristic and very much appreciated by the Paris Fashion Week audience. For his first time with Swarovski Collective, Damir Doma chose to incorporate fragments of black crystals as embroideries on emblematic pieces of his collection. It gave the pieces an out-of-space feel, just as meteorites fallen from the sky.

Image courtesy of Guillaume Roujas

Christian Wijnants’ collection was about a girl lost in the jungle. Having this idea in mind, the Belgian designer created relaxed silhouettes empowered by a delicate use of crystals. Applied as confettis or as crochet chains around iridescent pieces of fabric, they were all embroidered by hand. The result was very playful, like a childhood game. This year, Swarovski Collective promoted a great group of influential designers. It shows how much this initiative has been successful since its creation in 1999, with its first ever collaboration with Isabella Blow and a young Alexander McQueen, who have both become iconic names in fashion since.

more. www.brand.swarovski.com