Nadja Swarovski caught up with Spear’s to discuss her relationship to her family business, sustainability and craftmanship.
‘My sister and I had to do everything a boy would do. Our father was chairman of Swarovski, and he felt very strongly about us understanding every step of the process of producing the crystals. He would drag us to the factory and we would walk from the beginning of the assembly line to the end, seeing how passionate the craftsmen were.
This experience has made me feel very strongly about protecting factory workers today, especially female factory workers, who are often at risk of poor treatment. It also made me appreciate the work I’ve been able to do, from studying art history at university [Southern Methodist University in Texas] to working with some of the world’s best designers, from Jean Paul Gaultier to Karl Lagerfeld.
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My grandfather worked with Christian Dior, visiting him in his studio and making crystals specifically for his designs. But when I was growing up, Swarovski was mostly known for making crystal figurines and trinkets. I wanted to bring the business back to its creative heyday, so in the mid-Nineties I presented the board at Swarovski with the concept of a showroom showing off our crystal stones in their purest form to the fashion community. Nobody expected it to work, but it did.
One of the first designers we worked with was the then-unknown Alexander McQueen, who the Vogue fashion stylist Isabella Blow introduced me to.
He was working on one of his first collections out of art school, and after talking to him I realised that it could be a great relationship. When the press published pictures of his garments with our crystals, other designers came flooding into our showroom and our business boomed. Years later, after his death, I felt it was important for Swarovski to support the V&A’s exhibition of McQueen, to honour his legacy.
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What inspired us to buy Really Wild Clothing in 2021 was my love for craftsmanship. My husband and I were really excited by all the tweed and cashmere manufacturers in Scotland that supply the company with its fabrics. There is a luxury in knowing where your clothes come from and, as a UK business, we want our customers to understand the work that has gone into what they are wearing. Our range of tweeds prove the adaptability of Scottish wool.
The Swarovski Foundation, which I used to chair, has done a lot for the environment.
At Really Wild Clothing we are doing something similar, working with the Countryside Alliance and the Atlantic Salmon Trust. So many of our designs are inspired by nature – there is sky blue in the yarn of one of our tweeds, as well as grey from the rock of the Scottish landscape and purple from the Highland flowers. As well as being good for the world, this is good for business. It is proven that companies that align themselves with causes that are relevant to their customers are more successful.
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When it comes to investing, I’m always looking for a sustainable supply chain. I really like the concept of celebrating and investing in craft, whether that is the cultural craft of a certain part of the world, or preserving the work of artisans.
As well as this, I’m always looking to the future. Sustainable technology is a huge focus for me at the moment. At Really Wild, we invested in a body scan technology which can take your measurements over Zoom. This gives you both a better-fitting garment than buying off the rack and reduces fabric waste, which is amazing.’
This article first appeared in Spear’s Magazine Issue 98. Click here to subscribe
