Synthetic crystal itself is fairly uncomplicated to produce: a combination of quartz sand and water melted at high temperatures. Its value as a luxury commodity comes from the perception of its quality and design — in other words, marketing. The harder part is staying in fashion, and the life cycle of the trend may have been accelerated by a glut of inexpensive crystals cheapening the value of those on the high end.
“As our competition is growing, so are we,” Nadja Swarovski said. “That just means there is an increased demand worldwide for crystal. At this point we have been able to stay at the forefront in terms of sales because we have a competitive advantage — namely, our brand name and our quality.”
While the Swarovski name adds a certain prestige to a designer gown, it also raises the price. A band of crystals from the factory, made up of thousands of stones, can cost more than US$219 for 100cm. Marc Bouwer, an evening-wear designer, said that 70 percent of his gowns include some type of crystal embroidery or brooch, though the gowns are far less extravagant than in years past. He uses Swarovski crystals for some designs but also buys from other companies offering quality crystals at more competitive prices.
“Those days of glittering from head to toe are past” Bouwer said. “Now we use crystals as hints to punctuate a certain drape along the cleavage or the back of a gown.”
For some designers ornamentation will never go out of style — Versace, Dolce & Gabbana and Roberto Cavalli chief among them. But the Swarovskis said they recognize that the changing winds of fashion could result in decreased demand over all. So they are applying crystal to other fields of design, like chandeliers created by industrial designers and the rocker Lenny Kravitz; and crystal wallpaper. Last year, its first in the chandelier business, Swarovski had sales of US$2 million.
“Fashion has been an important factor for our success,” Langes-Swarovski said. “But our goal is to get a kind of stability and not be bound to the vagaries of fashion, where you have to reinvent yourself on a seasonal basis. The trends have gotten very fragmented right now, but we believe there still is room for crystal.”
More creative techniques for using crystals — embedded in leather or dipped in silicone, for example — have also helped maintain interest, and Swarovski has invited designers to create their own crystals. For the Balenciaga fall collection, the designer Nicolas Ghesquiere recreated a crystal brooch from the house archives. Such examples have kept the Swarovski name on the lips of influential editors at a time they are also saying so long to sparkle.
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