5 Things You Need To Know About Giovanna Engelbert’s New Reign At Swarovski
It’s out with the old and in with the new for the 125-year-old house, now under the creative direction of Giovanna Engelbert.
You might know her a bit better as Giovanna Battaglia (or @bat_gio), one of the world’s undisputed queens of the Fashion Week street style circuit, but these days she goes by Giovanna Engelbert (she tied the knot with property developer Oscar Engelbert in 2016).
Giovanna Engelbert brings her brand of OTT glamour to Swarovski.
Flash forward to today and she’s taken on an even bigger role in the fashion world since her appointment as the creative director of Swarovski was announced in May 2020. Her first collection for the brand launches globally in April this year, but before we get to the goods (and there’s a lot of them, in newly designed stores no less), here are some things to know.
Engelbert’s appointment is quite momentous because the house of Swarovski has never actually had a creative director. That is, an individual who oversees the entirety of the brand’s creative output – in jewellery, watches, accessories, homeware, lifestyle products, marketing… pretty much anything that gets made. Now, Engelbert (seen above with Swarovski CEO Robert Buchbauer) is bringing her decades of experience in the fashion industry to a cohesive single creative vision.
Besides designing a new range of jewellery, set to debut in April, Engelbert has also reimagined 28 existing Swarovski boutiques around the world as an over-the-top "candy-like dreamscape". Dubbed the Swarovski Instant Wonder, these concept stores will be unveiled in tandem with Engelbert’s collection. Singapore will have its own Swarovski Instant Wonder store at The Shoppes in Marina Bay Sands by the second quarter of this year.
Collection 01, as the debut collection has been named, is set to make a real case for maximalist jewellery. In addition to the usual suspects like rings, earrings, bracelets and necklaces, there are also showstopper body jewellery pieces. The coloured gemstones in many pieces are big; and there are a total of 14 sub-collections, each with its own specific creative inspirations and references like modern art, mathematics and geometry, and magic.
Besides a change in creative vision, the Swarovski branding and retail structure has also undergone a reorganisation. Instead of separate divisions like Atelier Swarovski, which dealt with more design-forward projects and designer collaborations, there is now a single, unified brand that benefits from a consistent vision.
It’s safe to say that part of Giovanna Engelbert’s appeal to Swarovski is her close connection to the fashion world and the impeccable sense of style that made her famous. That’s most clearly visible now with the campaign photos lensed by the Swedish fashion photographer Mikael Jansson, and fronted by models Adwoa Aboah, Fadhi Mohamed, Lexi Boling, Maggie Cheng, Malick Bodian, Penelope Tree and Tess McMillan.