Hot fifty – Swarovski

Swarovski is no stranger to the Hot 50, largely because of the entrepreneurialism of Nadia Swarovski, who now runs the family business. Under her guidance, the crystal manufacturer has become a big name in fashion and in interior design, as a patron as well as an innovator, entering into retail through its own chain of shops.

For design, one of the biggest manifestations of this is the Crystal Palace Collection of chandeliers – by designers as diverse as Gio Ponti, Ron Arad, Yves Béhar, Ineke Hans and Naoto Fukasawa – which is invariably the star of Milan during the annual furniture fair.

Last year, the collection, which puts new work by the old masters of design alongside that of emerging international talent, celebrated its sixth year with a couple of special London events. In July, Swarovski staged a week-long show of key pieces from the collection at the Serpentine Gallery in Kensington Gardens, whose director Julia Peyton-Jones has merited a place in the Hot 50 in the past for her groundbreaking architectural commissions. This was followed by an exhibition at the department store Selfridges on Oxford Street that ran throughout August.

Swarovski’s commitment to design is not only exemplary, it has also done the company a lot of good commercially and helped it to raise its profile and raise the bar in the luxury market.