Making a Statement

Bold colours, unusual shapes, and inspirations from nature are the order of the day in Atelier Swarovski’s latest Autumn/Winter 2016 collection, particularly in its Core collection. In some ways, crystals are very much like water, glittering, translucent, and cooling to the touch. This season, the brand was inspired by the aesthetic similarities between the two, giving birth to the three lines within its Core Collection that are named after some of the world’s most important rivers, Moselle, Nile and Kalix.

Kalix is one of the major rivers of northern Sweden and is known for its natural beauty as it remains untouched by water power constructions to this day. In its namesake line, pave round crystals, vaguely resembling glittering water droplets, adorn cone-shaped structures – a nod to the sparkling icicles that form when Kalix freezes over in winter, perhaps?

Also an addition to the brand’s stable of collaborators this season is Peter Pilotto, a London-based brand is known for its pieces featuring bold digital prints, and also the winner of the inaugural Swarovski Collective prize in 2015. For its debut collection, Arbol, Peter Pilotto has created 13 pieces, all featuring the same kaleidoscopic colours found in its signature prints.

Jean Paul Gaultier also returns for his second year, finding beauty in the imperfect with the Reverse collection, featuring crystals in the same kaputt (German for broken) cut he launched last year. Unlike the rest of Swarovski’s perfect crystals, kaputt crystals have asymmetrical facets and shapes, giving them a more organic form that looks almost like broken rocks. Gaultier emphasises the crystals’ imperfections with asymmetrical styles, and designed them to be reversible so that wearers can get two looks out of a single piece of jewellery.

Atelier Swarovski