The crystal method: Nadja Swarovski on the family business and why Rihanna went nearly naked for her in that dress

She fought her way into the family business and helps the fashion world shine. Nadja Swarovski tells Katie Law about domestic glitz, glass ceilings — and why Rihanna went nearly naked for her
All that glitters: Rihanna’s sheer dress caused a stir in New York recently, far left. The gems were provided by crystal heiress Nadja Swarovski, left
Katie Law @jkatielaw18 June 2014

Nadja SWAROVSKI was electrified to see photos of Rihanna earlier this month showing the music star more or less in the buff, sheathed in a transparent crystal mesh dress. Rihanna, in New York to accept a fashion icon of the year award from the Council of Fashion Designers of America, was in fact wearing an Adam Selman halter-neck dress studded with 216,000 Swarovski crystals.

“We were all shocked when we saw the photos because that’s not how it looked at all. Standing next to her, the dress was not see-through; it was only see-through because of the flash,” says the 44-year-old crystal heiress. Not that she’s complaining. After years of having to battle the family firm for permission to give away bagfuls of crystals to up-and-coming designers, Rihanna’s rapturous reception proves Swarovski’s mission has been accomplished beyond her wildest dreams.

The Swarovski brand has certainly moved on from crystal swans and cats’ eyes. These days, it’s about arty installations and collaborations with John Pawson, Zaha Hadid and Rem Koolhaas. It’s about being a donor to the London Design Museum, a sponsor of the Venice Biennale and launching its very own Swarovski Foundation, a global philanthropy and arts programme worth £3 million a year. It’s also about Atelier Swarovski — a high-end jewellery line, designed with collaborators such as Christopher Kane and Karl Lagerfeld, which has helped rescue the brand from the brink of bling. Jewellery sales now make up 60 per cent of the group’s annual £2 billion turnover, which amounts to an awful lot of sparklers. They may be cheaper than they look but their success does bear out founder and her great-great grandfather Daniel Swarovski’s vision to “create a diamond for every woman”.

Rihanna attends the 2014 CFDA fashion awards in THAT dress

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Nadja Swarovski can take much of the credit for all this herself. Not only has she been the driving force for these high-profile collaborations but she is also the only woman (alongside four distant male cousins) on the executive board, which she joined in 2011.

So has she managed to soften the masculine boardroom atmosphere? I get the impression they’re a stuffy bunch. “Yes, it’s become more feminine and nurturing because I truly care how the others feel when they come into the boardroom. I ask ‘Is everything okay? How are the kids? How’s the wife? How was your trip here? How are you as a person?’”

Swarovski says bringing up three children, with her hedge funder husband Rupert Adams, has also helped. “Motherhood teaches us so many lessons. I mean, how often do you have to guess what that child, who can’t speak yet, wants and needs? Reading people and trusting your instincts are such important tools in business because they allow an intuitive connection that I find men are often scared of. So you have to be emotionally intelligent. Just because you’re family, doesn’t mean everything’s going to be fine. You have to put a real effort into getting on. But women in boardrooms also bring a more collaborative rather than a competitive spirit.”

When it comes to breaking through crystal ceilings, it’s hardly surprising that she’s no fan of Sheryl Sandberg’s Lean In approach. “I have to say the book is incredibly American and she [Sandberg] has a very American point of view. She’s never had to deal with... well, I think Europe is very different from North America anyway.”

Does she mean Sandberg has no experience of dealing with European men? “Yes, working environments,” she replies diplomatically. “Being able to influence or convince a person of your point of view in a non-aggressive way is so much more rewarding. Sometimes it takes a little bit longer but it’s totally doable and boils down to your communications skills.”

Dressing comfortably, says Swarovski, is another sign of female empowerment. “Look how fashion has changed for women at work. We’ve gone from those Armani male suits to expressing ourselves more femininely. I’m so glad we can run around in flats; I don’t understand any woman who can come into the office in high heels. I mean, because it’s so comfortable? Who are they trying to impress? Or do they feel fantastic in high heels? If that’s the case, fantastic! What’s great is that we can dress in whatever’s comfortable and allows us to get the job done”.

Swarovski herself oozes understated chic in her all-black outfit of flat pumps, trousers and sleeveless top, accessorised with Swarovski baubles, a black Chanel watch and a Stephen Webster diamond knuckle-duster her husband bought her to replace the engagement ring that was stolen almost 10 years ago. At the time she was nine months pregnant with her second child and alone in the family home in Cadogan Square, Chelsea. Two robbers walked into the apartment and told her to lie face down. Though terrified, she persuaded them to let her get up and lead them to the safe.

“The sensation that I had when these guys left my building was not anger or fear but gratitude. They could have gone faak [she gestures with her hand across her neck] and your life is gone, but they didn’t touch me. They took all the jewellery that I’d ever received up to that point in my life but that is material, and material can be replaced.” Swarovski grew up in Wattens, Austria, the younger of two girls and describes a childhood spent playing with the endless piles of crystals that her father would bring home. But she found the atmosphere claustrophobic and since her mother Danna is American, she went to Southern Methodist University in Dallas — which may account for her hybrid Teutonic-Texan drawl.

She then did spells at Harvard and Columbia and worked at the Gagosian Gallery, Sotheby’s and several PR companies in New York before deciding, in 1995, to channel her talents into the family firm. Her older sister Vanessa is a married full-time mother, as was her own mother, and she says her parents never expected her to join the company, although her father has described her as “always full of a kind of restless energy where she had to be busy doing something, whatever it was”.

Currently there are no other female family members at Swarovski although she hopes a younger cousin may join her. “We’re setting stricter standards in terms of family working in the business. You have to have a university degree and experience working elsewhere,” she says, briskly. Does she hope her children will join her one day? She fishes out her smartphone to show me a picture of her son Rigby, nine, and daughters, Thalia, eight, and Jasmine, six, “wearing dorky shoes and glasses”, about to embark on a Swarovski factory tour. “Of course my son loved the more engineering parts and my daughters the sparkling coloured crystals but I thought it was really important for them at their age to see what I learned. My son said: ‘That’s exactly what I want to do when I’m older. In fact, I’m already thinking about how I can make it even more modern’.”

She’s under no illusion about the impact her commitments have had on her children. “It does make me sad and I do feel ‘Gosh, have I missed out on spending more time with them?’ They’re growing up so quickly. But I would also say that women wanted it all and now we have it and that’s our choice.” She has chosen to give up “superficial” cocktail parties and glitzy dinners to spend weekends at home.

When she was 15, her grandfather took her to see Liberace perform in New York. There was a screen showing a close-up of the famously Rhinestone-studded digits tinkling on the ivory keys. “All eight fingers had rings on and my grandfather, who had met Liberace and been so impressed that he agreed to give the star free crystals for life, said, ‘Isn’t that amazing?’ And I said, ‘It is amazing — but Grandpa, we can do better’.” And she has.

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