Swarovski paraded, last night (6), its first haute couture looks at the Met Gala 2024. Signed and designed by the brand’s creative director, Giovanna Engelbert, the looks studded with crystals dressed the stars of the collection in their own way. Venus, from Summer 24.
The five looks were presented by the cast of the spring/summer 2024 campaign and friends of the house Karlie Kloss, Irina Shayk, Imaan Hammam and Anok Yai.
Swarovski’s long heritage in the world of haute couture dates back to Paris in the early 1990s, and its crystals have highlighted some of the most memorable Met Gala red carpet looks with sparkling allure. This year is the first time that the Austrian house has created couture dresses for the occasion.
Giovanna Engelbert responded to the “Garden of Time” dress code with five unique, breathtaking ensembles, inspired by elements of Nature found in the enchanted garden in JG Ballard’s tale.
Karlie Kloss
Karlie Kloss personified the crystal flower that holds the Garden of Time under its spell. Wearing an embroidered pink dress studded with jewels from Swarovski’s Florere and Millenia families, her dress seemed to metamorphose into floral jewelry. The silk jersey dress was embroidered with 180,000 light pink crystals and took a team of seven artisans 225 hours to create. Her hourglass figure was accentuated by a bejeweled corset draped in garlands of pink flowers and petals. It was richly embroidered with 60,500 crystals and 75 Florere jewels and took 1,600 hours to create by a team of five artisans.
Irina Shayk
Irina Shayk represented Air in a transparent couture dress and full-length gloves, crafted with 84,000 transparent crystals in a fine translucent mesh to create the illusion of light passing through her body. Six artisans worked for 200 hours to crystallize the look, evoking the element of Air with the ethereal shine of Swarovski’s most iconic crystal cut. The model’s glow was intensified with a custom-made Millenia choker and ear cuffs, and layers of Hyperbola and Millenia bracelets, all in luminous clear crystal.
Anok Yai
Anok Yai transformed into water in a futuristic tulle catsuit set studded with sparkling ice blue, sapphire and aquamarine crystals. Made from diaphanous silk tulle studded with 98,000 crystals to create the illusion that the jewels sparkled directly on the skin, it took more than 130 hours to be made by a team of eight people. Anok’s look was complemented by a dramatic one-of-a-kind necklace from Swarovski’s Galaxy fine jewelry collection, which was crafted with 1,050 lab-created diamonds in seven different cuts with a total weight of 156.62 carats.
Come to the Hammam
Imaan Hammam represented the Sun in a gold two-piece look that included a crystallized cape inspired by Swarovski’s Gema collection and a satin column skirt decorated with a mix of gold crystals. A team of seven artisans took 14 days to create the case, which was studded with 3,456 crystals in a mix of six cuts and five shades. The satin skirt was embroidered with 100,000 crystals. Imaan’s shine was enhanced with a set of extraordinary Gema jewels in a palette of golden tones.
Giovanna Engelbert
Giovanna Engelbert embodied Nature in an emerald green silk satin dress with embroidery, inspired by a landscape by the Viennese artist Gustav Klimt. The bodice was studded with rows of gradient green Millenia crystals, while the dress was embroidered with green Gem jewels that faded into a mesh of peridot green crystals. A team of artisans took more than 900 hours to embroider the dress with 20,000 crystals and 35,000 bicone beads in shades of green. Giovanna’s look was completed with crystallized gloves paired with Sublima pieces from Swarovski.
