The latest trend alert, “If you are wearing diamonds you should never stand next to me,” says Sanjay Sharma, Country Head Crystallized Swarovski. This statuary warning relates to an incident when Rohit Bal wearing an exquisite diamond brooch was standing next to Sanjay and a lot of people complimented him for his diamond brooch taking it to be a Swarovski creation.
Swarovski came to India in 1999 specifically targeting the fashion and garments industry, realizing the need for crystallized elements both in its domestic and export market. Indian fashion market at that time was a fledgling and the designers did not have substantial access to the crystals by Swarovski and thus were not able to compete with the international fashion market. In its nine long years of journey in India Crystallized Swarovski has grown with an industry (fashion) that was laying its foundation.
The name itself being a tongue twister for India, the path was not paved crystalline fo
r Swarovski from getting itself attached to designers individually and survive an overtly price sensitive Indian market to achieving a position where a brand name Crystallized Swarovski becomes generic for crystallized elements across the planet. It has been associated with designers like JJ Valaya, Rohit Bal, Suneet Varma, Manish Arora from their first showcase and till date when the relationship has crossed boundaries of being a mere element supplier and client.
The latest to the already exhaustive crystal menu is the mosaic crystal and with it also comes an association with Rajesh Pratap Singh (a designer whose sensibility can be least expected to be crystalline) that actually completes the client list for Swarovski in India setting it out to look for newer pastures. Hence after appeasing the design appetite of even th
e no bling Rajesh Pratap Singh, Crystallized Swarovski steps into the fashion jewellery section for India. Sanjay says, “Growing from a primarily marriage jewellery the market in India has graduated to witness a renaissance in fashion jewellery with more and more women going out for work and need to dress accordingly.” Swarovski forecasts an unexpected breakthrough in fashion jewellery with the growing demand of dressing for everyday occasion, breaking the barriers that used to place jewellery in lockers. Though yet again it is working with a sector which is still a cottage industry in India, Crystallized Swarovski is taking a 360 degree review of the potential and kinetics of the market catalyzing various associations with jewellery designers, design colleges, craftsmen and workshops.
