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The Marilyn Monroe gown adorned with 2,500 Swarovski crystals is a highlight of the ‘Masters of Light” exhibition<\/p>\n
Swarvoski<\/p>\n
Swarovski\u2019s traveling exhibition Masters of Light has arrived in Los Angeles, where it will be open to the public until November 3.<\/p>\n
Designed by Swarovski creative director Giovanna Engelbert and curated by British fashion journalist Alexander Fury, the immersive, light-filled exhibition celebrates the Austrian company\u2019s 130th anniversary. It offers a kaleidoscopic look at the multifaceted brand, which has already shown the exhibition in Vienna, Milan, Shanghai and Seoul.<\/p>\n
There\u2019s much to unpack in the history of Swarovski\u2014a vertically integrated business that designs, manufactures, and sells crystal, along with Swarovski Created Diamonds and zirconia. Its creations appear in jewelry, fashion, art, home d\u00e9cor, and architecture. The Swarovski Crystal Business has a global footprint of about 6,600 points of sale, including 2,300 company-owned stores in more than 150 countries, employing roughly 16,600 people.<\/p>\n
Mannequins dressed in sparkling Swarovski creations worn by stars from the 1930s to today<\/p>\n
Swarovski<\/p>\n
Swarovski CEO Alexis Nasard said the title Masters of Light is both literal and metaphorical.<\/p>\n
\u201cFor us, light is literal and light is metaphorical. It is literal in a sense that the way we cut crystals refracts and reflects light in unique ways, which gives that dazzling effect of brilliance when you look at our products,\u201d Nasard said. \u201cIn the metaphorical sense, light is about knowledge, and when we talk about our core skill, we don\u2019t call it craftsmanship. We call savoir faire. In French, it means savoir which means knowing and faire which is doing. So light is about knowledge and knowing how to do our craft is a fundamental part of what we are about. The second metaphorical part is light is about joy. We don’t pretend to cure all the problems of the world, but we have the ambition to give a small moment of joy for every customer\u201d<\/p>\n
He continued, \u201cFor Swarovski, Masters of Light is the fact that in over the last 130 years, we’ve been able to master this technique that makes our products so unique, so brilliant and so attaching. And Masters of Light for us is a series of celebrations in the key cities of the world\u2014a celebration of our history, a celebration of our present and a celebration of our future.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swarovski crystal figurines, from classic Disney characters to superheroes <\/p>\n
Swarvoski<\/p>\n
Los Angeles was chosen to highlight Swarovski\u2019s deep ties to the entertainment industry\u2014and because the U.S. is the company\u2019s largest market.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe U.S. was a natural choice,\u201d Nasard said. \u201cIt\u2019s an opportunity to revisit our roots in film and showcase our story through a Hollywood lens. Our history with cinema is rich, from the costumes and designers we\u2019ve worked with\u2014like Bob Mackie\u2014to the many iconic moments our crystals have illuminated.\u201d<\/p>\n
That Hollywood connection shines throughout the exhibition. One highlight is the flesh-colored, crystal-encrusted gown Marilyn Monroe wore when she famously sang \u201cHappy Birthday\u201d to President John F. Kennedy in 1962. Designed by Jean Louis, the gown was hand-dyed to match Monroe\u2019s skin tone and finished with 2,500 Swarovski crystals. On loan from Ripley\u2019s Believe It or Not!, it anchors the \u201cSilver Screen\u201d room, which showcases 12 looks\u2014including fashion pieces and film costumes worn by Madonna, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo and Carey Mulligan. One elaborate gown, Fury noted, is \u201cso heavy it took five people to lift onto the mannequin.\u201d<\/p>\n
Swarovski fashion pieces and film costumes on display in its Silver Screen room<\/p>\n
Swarovski<\/p>\n
Another space, \u201cHollywood Idol,\u201d features 20 mannequins dressed in sparkling Swarovski creations worn by stars from the 1930s to today. Outfits once donned by Cher, Madonna, and Beyonc\u00e9 celebrate how performers have used fashion \u201cas an expression of freedom and personal values,\u201d according to Swarovski.<\/p>\n
Other rooms highlight the brand\u2019s innovation and artistry. A dramatic display centers on a 165-pound crystal with 156 facets\u2014cut over 180 hours\u2014illuminated by moving beams of light that reveal its brilliance. The \u201cMathemagical\u201d gallery features more than 100,000 Swarovski crystals in myriad cuts and colors, along with a massive color wheel showing the range of hues available. The space evokes Engelbert\u2019s creative process\u2014part atelier, part laboratory\u2014\u201ca fusion of the logic of science with the magic of creation,\u201d as the company describes it.<\/p>\n
The results of Engelbert\u2019s work can be seen in the jewelry-couture pieces and gowns she created for the 2024 and 2025 Met Gala, again a representation of Swarovski\u2019s artisanship.<\/p>\n
Swarovski’s Masters of Light exhibition<\/p>\n
Swarovski<\/p>\n
The exhibition also includes a long display of crystal figurines, from classic Disney characters to superheroes like The Hulk and Spider-Man, and favorites from the \u201cMinions\u201d franchise.<\/p>\n
Visitors enter the exhibition through a mirrored, candy-colored corridor that traces Swarovski\u2019s 130-year history\u2014from its founding in Austria to milestones like the creation of the iconic crystal slipper for Disney\u2019s Cinderella. <\/p>\n
The present and future of Swarovski is represented with Engelbert\u2019s Galaxy collection, a fine jewelry line featuring Swarovski Created Diamonds\u2014the brand\u2019s term for lab-grown diamonds that are gaining international traction.<\/p>\n
The setting itself seems symbolic. The show occupies the former Amoeba Music store on the Sunset Strip\u2014a cultural landmark repurposed to celebrate another form of creativity: the art of light.<\/p>\n
Tickets to Swarovski Masters of Light are $10, with proceeds benefiting the nonprofit Baby2Baby.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Marilyn Monroe gown adorned with 2,500 Swarovski crystals is a highlight of the ‘Masters of Light” exhibition…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":28788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[6052,967,9734,1742,1924,1743,48,52,51,47,50,49],"class_list":{"0":"post-28787","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-los-angeles","8":"tag-design","9":"tag-entertainment","10":"tag-exhibition","11":"tag-fashion","12":"tag-film","13":"tag-hollywood","14":"tag-la","15":"tag-la-headlines","16":"tag-la-news","17":"tag-los-angeles","18":"tag-los-angeles-headlines","19":"tag-los-angeles-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=28787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/28787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/28788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=28787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=28787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}