130 Years of Shine: Swarovski’s Dazzling Takeover at the 2025 Met Gala

Let’s be honest—when it comes to high-voltage fashion moments, the Met Gala is the Super Bowl, the Oscars, and the final runway of Paris Couture Week rolled into one. And this year, Swarovski didn’t just show up—they owned the carpet. Marking a colossal 130 years in the game, the crystal house pulled no punches with a stunning quartet of custom couture looks led by its Global Creative Director, Giovanna Engelbert. The theme? “Superfine: Tailoring Black Style.” The result? Pure theatre. Elegance with an edge. Craft turned pop culture moment.

Giovanna Engelbert rolled deep with an electric crew of Friends of the House—Adut Akech, Alex Consani, and Sora Choi—each dressed in looks that walked the razor’s edge between old-world glam and next-gen sparkle. Engelbert, as always, had a vision. Think: the grace of the Swarovski Swan colliding headfirst with the fearless flamboyance of dandy culture.

No exaggeration—these looks were crafted. Not just sewn. Not just styled. Crafted.

Let’s break it down.

Adut Akech: The moment she stepped onto the carpet, it was game over. Draped in swan pink and dripping in crystal drama, Adut’s look was a double hit—a mini dress-meets-tailcoat combination, loaded with hand-crafted organza feathers. The pièce de résistance? A Pointiage™-encrusted collar necklace, designed to echo transformation, formed from 25,550 Swarovski Crystals. (That’s not a typo.) Her sculptural collar alone required four artisans and 145 hours of intricate crystal placement. Finished with Swan rings and cuff-style earwear from the Vienna Collection, she served straight-up regal extravagance.

Alex Consani: Grace, grit, and futuristic finesse collided in Alex’s Swan White two-piece suit. Cutouts gave the look bite, while golden yellow crystal embroidery added that slow-burn opulence. But the real flex? The hand-sculpted jewelry-revere (a cross between collar bling and lapel art) embedded right into the tailoring. We’re talking 18,400 crystals, 275 hours of painstaking work, and a fusion of metalwork, embroidery, and design precision that’s usually reserved for museum pieces. Finished with feathered ear cuffs and Swan rings, Alex brought sophistication with a razor edge.

Sora Choi: Blue never looked so bold. Sora’s look started as a sharply tailored coat before breaking out into a feathered, punk-ballerina skirt. It was aggressive, it was delicate—it was unmistakably her. With a feather belt encrusted in 16,300 Swarovski Zirconia stones and a skirt that demanded 650 hours of handwork, the effect was one of moving sculpture. Her crystal-drenched headpiece? Another 12,600 stones and 50 hours of Pointiage™ madness. If rebellion had a couture uniform, this was it.

Giovanna Engelbert: Naturally, the visionary showed up looking like the future of tailoring. Her look? A high-impact green three-piece pantsuit embroidered with over 200,000 crystals and Swarovski Pearls. The kicker? A bow-tie that morphed into jewelry, finished with 1,800 Swarovski Zirconia stones and 240 hours of meticulous construction and setting. "I looked at each garment as a canvas – creating colorful, artistic representations of swan feathers in combination with crystal and world class tailoring,” she said. Even her hair shimmered with articulated crystal feathers. Who else could get away with that level of crystal maximalism and make it look like fine art?

Two legendary Parisian embroidery ateliers, Baqué Molinié and Lesage, lent their hands to the crystal-studded extravaganza, proving that heritage craft still reigns when pushed into the future.

What Giovanna and her team created wasn’t just fashion—it was a time capsule of Swarovski’s past, present, and what’s next. It fused the grace of the Swan, the audacity of dandyism, and the kind of creativity that makes the Met Gala more than just a red carpet—it makes it a moment. A legacy, refracted through a million crystals.