Swarovski’s traveling exhibition Masters of Light has arrived in Los Angeles, where it will be open to the public until November 3.
Designed by Swarovski creative director Giovanna Engelbert and curated by British fashion journalist Alexander Fury, the immersive, light-filled exhibition celebrates the Austrian company’s 130th anniversary. It offers a kaleidoscopic look at the multifaceted brand, which has already shown the exhibition in Vienna, Milan, Shanghai and Seoul.
There’s much to unpack in the history of Swarovski—a vertically integrated business that designs, manufactures, and sells crystal, along with Swarovski Created Diamonds and zirconia. Its creations appear in jewelry, fashion, art, home décor, 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.
Swarovski CEO Alexis Nasard said the title Masters of Light is both literal and metaphorical.
“For 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,” Nasard said. “In the metaphorical sense, light is about knowledge, and when we talk about our core skill, we don’t 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”
He continued, “For 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—a celebration of our history, a celebration of our present and a celebration of our future.”
Los Angeles was chosen to highlight Swarovski’s deep ties to the entertainment industry—and because the U.S. is the company’s largest market.
“The U.S. was a natural choice,” Nasard said. “It’s 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’ve worked with—like Bob Mackie—to the many iconic moments our crystals have illuminated.”
That Hollywood connection shines throughout the exhibition. One highlight is the flesh-colored, crystal-encrusted gown Marilyn Monroe wore when she famously sang “Happy Birthday” to President John F. Kennedy in 1962. Designed by Jean Louis, the gown was hand-dyed to match Monroe’s skin tone and finished with 2,500 Swarovski crystals. On loan from Ripley’s Believe It or Not!, it anchors the “Silver Screen” room, which showcases 12 looks—including fashion pieces and film costumes worn by Madonna, Marlene Dietrich, Greta Garbo and Carey Mulligan. One elaborate gown, Fury noted, is “so heavy it took five people to lift onto the mannequin.”
Another space, “Hollywood Idol,” features 20 mannequins dressed in sparkling Swarovski creations worn by stars from the 1930s to today. Outfits once donned by Cher, Madonna, and Beyoncé celebrate how performers have used fashion “as an expression of freedom and personal values,” according to Swarovski.
Other rooms highlight the brand’s innovation and artistry. A dramatic display centers on a 165-pound crystal with 156 facets—cut over 180 hours—illuminated by moving beams of light that reveal its brilliance. The “Mathemagical” 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’s creative process—part atelier, part laboratory—“a fusion of the logic of science with the magic of creation,” as the company describes it.
The results of Engelbert’s 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’s artisanship.
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 “Minions” franchise.
Visitors enter the exhibition through a mirrored, candy-colored corridor that traces Swarovski’s 130-year history—from its founding in Austria to milestones like the creation of the iconic crystal slipper for Disney’s Cinderella.
The present and future of Swarovski is represented with Engelbert’s Galaxy collection, a fine jewelry line featuring Swarovski Created Diamonds—the brand’s term for lab-grown diamonds that are gaining international traction.
The setting itself seems symbolic. The show occupies the former Amoeba Music store on the Sunset Strip—a cultural landmark repurposed to celebrate another form of creativity: the art of light.
Tickets to Swarovski Masters of Light are $10, with proceeds benefiting the nonprofit Baby2Baby.