In just seven years of the Marina Raphael label which she launched in 2018, she’s been named in Forbes Europe’s 30 under 30, been stocked across the globe in department stores from Harrods to Neiman Marcus, and provided the perfect arm candy on numerous occasions for Hollywood’s most decorated divas and doyennes (‘I remember when J Lo wore a bag twice in a row on the red carpet. I was screaming!’ she says). Oh, and she’s only 26.
Having grown up in Athens – ‘My mother is Swiss-Austrian, and my father is Greek. So I went to school there, but I’ve always been very lucky and fortunate to have an international mindset,’ she tells me – the sixth-generation Swarovski descendant honours much of her designer DNA to the fabulous female figures in her family. ‘They were always really well dressed. And they weren’t women that would follow trends religiously. They were always mixing and matching and dressing for their own bodies, feeling confident, and dressing for themselves,’ she remembers. ‘My grandmother [Marina Giori] has the most beautiful wardrobe in the world, like the most insane designers and vintage and just pieces from everywhere. So I definitely raided her wardrobe. But I remember, I always loved the accessorising part the most,’ she recalls. On hailing from such an esteemed line of glamazons, she pays much respect. ‘It’s a family with so many role models, and I think that’s where I got the confidence and ambition from. My grandma, my mum, my aunt: it was always this dynamic, you-can-do-it-all [attitude]. You can be a mother, you can be a friend, you can be glamorous, and you can work. It gives you so much motivation,’ she adds.
Naturally, sparkle is essential for a Swarovski scion, but Raphael also inherited a keen and discerning business acumen, first deciding to study at King’s College in London when she turned 18. It was during this time that she decided to launch her own line. ‘It was so exciting, because on one hand, I was doing my homework and writing my dissertation, and on the other hand, I was meeting with suppliers for wholesale. It was like this double world, I was nerd-ing out there, getting all my assignments done, so that I could fly to Florence and do the meetings!’ she laughs.
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