INDUSTRY icon, Victoria’s Secret Angel and now a designer of an all-gold eponymous jewellery line. In between her infatuating laughter and telling incredible stories , top model Magdalena Frackowiak talks to Glass about her newly found passion for jewellery design, the importance of charity work and how she found a way to combine the two. She walked onto the Glass set, jaw-droppingly beautiful without any make-up, and immediately displayed a familiar warmth, elegance and sophistication – just what she hopes to capture in her jewellery.

What made you create a jewellery brand?

I always had a strong connection to design and to creativity. Before modelling I studied architecture for a while. I never finished it but I always wanted to create a line, and jewellery has a very strong connection for me with what I do. It’s very connected to fashion, it’s connected to my childhood because I grew up with a grandmother who was a big jewellery lover.

I’ve been modelling for 15 years now and jewellery was always an accessory that I had the most respect for. It’s something that stays with us and can be given to the next generation. And for me it always had the power to polish off a look. And gold in particular makes you shine or makes the outfit shine. Also, looking at the process of designing jewellery, it’s very similar to architecture. For me it’s like miniature architecture.

Is that why you’ve decided to work only with gold? Because it goes with everything?

I’ve always loved gold. The colour of the metal is very beautiful. It’s warm, it’s like sun or sunset. My colour is actually made by me. In the industry, there are set colours of gold. You always have yellow, rose and white. You can’t really make jewellery with solid gold, because it’s too soft, so they add other metals which have their own colour properties. Silver makes the gold more yellow and bright, copper makes the colour darker.

So I decided to make my own colour. I wanted it to be warm but not too bright. And there are no stones. I wanted to concentrate only on gold. I felt like stones always take away the beauty of gold itself. I think solely gold jewellery is different from what we see around.

Why did you decide to work only with Polish artisans and set up the company in Poland as well?

I think jewellery is a very specific world and has a very specific language. And I felt that maybe it would be easier for me to learn everything in Polish at the beginning. Also as a child I didn’t have a bright future, yet I have received so much from life so I wanted to go back to Poland and give back a little bit of what I’ve received. It feels good to establish the company at home. I thought it would be good to have a foundation in Poland and then branch into other countries.

I also wanted to ask you about charity because that’s something that is very close to our heart at Glass. How important is charity work for you?

Since I have my jewellery line now, I can be more active and I can be more connected to charities. I can use the jewellery as a tool to connect to charities. I can use it for charity auctions, and then the money would be given to people who need it. For sure charity is one of the most important things in the world because we receive so much from life and there are so many other people that don’t have anything and live in very bad conditions.

And it’s important that there is an awareness of it and we always try to help. There is this quote by Audrey Hepburn where she says that ‘when you grow up you understand that you have one hand to help yourself and another hand to help others’. The awareness I have from Victoria’s Secret is amazing because they organise all these charity events and they bring the Angels to help. We run for them, cycle for them.

What are you excited about the most right now? What’s next?

The year 2016 has started. It’s the usual things I do. It’s trying to do my job as best as I can, always be aware of what’s happening around me, spend time with my family. Obviously, my career as a model is very important to me but also my own project on the side has brought me a new adventure. I’m very happy to carry on with these two worlds. It’s not like I’m leaving fashion.

I love modelling. I think it’s such a blessing that I can be a model which gives me opportunities not only to do my project but also to help my family and also charity because as a model with a name you can be a good spokesperson, it gives you power. I’m not really a plan-maker. I take what life gives me. Because it can make you feel down if you plan and then it doesn’t work out. I live in the present.

Photographer: Aitken Jolly

Published in the Spring 2016 issue of Glass magazine and 20/01/2017 at theglassmagazine.com