Exclusive interview with Her Imperial and Royal Highness,
Sophie Habsburg, Archduchess of Austria and Princess of Hungary

First of all, tell us a little bit about your childhood. You descend from the Imperial and Royal family of the former Austria-Hungary. Your grandfather was the only brother of the last sovereign. Did your parents support you to become an artist? We know that you studied interior design in Paris where you were born and raised in exile. 

Although we had titles we were brought up in a very normal way, we attended local schools in Paris. It might sounds strange but for a long time I didn’t know anything about my background. I remember my sister was coming home from school and said to my father: ‘Papi, the teacher told me that you Habsburgs are good for nothing.’ We didn’t use the name Habsburg much in those days so all this came as a suprise. My father got very annoyed. That was the first time we sat down to talk about our legacy. A few years later when I was 14, I was sent to a good English boarding school where I was admitted with my full name. That was when I became conscious that my background has a lot of weight. Neither my father, nor my grandmother talked about the past because it was quite hurtful for them. Life is tough and you have to find your own way. Maybe that’s why my father was always very supportive of me to build my own career. That’s why I started very early to work in a decoration shop after school. I was also modelling to get some pocket money. I’m very thankful that my father pushed us to have a career of our own. My passion was architecture and design which I’m still involved in today as much as I can.

You have an amazing CV: after graduating you moved to Madrid and worked primarily as a decorator and also a model for high-end brands. You also tried your hand in journalism and as a radio host. 

Yes, and I also worked for Hola! magazine. Even though it was totally against of what I thought about the press in those days. The lovely owner of the magazine invited and convinced me to interview only interesting people from the world of politics, music and cinema of my choosing. I loved it; it was a very interesting job. I had the chance to meet a lot of international movie stars, some of them were real surprises for me, because they had such exciting personalities.

You were VOGUE Espana’s first cover girl.

I don’ t know how, probably they couldn’t find anybody else. (She is smiling.) I was at the right age, I was a foreigner, maybe it was interesting. I have no idea, but I was really pleased. Especially because in those days I was a shy and very insecure person. After the cover shooting of Hola! and VOGUE I said to myself: ‘Well done, you have survived it!’ However, this is not who I am. My true personality is the one I am today. I have a lovely family, a wonderful husband, a very cosy life. I only found my true self much later. Still, it was a very important experience to take myself out of my comfort zone each morning. And I also made some fabulous friends in those days, like Mr. Valentino Garavani who I worked for as a model.

Madrid was also the place where you first worked as a product designer for the well-known local luxury jewellery brand Suarez. What did you learn from that period which was essential later when launching your own design label?

I had seen a lot of fine jewellery before, and I also had an international point of view which was obviously missing from the company. However, I had to learn the know-how of jewellery making that Suarez does so very well. At Suarez I had the opportunity to express myself through my designs, it was an amazing experience. Architecture inspires me the most, but my sensibility for details definitely comes from my time with this company. Each of the details your eyes slowly absorb is perfection and when you put them together it’s magnificent.

You married Prince Mariano Hugo in 1990, the Head of the Windisch-Grätz family who is an important member of the Pope’s administration. After your marriage you moved to Italy, settled down in Rome and in Sant Angelo d’Alfie, a small town nearby Naples. You raised your three children there and run a very interesting business: producing and selling buffalo mozzarella.

Our life here in the countryside is absolutely fabulous, we are far away from everything. When we are in the South, we don’t have our normal social life around us, we only bring with us our friends and the friends of our children. The mozzarella farm is next door where we produce this extremely delicious kind of cheese which is sold all over Italy and is exported all over the world as well. We start every lunch with our mozzarella bufala and our own grown tomatoes. I take care of the garden; I use every vegetable and fruit from it. I also take our produce back to Rome so we eat very much from our garden in Rome as well. This is my big passion. And the flowers. Working and being in my garden helps completely balance my mind and soul. I can feed my family with our own production of food; I just love it and my husband also adores it. Oh, and the people are really lovely here in the province of Campania.

In 2010 you launched your own bag label: Sophie Habsburg. Outsiders might think this is a saturated market with little potential for new players entering besides the big labels. How did you get involved in this business and how would you describe your journey in it?

All of this started with a bag I designed for myself. I found a very interesting fabric I mixed it with others and every friend stopped me on the street and asked where the bag came from. I answered: ‘Oh, it is just my own design.’ And everybody: ‘Can I have one? Can I have one?’ So I started making these bags not very professionally only to friends of mine as presents. And one friend told me: ‘Stop giving presents, make a business!’ I replied: ‘Oh, no, I have got three children, I don’t have time, I don’t want to run a venture.’ Later I reconsidered it and started with a very small collection and suddenly everybody wanted one of the bags. I said to myself, okay, let’s try it. The brand grew very organically. I never had a business plan, never wanted to do this, it just happened. It’s a lot of work, a lot of running around but is keeps me full of energy, so I’m very happy. The first time when I presented the label at the Tranoi expo in Paris there were only four bag labels (including mine), five years later there were 300. So when I started there were no small firms, it was a tiny market. Now it’s saturated, everybody does handbags.

What are the most significant style markers of your bags? What makes them easily recognizable? We really like that you named one of your designs after your grandmother.

Ah, the Erzfanny model! Yes, it was her nickname. You know my customers don’t want to wear bags that everybody else can. They would like to be recognizable, that’s it. The best-selling bag is my first one: the Salander. This has an S-shaped lock on the top and it is embroidered and it still goes very well in every colour and in all sizes. The name comes from a Swedish trilogy ‘The girl played with fire”. When I designed the bag, I was reading this book, and the main character’s name was Salander, an amazing female person. When you walk with the Salander bag three people will stop you on the street, that’s how easily recognizable this model is. I make it from linen and with leather, the clients love it and often buy it in more than one colours.

Who are your most loyal customers that we might know?

One of them is Sophie, Her Royal Highness the Countess of Wessex who is a dear friend of mine. She owns multiple bags from my label. My other well-known client is Her Majesty Queen Máxima of the Netherlands who received her first Sophie Habsburg bag as a present from a cousin of mine. And then she called me up to order more. I think she is an excellent example of my customers; she is outside of the box, who is not fond of labels, who is looking for something different and fun, who combines different labels with good taste. She is very true to herself in the way of her dressing. I think she is fabulous; I have a great admiration for her. I’m so proud when I see these ladies wearing my pieces.

The COVID-crisis has had an effect on the luxury industry too. Demand has changed drastically especially for fashion goods as events were cancelled and people stayed at home. Your bags are 100% handmade in Italy, particularly in Naples. Has the brand and the community around it felt the impact of the crisis? How do you see the future?

The fashion world is quite crazy at the moment. After twenty minutes of products coming to the shelves you see sales everywhere. I don’t know where it’s going, but the fashion world must change. In the first lockdown the big companies closed down so we couldn’t produce either. I had to contact the girls in the village who are incredible artisans making crochet and embroidery works. At the end what I did, was to mix local handcraft and factory work. For example, I got beautiful ikat textiles from Uzbekistan, we made locally the crochet works and later sent them to the Neapolitan factories after they reopened. It was a significant help for people who are struggled here, they had some income, they could buy food. It was a win-win situation to all who took part in producing these bags which sold out in ten days. I have to confess that I found the COVID-restrictions personally a blessing. We had a lovely time with my family, my daughter was here with us. It was a time to get together, to think, to pray, revalue the importance of what one has. We usually run and travel a lot, now there was the time to gather the most essential of what you really are. So, I think it was a gift for many, however it was also very hard for many more people. Thank God I wasn’t at home with three little kids. It would had been so much more difficult. (She is smiling.)

Your daughter Larissa studied fashion business management and now you are working together. What is it like to work with her? She can be a new voice for the brand targeting new millennials, can’t she?

She is amazing and she is much more professional than me in everything, especially in communication and social media. I think it has been an amazing time to work together and good to know that she is interested in taking over the firm later. I would love if she had some other experiences in other companies before coming back to take over the firm. I’m sure she will do a much better job than I am. Right now, it’s just a fabulous partner to work with in both the creative and business side. It works beautifully. She is usually right when she says: ‘Oh, Mommy, it looks just very old and ugly.’ She has an eye, a different point of view. (She is smiling.) 

In the past you were quite active in charity. With your friend Mr. Richard Gere you supported the SOS Children Village, later an anti-drug foundation. Recently you joined to the RestART Beirut community to save the magnificent Sursock Palace which is now in a catastrophic condition after the explosion. Why is this project important to you?

When I was asked to join, I was a little bit unsure as it is so far away and I don’t know the place. When I say yes to a project, I want to be in 100%. I think I said yes because I believe that it is important to preserve beauty, to hand it down to the next generations. It breaks my heart when I see such a perfection of a house, a collection of art, a family tradition might be lost to the Lebanese people and the visitors of the country. I want to put my energy keeping alive this beauty for the future. We must not lose it. I’m very old fashioned in that.

Photos: Courtesy of Her Imperial and Royal Highness
29th of August, 2021