Diamonds are for Trevor

(AFP)   

But a diamond company has tilted the balance in favour of men by creating the world’s most expensive tie. It costs – hold your breath – Dh1 million and is studded with 261 diamonds weighing 77 carats and 200g of white gold.

The maker, India’s Suashish Diamonds, was not satisfied with having its brand Ishi’s sold through more than 130 outlets in 25 cities in India and the Middle East. It wanted the world to really sit up and take notice – and so it created the sparkling tie.

“The product design team wanted to do something to make the brand stand out,” said the group’s Marketing Vice-president Siddharth Kedia. “So they came up with the idea of making the most expensive and unique tie in the world because this was something that had never been done before.”

Managing Director Ashish Goenka said: “I was wowed when they brought the idea to me.

“It was a unique concept and went very well with our policy of wanting to position our products as aspirational and our desire to showcase our design and product development strengths to the world,” said Goenka.

Suashish Diamonds, whose retail partner in Dubai is Joy Alukkas, linked up with the upmarket boutique Satya Paul to create the tie from pure silk in Ishi’s brand colour, purple. It was launched with a lot of fanfare at a Satya Paul fashion show in Mumbai.

Bollywood actor Salman Khan created a sensation when he walked down a red-carpeted ramp wearing the Dh1m tie. Pictures of him with the glittering creation around his neck were flashed around the globe.

The tie achieved what Ishi’s design team had set out to do – it made the world sit up and take notice.

Kedia added: “That was the launch of our World’s Most Expensive Series of Products line. The tie got Ishi’s instant international recognition and helped position it as a leading jewellery brand in the Indian and Middle East markets. We got quite a few orders for more ties, albeit on a smaller scale, after people saw the photographs.”

Ishi’s team did not rest on their laurels – they went on to make the world’s most expensive waistband for women. The Dh2m band, studded with 8,000 diamonds weighing 200 carats set in one kilogram of pink gold, was modelled by Bollywood star Bipasha Basu. They followed this with the most expensive armband in the world, which was studded with 10,000 diamonds set in one kilogram of gold in four shades. The Dh3.6m sensation was modelled by former Miss Universe Natalie Glebova.

Goenka said: “If anyone wants to place an order with us for any of these exclusive products then they should get in touch with Suashish Diamonds or the Ishi’s design team.

“We will surely not disappoint them as our team have shown that they can create anything,” said the managing director.