In an all-out extravaganza, jewelry designer Chris Aire produced the first ever jewelry-only fashion show that featured $175 million worth of diamond jewelry that he created. The sparkling spectacle, held in New York City’s Gotham Hall during Fashion Week, brought together the worlds of jewelry, entertainment and fashion.
“When I came to Fashion Week last year I decided that I wanted to do a fashion show that brought entertainment, fashion and jewelry together,” says the Los Angeles, California–based Aire.
Nicknamed “The Iceman” by his client comedian Cedric the Entertainer, Aire’s diamond-intensive jewelry is the ultimate in bling-bling, appealing to a celebrity clientele of musicians, actors and athletes. And his loyal following — including Venus and Serena Williams, Chris Webber, Foxy Brown, DJ Clue, Elise Neal, Mark Jackson and Fabolous — turned out in force at Gotham Hall to celebrate this groundbreaking event, where jewelry was the star and clothes were nothing more than a backdrop. Twenty-five models wore over 500 pieces of diamond and platinum or diamond and Red Gold™ jewelry as they posed for a posse of paparazzi and international fashion, consumer and entertainment press, including Access Hollywood, MTV and Rolling Stone.
Some of the jewelry highlights were two diamond rivière necklaces, each comprised of 420 1-carat diamonds; a 95-carat total weight yellow diamond bracelet; Aire’s signature dog tags in platinum with white, pink or yellow diamonds; and a purple marquise diamond ring. One model strolled the runway in a bikini wearing Chris Aire watches strapped to her upper arms, around her ankles and dangling from her décolletage. Another model sashayed down the catwalk wearing diamond dog tags as a chain belt. The men — including supermodel Tyson Beckford — wore diamond rivières, two and three diamond dog tags together and big, bold diamond-encrusted bracelets and watches with straps, faces and cases glittering with diamonds.
The grand finale came when Naomi Campbell strutted down the runway wearing The Divine Halter, a $10 million creation fabricated from 300 round and fancy cut diamonds weighing 242.98 carats set in platinum and Red Gold™.
“I designed the halter to showcase talent that’s different than what people would expect,” explains Aire, who notes that The Divine Halter took 2,920 hours to create and was sent to an auction in Japan after the show.
Guitarist Wyclef Jean — wearing a diamond-encrusted Chris Aire watch — performed live during the program and the rapper Nelly closed the soiree with a short performance.
“I want people to know about my collection and watches. I wanted to bring the buyers together to show them the promotion we can get through the entertainers who we have as clients,” concludes Aire.
|
|
|
|
|