Debbie Wingham is a young famous fashion designer from the United Kingdom. Recently she presented the most expensive dress with black diamonds before Ukrainian journalists in Fairmont Grand Hotel Kyiv. It turned out that it was just a copy.
The evening dress is made of semitransparent fabric, weighs 14 pounds, and is decorated with 50 black diamonds: 25 on the basque (wide frill attached to a skirt at the waist line or to a jacket) and 25 on the bolero at the shoulder line. The fringe of the dress is decorated with white diamonds framed in gold. Couturier made 50,000 stitches herself. The approximate price of the British creation is 5.5 million dollars.
Wingham sewed the dress for six months and considers it to be “an anthem for a beautiful woman who loves life.” However, the potential owner of this dress has to be pretty strong physically. Some of the journalists at the end of the presentation thought that the model that wore the dress was about to fall under the weight of the fashionable jewelry masterpiece.
According to the designer, she came to Kyiv because she considered it to be a potential market for valuable outfits from her latest collection. Moreover, she said that there are many “stylish and beautiful ladies” in Ukraine.
“The creation of this dress is not some commercial project. This is simply a stepping stone to my new collection of jeans, which will be also decorated with diamonds,” Mrs. Wingham announced to everyone’s surprise in her comment to The Day. “So far no one has this dress and it will be on sale only after it appears in stores. However, I will inform you immediately once somebody buys this dress.”
The Day got a chance to talk with Debbie Wingham.
In your opinion, who is a potential buyer of your dress?
“This dress was presented for the first time in Monte Carlo. Huge awards ceremony took place there and Eva Longoria was present at it. She is a very attractive woman and, perhaps, we will work with her. What concerns the idea for the dress, I was inspired by Gabrielle Chanel and the production of the Fashion House Chanel. Now I am inspired by the head of the House – fantastic Karl Lagerfeld, as well as such legends as Audrey Hepbern, for example. If she could be alive now I would have dreamed that she would wear this dress.”
Today you spoke a lot about the black color. What does it mean for you personally?
“I think that it is also connected with the impact of Chanel, who also created many gorgeous dresses with luxurious materials. Of course, black is a great color, because you can keep such things in your wardrobe for a long time. It is simple fantastic! In short, in all times this color remained classic and beautiful. Perhaps black is so important for me because my father was a miner and, as you know, coal is black, I also had a very modest childhood,” told the designer.
Couturier presented the original dress a day later during the fashion show of her new collection, which includes 40 outfits with diamonds. The central piece of the show was brought a few minutes before its appearance in an armored car with security.
