LIFESTYLE THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 14, 2013 Features37 Feel in danger? Stay classy, buy a bulletproof suit A model shows “the Orange” a 14.82-carat pear-shaped, vivid orange diamond during a press preview on October 31, 2013 in Geneva.—AFP

A marksman shoots a handgun at a bulletproof suit made by Garrison Bespoke tailors.—AP

Canadian tailor is releasing a three-piece suit that has everything a danger-seeking 21st Acentury executive could need-killer looks plus bulletproof protection that would make James Bond envious. The company, Garrison Bespoke, believes it has combined style and safety, using lightweight carbon nanotube technology to absorb impact from bullets fired from handguns and prevent punctures from knife attacks. All in all, the luxury suit, retailing World's largest orange diamond at almost Can$20,000, seeks to provide a select few customers a way to avoid being killed while traveling abroad. fetches record $35.5m “We focused on making the ultimate James Bond suit,” said David Tran, head of special projects for ‘Pink Star’ diamond aims for world auction record Garrison Bespoke. “The tailoring industry is actually quite sleepy, and you want to be challenged like this.” plum-sized diamond known as the “Pink Star” Tran said the suit was inspired by a conversation with a client who was shot in a foreign country six months goes under the hammer yesterday in Geneva ago, but lived to tell the tale. At his next visit to the A in an auction hoped to rake in $60 million, the store, he confessed that he was shaken up by the highest price ever for a gemstone. The Sotheby’s auc- near fatal encounter. “After five minutes, we thought, tion comes a day after rival house Christie’s sold an ‘Are we really serious here?’ And then we started look- almond-shaped diamond dubbed “The Orange” for ing into it,” said Tran. $35.5 million, also a record in its category. The world’s As purveyors of smart tailoring, however, the biggest pink diamond, the “Star” belongs to “the company could not simply use bulky Kevlar, the typi- ranks of the Earth’s greatest natural treasures,” said cal combat protection material that is used in police Sotheby’s David Bennett. “It’s really extraordinarily and regulation military gear. So they reached out to contractors-Tran has an agreement to keep their rare,” Bennett, the chairman of Sotheby’s jewellery di- name secret-who previously provided elite body ar- vision in Europe and the Middle East, told AFP of the mor to US Special Forces in Iraq. Once a suit has been gem glimmering inside a well-guarded showcase. custom-tailored, six thin nanotube sheets are slipped “Very, very few of these stones have ever into the lining of the back of the suit jacket and in the appeared at auction.” The flawless 59.60-carat pink front of the vest, allowing the fit to remain crisp and diamond is the largest in its class ever graded by clean. the Gemological Institute of America (GIA), with Although more sheets can be added for extra the second biggest less than half its size, he said. protection, comfort and ease of movement would be The sparkling oval-cut rock, which has received the compromised. “A lot of men in the finance industry, or mining and oil, have confessed (to us) that when highest possible GIA color and clarity rating, will be they’re in dangerous places, they feel really on edge, part of the auction house’s Magnificent they feel really nervous when they’re out there. It Jewels auction at a luxury Geneva hotel last affects their performance at a high-level strategic evening. Set on a ring, it measures 2.69 by 2.06 meeting,” said Tran. centimeters (1.06 by 0.81 inches), and weighs 11.92 “So it had to be completely discreet. If it’s bulky, grams (0.026 pounds). It would earn Sotheby’s This undated handout photograph released by worldwooftour.com yesterday shows adopted it’s signaling to the other party the wrong message- around $5.0 million per gram or $1.0 million per Indian dog named Rupee at Nepal’s Everest Base Camp. –AFP photos they’re scared, they don’t trust them.” It’s not the first carat if it fetches its asking price. Bennett described unconventional project the company has embarked on. Tran says Garrison Bespoke has commissioned all the estimate as “very reasonable”. “The international kinds of special suits, from crushed-sapphire tuxedos demand for exceptional diamonds keeps on to an outfit that can be worn underwater. The original growing,” he said. client who was shot and survived was the first person Three years ago, Sotheby’s set a record when Highest hound? Rescued dog to buy its bullet-proof suit. Tran said there have been it sold the “Graff Pink” diamond for $46.2 million at least six requests and there is a waiting list, adding dollars. Half the size of the “Pink Star”, it came from a that even the staffs of international world leaders private collection and had not been on the market tackles Everest have reached out, hoping to tailor their respective for 60 years. “That was an unequalled price for any country’s president or prime minister. diamond or jewel ever sold at auction,” said Bennett. n abandoned puppy rescued from a rubbish to realise that every life matters,” she added. Rupee For a company that prides itself on a personal touch, it’s created something of a predicament. “We’re Who would buy a $60 million diamond? dump in India has trekked to Everest Base and his owner trekked across rickety bridges and not set up to do mass manufacturing,” said Tran. “So Camp, becoming what is believed to be the wet mountain paths, dodging landslides along the “Only a handful of people in the world could A right now, we’re revisiting what we should be doing way. Despite missing part of his right ear and being consider buying this rock,” a gem expert told AFP on first dog to tackle the peak, his owner said yester- and our next moves.”—AFP condition of anonymity after Sotheby’s announced day. Former professional golfer Joanne Lefson told close to death only a few weeks ago, Rupee had no trouble adjusting to the altitude and relished his the auction in September. “Sixty million dollars, that AFP she adopted the 11-month-old dog, called Rupee, in the mountainous Indian town of Leh last first taste of snow. is really a lot of money, and the expenses come on “He loved the snow, he ate it, he played in it, if top of that,” he said. “To buy this stone, you really September and decided to take him on a trip to base camp at 5,364 metres (17,598 feet). I had let him, he would have slept in it too,” Lefson have to fall in love—and also think about a possible The pair began “Expedition Mutt Everest 2013” said. Photographs on the Facebook site show the sale in a couple of years, preferably at a profit.” in the Himalayan town of Lukla on October 14, puppy enjoying the sights and sounds of Nepal, Analysts note that investors have often turned to intending to raise awareness about the plight of cuddling with bearded Hindu monks in Kathmandu diamonds and other jewels in uncertain economic homeless dogs and promote pet adoption. They and playing with children in the Himalayan town times. They also carry prestige for growing global accomplished their record-making feat thirteen of Namche Bazaar. The pair are now in Lefson’s native South Africa, where Rupee is catching up elites. The “Pink Star” was 132.5 carats in the rough days later, describing it as “one giant leap for dog- on his sleep. Lefson is preparing to launch a book when it was mined by De Beers in Africa in 1999, kind” on Facebook. “I am so proud of Rupee. I thought I might have to carry him on some days, next week devoted to her former dog Oscar who according to Sotheby’s, which has not said which accompanied her around the world.—AFP country it came from. It was then cut and polished but instead, he took the lead and pulled me along,” Lefson said. over a period of two years by Steinmetz Diamonds, “I hope his accomplishment will compel people and was first unveiled to the public in 2003 under the to be kinder to animals, especially strays. We need The bulletproof suit Garrison Bespoke tailors. title of the “Steinmetz Pink”. The near-translucent rock was renamed after it was first sold four years later for an undisclosed sum Photo shows adopted Indian dog named Rupee posing with Hindu saddhus (holy men) to an unidentified buyer. Sotheby’s declined to name in Kathmandu. the seller in yesterday’s auction, nor would it say whether the gemstone had been bought and sold again since 2007. In addition to its color and clarity ratings, it falls into a rare subgroup of stones with the chemically purest diamond crystals and often extraordinary optical transparency, comprising less than two percent of all gem diamonds, according to the GIA. “It really ticks all of the boxes in terms of excellence,” Bennett said. Best known for shimmering white translucence, diamonds in fact come in all sorts of colors. Green diamonds, for instance, are colored Slugs from bullets are seen on the bulletproof suit. by radioactivity in the ground, blue diamonds get their color from boron, and yellow diamonds, which in very rare cases turn orange, are colored A Canadian tailor is by nitrogen. Once considered a curiosity, colored releasing a three- diamonds today rake in higher prices per carat piece suit that than even the most flawless white. “The Orange”, a has everything a whopping 14.82 carats, fetched the highest price danger-seeking 21st per carat ($2.4 million) ever paid for a diamond at century executive auction, as well as the highest ever for an orange could need—killer looks plus bullet- diamond, Christie’s said after Tuesday’s sale, also held proof protection in Geneva.—AFP that would make James Bond envious.