words William Wiles

The Jagger Dagger
A $250,000 icepick designed by Jade Jagger to promote Belvedere vodka. The hilt is white gold, studded with diamonds, sapphires and lapis lazuli. If a quarter of a mill is a bit steep for you, not to worry,  there’s a $10,000 version with topaz instead of diamonds.

Samsonite Black Label Swarovski Trunk
Wherever there’s a branded product in need of a bit of expensive publicity, you’ll find Nadia Swarovski with a sack of her magic beads and a pot of glue. The Samsonite Black Label Swarovski Trunk is a bit of retro luggage entirely covered in crystals. It’s an endearing display of faith in the baggage-handling profession.

Vertu Boucheron 150
Developed for Paris jeweller Boucheron’s 150th anniversary, this mobile phone is carved from solid gold ingots, has a sapphire keypad and it comes in a walnut box designed by Reuge, a Swiss luxury firm that makes music boxes. When you get a call, it goes “bling, bling”.

Veuve Clicquot’s ostrich skin labels
“It sounds like satire, doesn’t it?” we said in a January 2008 leader that now looks bitterly prescient (icon 055). The $4,000 cooler Karim Rashid did for Veuve could also have gone in this list.

 

Billionaire Couture umbrella
A crocodile-skin umbrella that costs $50,000. We would have thought that the target audience for this sort of thing wouldn’t want an expensive reminder that they can’t control the elements.