It’s not that I was desperate to discover the “people’s choice” awards winners in such luminous categories as Best Comedy Programme (Benidorm - seriously?) or Best Serial Drama Performance (i.e. soap star).

No, I was watching because among the many special guests at the NTAs were some of our lovely diamonds. Even if the red carpet at the NTAs is not exactly star-studded with A-list Hollywood celebrities, we like to think that we did our bit to add some sparkle to the occasion.

Susanna Reid and the rest of the BBC Breakfast team were up for the ‘Topical Magazine Programme’ award, along with ITV’s This Morning and, er, Loose Women. Susanna is a long-term friend of Diamondthrills – she was adorned by our diamonds on the most glamorous red carpet of them all last year at the Oscars in Hollywood – and she wanted to complete her look with some diamonds at last night’s awards bash.

So yesterday we kitted Susanna out with some of our fine diamond jewellery and sat back to watch the show.

Sadly the BBC team lost out to ITV’s This Morning (well, they get to promote the awards on ITV so I guess there’s a kind of built-in advantage there), but we spotted Susanna in the audience and the bright lights caught our diamonds beautifully.

Susanna wore our Aphrodite bangle (she loves it – she’s been seen out in it several times now), plus the Flora daisy-chain necklace and the Mariana zigzag earrings, all pictured below.

After the ceremony we asked Susanna how it went and she told us, “Brilliant! I got so many comments about the lovely diamonds, and it’s fabulous to be able to wear fine jewellery on a special occasion — jewellery which really is too expensive to buy.”

As it turned out, we didn’t get investment into the business in the Den, but we’re not going to let a thing like that hold us back!

Anyway, at least the Diamondthrills pitch was easy on the eye and — as Evan Davis’ voiceover put it — added a touch of glamour to the Den.

Our model for the day, Amanda, was adorned by four of our most beautiful pieces of diamond jewellery.

Amanda wore: the Hestia tiara, the Lakshmi earrings, the Aphrodite bangle, and the Eros pendant.

All four pieces are pictured below.

That’s a total of around 600 diamonds, with a total carat weight of about 21 carats, and a retail value of more than £50,000.

We took along a few other pieces too – there was lots of interest in our Flora daisy-chain necklace – but despite all our dazzling diamonds the Dragons could not be persuaded to part with their cash.

Would I do it again?

Yes – with a more aggressive business plan and some more aggressive answers to the Dragons’ questions, I would certainly venture into the Den again.

Does the fact that the Dragons didn’t invest make jewellery rental a bad idea?

Absolutely not!

We continue to generate a lot of interest from brides, from other weddings suppliers, from the press, and also from women going to parties, business events, charity balls and other special occasions.

We’re confident that hiring fine diamond jewellery is the great new way to experience the luxurious thrill of diamonds: we give you access to hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of stunning diamond jewellery in a flexible and affordable way.

If you saw the show we would love your feedback – please comment below!

Yesterday Naomi Campbell was called to the Hague – apparently against her will – to testify in the war crimes trial of ex-Liberian President Charles Taylor.

Campbell and Taylor were guests at a dinner hosted by Nelson Mandela in South Africa in 1997, and it had been alleged that she was given a rough diamond (or diamonds) by Taylor.

Campbell had previously denied having received a diamond from Taylor (famously throwing a strop on ABC News when asked about it), but under oath at the Hague yesterday she finally produced her story, telling the court that two men came to her room after dinner and handed over a pouch containing rough diamonds, with the words, “A gift for you”.

But in a blow to the image of one of the world’s great luxury products, she described them as “small dirty looking stones” and “dirty pebbles”.

(Actually, she might be right about that: rough diamonds can look somewhat underwhelming when compared with the brilliant gems released once they’re cut & polished.)

Mr Taylor is accused of using funds from diamonds mined illegally in Sierra Leone to buy weapons supplied to the RUF rebels in that country’s 1991-2001 civil war.

The rebels in Sierra Leone were especially brutal – one of their trademark ‘punishments’ was to hack the limbs off civilians, including women and children, and there have also been accusations of rape, slavery, and ‘pillage’, much of it allegedly directed and funded by Charles Taylor.

It’s a little ironic that Mr Taylor and Liberia are at the centre of the West African ‘blood diamond’ trade of the 1990s because Liberia itself is not a major diamond producing nation. Instead, it became the smuggler’s route out for diamonds from the neighbouring countries of Côte d’Ivoire, Guinea, and of course Sierra Leone.

Ms Campbell’s testimony is meant to support the case for the prosecution by demonstrating that Taylor had access to rough diamonds and was giving them away in the late 1990s.

But it seems to me (and I’m no lawyer…) that Campbell’s evidence, when viewed in isolation, is not terribly convincing.

Any half-decent lawyer would be able to cast some doubt on the fact that the gift came from Mr Taylor. Then there is doubt that the gift actually contained diamonds (although they have now apparently been tracked down to a charity worker in South Africa so presumably they can be examined — after a gap of 13 years, but, hey, a diamond is forever…).

But even if they are tracked down and traceable to Taylor, he could probably claim that the diamonds were acquired legitimately, or perhaps in South Africa where the dinner took place – a country which has no shortage of small, dirty-looking stones of its own.

It’s not a tremendous leap of the imagination to claim that Charles Taylor was somehow mixed up in diamond trafficking and arms supply to RUF rebels in the late 1990s, but I hope that the prosecution have some rather more convincing evidence than this loose link with a British supermodel who might or might not have taken delivery of three small dirty stones at the other end of the continent from a couple of nameless late night callers.

Much of the coverage has quoted Campbell’s assertion that she had never heard of blood diamonds or of Liberia. But so what? How many young models from Streatham, south London, would have heard of Liberia?

And as for the fact that Campbell hadn’t heard of blood diamonds, well some commentators would like to think that this must be wrong because surely everyone saw the DiCaprio movie, right?

Campbell was making the point that she hadn’t heard of blood diamonds in 1997, but neither had anyone because the term wasn’t coined until later when conflicts in Angola, Zaire, and Sierra Leone prompted a couple of NGOs to publish their reports into ‘conflict diamonds’ in 1998-2000, leading in turn to the establishment of the Kimberley Process which introduced regulation of rough diamond exports/imports from 2003.

The only good to come from yesterday’s testimony by Campbell is that as a result far more people are aware of the horrors of the Sierra Leone conflict and the alleged role of Charles Taylor (and, sad to say, of diamonds) in those horrors.

Perhaps that was the point: that this was a publicity stunt (and not by Campbell because she didn’t want to appear). But I’m not sure that the law and public prosecutions should be used for the purposes of generating publicity.

I wonder what they’ll do next… call Leonardo DiCaprio to the witness stand?

Update 9 August 2010: Mia Farrow this morning testified that Taylor gave Campbell a “huge diamond”. Is it mischievous to suggest that what Campbell describes as “small stones” and Farrow describes as “a huge diamond” might actually be the same thing? Perhaps they have different standards and expectations when it comes to diamonds…

** Spoiler Alert! If you really don’t want to know how the film ends then don’t read on! **

Still with me? Good.

In the final scene, Big gives Carrie a diamond ring and tells her, “Because you’re not like anybody else“.

The diamond ring is somewhat unusual in that it features a 5 carat black diamond (pictured, right).

The ring was created by designer Itay Malkin, and in addition to that eye-popping 5 carat black diamond, it features 80 round pavé-set white diamonds weighing a total of 0.35 carats. The diamonds are set in 18 karat white gold.

Black diamonds are unusual but they are becoming more fashionable (and this placement in SATC2 will of course add to their popularity).

The blackness in natural black diamonds is caused by millions of microscopic inclusions spread throughout the stone.

Some natural black diamonds are referred to as carbonado diamonds (a Portuguese word – they were found in Brazil and the Central African Republic), and there was a theory doing the rounds a couple of years ago that these diamonds came from outer space, falling to Earth in a meteor 2.3 billion years ago.

Another theory has it that black diamonds were formed during shock metamorphism – the result of an explosive meteoric impact on the Earth’s surface.

More prosaically, black diamonds can be created in a laboratory (although these technically should not be referred to as diamonds) or as a result of special treatments that can be applied to more common non-black diamonds.

In any event, thanks to the inevitable commercial spin-off from the SATC2 movie, fans can buy one of a limited edition of ‘identical’ rings for $10,000 from designer Itay Malkin or the film’s costume designer Patricia Field.

Given that a 5 carat diamond ring would normally cost a lot more than $10,000 (we just checked a leading online supplier, and the minimum price for a 5 carat diamond was over $50,000), we can’t help but wonder just how natural and ‘diamond-y’ these $10,000 rings really are…

We say: Caveat emptor! But then Hollywood is all about illusion, fakery & pretence, right?

They called us a few days ago to ask whether they could borrow some of our diamonds for a feature that they were planning on renting designer goods.

Of course we were very pleased to be able to help out, and so we trotted up to ITV’s studios on London’s South Bank with a couple of pieces: the Flora daisy-chain diamond necklace (pictured below) and our stunning Aphrodite diamond bangle.

They decided to use the Flora diamond necklace, and the feature also included designer dresses, handbags, and shoes – all available to hire.

Jason Gardiner introduced models wearing designer dresses that can be hired, plus handbags and shoes, and then our diamond necklace made its debut TV appearance.

Jason stumbled over our name a bit but we’ll forgive him that. Holly Willoughby was heard to gasp when the necklace appeared, whilst Phillip Schofield looked like he was happy to leave the fashion tips to Jason and Holly.

Jason had this to say about Diamondthrills, “They mainly do bridal wear because it’s just diamonds, so it’s ideal for Something Borrowed!”

Flora daisy chain necklace, as seen on ITV's This Morning programme

]]> http://www.diamondthrills.co.uk/2010/04/our-flora-diamond-necklace-makes-its-tv-debut/feed/ 0 http://www.diamondthrills.co.uk/2010/03/ten-great-diamond-movies/ http://www.diamondthrills.co.uk/2010/03/ten-great-diamond-movies/#comments Sun, 07 Mar 2010 12:57:56 +0000 Jamie Mordaunt http://www.diamondthrills.co.uk/?p=3179 In celebration of the Academy Awards in Los Angeles tonight, we’ve taken a look at some notable movies that feature diamonds.

Here, in chronological order, is our list of ten great diamond movies (or at least movies having some connection with diamonds…):

1. Night After Night (1932) – celebrated for the brief debut appearance of Mae West, generously adorned with diamonds, who elicits an admiring comment from a hatcheck girl, “Goodness, what lovely diamonds!“, to which West replies, “Goodness had nothing to do with it, dearie“.

2. Gentlemen Prefer Blondes (1953) — in which Marilyn Monroe and Jane Russell both dazzle like diamonds, and Marilyn sings about how “Diamonds are a girl’s best friend“. Monroe’s character meets Sir Francis “Piggy” Beekman who owns a diamond mine, and the plot then involves a diamond tiara, prompting Monroe to exclaim, “I just LOVE finding new places to wear diamonds!” To promote the film, Monroe wore a celebrated 24ct canary yellow pear-shaped diamond of Indian extraction called the ‘Moon of Baroda’.

3. To Catch a Thief (1955) — Hitchcock’s romantic thriller featuring Grace Kelly and Cary Grant as a notorious jewel thief who has retired to the French Riviera. But who is the cat burgler that’s pinching the fabulous jewels? Hitchcock keeps us guessing…

4. The Pink Panther (1963) — The Peter Sellers original, of course, rather than anything to do with Steve Martin.  The Pink Panther of the title refers to a diamond featuring a flaw which forms the image of a leaping panther, seen if held up to light in a certain way. David Niven oozes suave sophistication as the legendary jewel thief, Sir Charles Litton.

5. Diamonds are Forever (1971) — The matchless Sean Connery plays Bond, on the trail of the wicked Blofeld who is stockpiling smuggled diamonds for use in a deadly laser weapon which can obliterate targets on Earth from space. Bond gets help from the excellently named Tiffany Case and together they save the day, but the diamonds end up in orbit…

6. A Fish Called Wanda (1988) — John Cleese plays lawyer Archie Leach whilst Michael Palin plays Ken Pile who couples a memorable stutter with an affection for animals. Jamie Lee Curtis (Wanda) and Kevin Kline (Otto) are crooks planning a diamond heist in London, but it all falls apart when the heist team start to double-cross each other. Archie and Wanda end up fleeing to South America with the diamonds.

7. Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers (1993) — A diamond movie? Well yes actually, because the malevolent penguin Feathers McGraw steals and alters Gromit’s Techno-Trousers (given to Gromit by Wallace so that Gromit can take himself for a ‘walk’) and uses them to break into the town museum to steal a fabulous diamond.

8. Titanic (1997) — This record-breaking blockbuster from James Cameron (yeah, but what’s he done recently?) won 11 Academy Awards. It featured a fictional blue diamond called the Heart of the Ocean – perhaps a scriptwriter’s blend of the famous blue Hope diamond (45.52 carats) and a sapphire necklace owned by genuine Titanic survivor, Kate Florence Phillips. The Kate Winslet character is saved and finds the diamond in the pocket of the coat given to her by Leo’s character, but as a 100-year-old woman we see her drop the gem into the ocean.

9. Snatch (2000) — Guy Ritchie rearranged Lock, Stock & Two Smoking Barrels and came up with Snatch, with the priceless shotguns replaced by an 86 carat diamond. But the film is more often remembered for the plot involving Brad Pitt’s gypsy Irish boxer and Pitt’s pikey accent that appears to have been cultivated on another planet.

10. Blood Diamond (2006) — Leo again following his diamond exploits in Titanic. Not the greatest movie ever made, but it shines a light on the events in Sierra Leone in 1996-1999 when that country’s diamond resources became embroiled in a horrible civil war. Blood Diamond was actually shot in Mozambique, and DiCaprio plays an ex-Rhodesian/Zimbabwean mercenary (and Leo does the accent quite well) who helps Soloman Vendy – a fisherman – recover a large pink diamond that Vendy had previously found when he was conscripted to work in the country’s diamond mines. The film ends rather better for Soloman and his family than it does for Leo’s character.

Finally, here’s a bit of a treat – Shirley Bassey singing Diamonds are Forever, appropriately enough in Antwerp, Belgium – home of the diamond business.

It’s the bit where he gives her a fabulous diamond necklace; here’s the scene, at the start of this YouTube compilation:

I’ve always enjoyed Julia Roberts’ reaction when he snaps the lid of the box onto her fingers, but the other notable point about the necklace is that he hasn’t bought it for her – he’s just borrowed it for her for the evening.

Gere has to manage Roberts’ expectations quite carefully; before he opens the box he tells her, “I don’t want you to get too excited – it’s only on loan“.

But the fact that the necklace isn’t to be hers forever doesn’t seem terribly important – either to her or to him.

What’s important is that she will be adorned by something really special for the evening. She will dazzle with diamonds (and in this case I think, rubies) for the few hours that it matters the most.

And actually the fact that the necklace will not be hers for life might even increase their enjoyment of it on this particular night: the jewellery – just like the time that they are spending together – is a really precious thing, and they must make the most of it, enjoying every moment while it lasts.

So there it is: Pretty Woman teaches us that you don’t need to own fine diamond jewellery in order to enjoy wearing it!

You really can look and feel fabulous wearing borrowed bling, whether it’s for your wedding or a night at the opera with Richard Gere, and that’s why we do what we do here at diamondthrills…

Daily Mail report; (c) Daily Mail; picture: Ben Lister

The party season is upon us, and so over the Christmas and New Year period we’re thrilled to offer any customer a 20% discount on the hire prices published on the website.

That’s right: book any jewellery hire with us for an event between now and Monday 4th January 2010, and we’ll knock 20% off the published hire price for you.

We’re feeling chirpy enough to make this special seasonal offer because today’s Daily Mail has published a piece about us.

The piece was written by a very nice freelance journalist called Clover Stroud, and we spent last Wednesday evening decking her out in various items of our diamond jewellery – firstly at the offices of the Daily Mail in Kensington and then at a party at St Pancras station.

Clover wore various pieces of our jewellery during the evening, including: the Aphrodite bangle, the Venus zigzag necklace, the Flora daisy-chain necklace, the Hebe bracelet, the Isis helix bracelet, and the spectactular Hestia tiara.

In total, Clover was decked out in more than 1000 diamonds, with a total carat weight of nearly 40 carats!

You can see the print version of the Daily Mail story by clicking on the image to the right, and the online version by clicking on this link.

So, to take us up on this offer, simply get in touch and quote “Daily Mail” to us and we’ll take 20% off any diamond jewellery rental booking for your event before 4th January 2010.

The 32-year old, most famous for his roles in the Pirates of the Caribbean and Lord of the Rings trilogies, was subjected to some real-life lawless pirating when a relative discovered that his Los Angeles home had been burgled last Wednesday evening.  Bloom was away filming in New York.

He flew back to LA to liaise with the police following the break-in, and TMZ have reported that the value of cash and jewellery taken was around $500,000 or £300,000.

Bloom underplayed the incident when he arrived back in Los Angeles, telling reporters, “nobody died… people are suffering a lot more…”. He is said to have a particular eye for valuable vintage watches, with a collection of at least 40 timepieces including a rare antimagnetic Rolex Milgauss watch from the 1950s worth £120,000.

Meanwhile, it was also reported last week (and not for the first time) that Bloom has asked his Australian girlfriend Miranda Kerr, who lives with him in Los Angeles, to marry him.

Kerr seems very coy on the subject of marriage, but Bloom can console himself with the thought that she has been tipped as the next Elle MacPherson, recently shooting the new Victoria’s Secret lingerie campaign.

The shoot took place at Big Sky Studios in Brewery Road, Islington, London on June 6th, but news of the investigation into the missing diamonds didn’t break until this week, long after Lohan, 22, had flown back to her Los Angeles home.

The diamond necklace and earrings were created by Dior specially for the photoshoot for Elle magazine. It’s reported that Lohan had asked about whether she could keep the jewellery, but there’s no suggestion at the moment that she is any more of a suspect than the other dozen or so people who were there on the day.

Apparently (and somewhat surprisingly) the loss of the jewellery wasn’t noticed, and policed weren’t informed, until two days after the Islington shoot.

Lindsay Lohan has come to the attention of the authorites once or twice in the past. She was involved in a series of car accidents in 2004,’05,’06, including one where a papparazzo crashed into her car.

Another incident in 2007 saw Lohan being arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol and she also had cocaine in her blood and in her possession.  Lohan spent three spells in rehabilitation clinics in 2007 and was also sentenced to a day in jail.

It’s not unknown for models and celebrities to hang on to clothes and shoes after a fashion photoshoot, but it would be taking things to a new level to walk away with diamond jewellery of this value.

There comes a tipping point where the actual value of the jewellery outweighs the PR value of the reports of its desirability to famous names.  £250,000 would appear to be well past this tipping point for Dior: they are said to be livid at the loss.

See also: Jennifer Lopez walks away with loaned diamonds, 6th March 2009