JEWEL CITIZEN
Published in ARISE
CHRIS AIRE made his name creating striking diamond jewellery but for his new collection the ice man has returned to nigeria and become the golden boy.
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Marilyn Monroe may have invented a truism when she purred Diamonds Are A Girl’s Best Friend but jeweller Chris Aire has begun to think differently. The Nigerian-born Los Angeles-based designer has made his name by dripping his celebrity clientele in diamond-encrusted trinkets and timepieces - and famously once made a diamond cuff worth a whopping US$1.7m. But he has decided to create his latest offering, the Hollywood Glamour Collection, not from ice but Nigerian gold and gemstones.
“I’ve been refining and experimenting with them for a while. Once I discovered the amazing quality and beauty of the products –right off the ground the gold starts at 22 karats and the gemstones are rich in colour, lustre and clarity - I started using them in my designs,” Aire explains. “And what better way to launch them than on the biggest stage in the world – Hollywood!”
Aire is not a man to do things small. The self-styled King of Bling, or The Ice Man as his friend Cedric The Entertainer calls him, was the first designer to put on an all-diamond catwalk show at New York Fashion Week in 2008 for which he enlisted Nelly, Wyclef Jean and Naomi Campbell to model for him. So for his West Coast show for the Hollywood Glamour Collection in April, he was determined to go one better.
A heavyweight collaboration between Aire, the Nigerian ministry of steel and several Nigerian banks, the starry event at the Beverly Hills Hotel saw actors Adrian Brody, Jimmy Jean Louis, Shaun Toub and singer Jermaine Jackson show some love on the red carpet and models Tyson Beckford and Noemie Lenoir walk the runway. R&B crooner Tate tickled the ivories on stage while Nigerian pop star D’Banj caused a few blushed cheeks with his new song about being handsomely “endowed”. Nigeria’s former minister of mines and steel now minister of petroleum Diezani Allison-Madueke, tempered this mayhem with an elegant speech promoting the potential of the country’s largely untapped gold and gemstone resources.
“I am excited and humbled to share this type of positive story about our homeland – lord knows there’s been enough negative ones out there,” says Aire. “At the moment these resources are primarily mined by artisanal and small scale miners. My goal is to develop this sector into a thriving industry that employs millions of people. This collection is only the beginning.”
His latest designs hark back to Hollywood’s golden age. Using a range of garnet, amethyst, emerald, topaz and sapphire set in white, yellow or rose gold, Aire’s classic drop earrings, pendants and bracelets could have been worn by Greta Garbo or Ginger Rogers or Ella Fitzgerald; his cufflinks and watches by Frank Sinatra, Jimmy Stewart or Louis Armstrong. And as for Monroe? Well, it looks like she could be getting a new best friend.
www.chrisaire.com
Words Helen Jennings
Photography Sunday Aghaeze