Home → luxury bag → Heart What you can n...
Heart What you can never buy: this is the 80,000-euro pink sapphire bag
Related news
To speak of Judith Leiber is to speak of luxury, exclusivity, bags elevated to the category of art and pieces impossible to acquire for most pockets throughout planet Earth. Hungarian-born designer Judith Leiber, who died in 2018 at the age of 97, came into the world in 1921 under the name Judith Peto.
Her mother was Helene, a housewife of Viennese origins, and her father, named Emil, was a commodity broker. Peto was born into a middle-class family that sent her to study in London to free her from the war. Indeed, in 1938 she studied at King's College in the British capital and graduated in Chemistry specializing in the cosmetics industry.
Her career in fashion began later. In 1963, after working as a handbag designer for other companies, she created her own business. Judith Leiber began to create her own empire through her very curious designs. In general, made up of diamond minaudières, clutches made on a metal frame and encrusted with Swarovski -in gold and silver- and, above all, bags that played with the shapes of animals or plants.
The Precious Rose model by designer Judith Leiber. Judith Leiber
But above all her creations, there is an extraordinary one. A unique model that monopolizes all the others due to its mystery, its symbolism and its color. It is the Precious Rose, an impressive rose-shaped bag, made with 800 pink tourmalines, 1,169 pink sapphires and 1,016 diamonds. There is only one in the world.
There was a lot of talk about the Precious Rose by Judith Leiber as a result of the article that Forbes magazine published about the 10 most extravagant handbags of the moment. It was in 2007 and at that time its price was 92,000 dollars (about 80,000 euros). Until 2009 it was still for sale and at the moment its whereabouts are unknown, since it could be found in the dressing room of any -very powerful- woman in the world.
Judith Leiber bags are sold in very few boutiques. Specifically, you can only buy her pieces in four, located in the cities of New Delhi, Jakarta, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur.
Still, items from her collection are available at high-end fashion stores such as Neiman Marcus, Harvey Nichols, Lane Crawford, Holt Renfrew and Harrods department stores in London. Most of her bags exceed thousands of euros and have become a status symbol for many celebrities and first ladies in recent years.
Beyoncé (39), Rihanna (32), the Kardashian sisters, Sarah Jessica Parker (55) as Carrie Bradshaw in Sex and the City and even presenter María Teresa Campos (79) boast of having a Judith Leiber creation. As revealed by the veteran communicator in the Las Campos reality show, it is the most expensive piece -complement, jewel- in her wardrobe.
The last of the stars of the show business firmament to have worn a Judith Leiber bag in public is Jennifer Lopez (51). The diva from the Bronx, in the moments before her performance at the inauguration of Joe Biden (78), wore a total look by Chanel, Jimmy Choo sandals and a clutch from this unique handbag firm.
[More information: This is the Passion Diamond, the most expensive shoes in the world that cost 15 million euros]
