Madonna Models Louis Vuitton

For those of you who miss the bangled Madonna of yesteryear, the Jewelry Insider has good news. I found these sneak peak pics of our Madge in the new Louis Vuitton campaign, and her arms are, well, just loaded with ‘em.

Taking a cue from the Spring ’09 looks that littered his runway shows this fall, Marc Jacobs for Louis Vuitton dressed the ageless pop star in a series of layered bangles and cuffs, along with a feathery peach tutu and fishnets. Drag queens, get out your sketch books.

“She’s so sure of herself as an icon and as a woman. It was her idea to do the fishnets,” Jacobs told WWD. “What fascinates me the most about her is her never-ending energy, and the idea of becoming and changing. She’s an artist who’s unafraid to use her voice.”

The final six Paris bistro-inspired shots were captured by the famous Steven Meisel and will appear in a range of fashion magazines in February. It was rumored that Madonna earned $10 million for the campaign, but LV director of communications, Antoine Arnault, assured WWD, “It’s very far away from that.”

While the Madonna ads will feature LV slouchy handbags and ready-to-wear fashions, the iconic fashion house also launched two new patented diamonds to add to label lovers’ Christmas lists.

Will the divine Miss M desperately seek diamonds for the next LV campaign? You can bet I'll be watching...

Louis Vuitton's Designer Diamonds

Smart fashionistas in these tough economic times know that buying “accessories as investments” is both tasteful and fiscally sound. With gold at a record highs, why buy the latest Manolo pump or designer handbag when you can pepper your portfolio with jewelry? And designer jewelry at that!

Iconic fashion house, Louis Vuitton, is wisely diversifying their accessory offerings with the debut of their new signature diamond cuts, Les Ardentes (which translates roughly as “the blazing.”)

“We wanted to produce diamonds that resemble the Louis Vuitton brand,” explained Albert Bensoussan, watch and fine jewelry director at Louis Vuitton Malletier in an article for W Magazine.

“You have it today with ready-to-wear, with handbags, with watches, with eyeglasses. You can recognize a brand, and that association is very appealing to us. You’re going to recognize the name and value behind the shape of these diamonds.”

The two new patented shapes mirror the monogram flowers that appear on Vuitton bags and trunks: one is a rounded flower diamond, the other a pointed version. The designer gems have between 61 and 77 facets (more than the standard 58 for a brilliant cut diamond) and are set in a bracelet, a pair of earrings, two brooches, a ring and a necklace – the latter of which contains 108 carats and retails for a whopping $4 million.

So much for fiscal responsibility.

More than four years in development, the LV ice was cut at Lili Diamonds in Tel Aviv, Israel, considered one of the foremost cutting centers in the world. Bensoussan estimates that he visited about 60 workshops before settling on Lili, where he found three seasoned artisans who could take his complicated designs and fashion precise stones with as little waste as possible.

“There is one very experienced cutter there,” Bensoussan says. “One day I will ask him to cut the Vuitton diamond blindfolded, because I think he could do it.”

While Tiffany’s Lucida Diamond and the Leo Diamond are perhaps the most popular patented gems on the market today, LV hopes the customers that value their iconic bags will see the light and blaze a trail to their jewelry counter.

Sally Morrison, director of the Diamond Information Center told W, “For the same reason someone’s going to buy a Louis Vuitton handbag, there are consumers who are definitely going to want the LV diamond. It offers a certain kind of promise—it’s a kind of badge that says, ‘I’m a first mover, aesthetically.’”

For the first movers out there, carrying last year's signature tote and wearing an old pair of Mary Jane's might be a hard pill to swallow, but tough economic times call for tough fashion measures.