All That Glitters

is no longer gold. Forbes Indias Luxury Special looks at the new face of extravagance, driven bya generation thats rewriting all the rules

- Pankti Mehta Kadakia

WHEN THE SNAZZY OCEAN’S 8 trailer debuted this summer with its stellar all-woman cast, a sumptuous Indian connection reflected some of its spotlight. Turns out that the hero of the film and subject of the grand heist, a resplendent $150-million Cartier diamond necklace, lived its first life as a bespoke piece made for the Maharaja of Nawanagar (now Jamnagar), back in 1931.

The Maharaja is said to have struck up a fond friendship in the 1920s and ’30s with Jacques Cartier, who designed the ceremonial piece himself, described as ‘the finest cascade of coloured diamonds in the world’. While the necklace was dismantled over the years to make smaller pieces, the film shows actor Anne Hathaway donning a dazzling replica of this storied ornament—resized to fit a woman’s neck, of course.