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What do you get a man who can buy anything himself?
Well, it better be something special, and high end fabric manufacturer
Scabal may have what you’re looking for – a diamond-infused fabric that
shimmers discretely but is surprisingly comfortable to wear.
In 2001, Belgian textile company Scabal changed the luxury fabric
industry forever by introducing, Diamond Chip, an exclusive fabric
infused with microscopic diamond fragments. The process of creating this
intriguing fabric remains a closely-guarded secret, but what is
abundantly clear is that the world’s super-rich were so impressed by
Diamond chip that luxury fabric manufacturers the world over started
incorporating expensive materials like 24K gold, platinum or precious
stones into their fabrics.
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“Just like some men want their top-of-the-range car to be customized, so
we all have clients who ask us to show them only the most expensive
cloths,” one central London tailor told Financial Times in 2011. And
that’s where fabrics like Scabal’s Diamond Chip come in.
To create Diamond Chip, the Belgian company, which produces most of its
fabrics at its mill in Huddersfield, England, blends Super 150s merino
wool with silk and powdered diamonds, through a process that has
remained secret for almost two decades. The end result is a luxurious
fabric that is not only wearable but quite comfortable, and that
shimmers discretely.
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Back in 2011, FT reported that Scabal makes several varieties of Diamond
Chip, and that a bespoke two-piece suit made of this special material
started at around £7,000 ($8,600), twice as much as one made of
traditional high-quality merino wool. I’m not sure what the prices are
these days, but I assume they have increased to well over $10,000.
Online luxury fabric retailer Tissura sells one meter of Diamond Chip by
Scabal for $735.
Diamond Chip remains the most exclusive jacketing fabric for truly
luxurious suits, but to keep things fresh Scabal has adapted its secret
process to create fabrics infused with a variety of other precious
materials, such as lapis lazuli, gold or platinum.
“It is quite a small number of clients who want this type of cloth. I
have a couple in Saudi Arabia and two more in New York,” one Saville Row
tailor told FT. “They are the sort of people who wear a £100,000 watch.
There is a psychological thing about wanting to wear the most expensive
example of something.
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