Think of a bra that weighs nearly 1.8kg. Now think of wearing it down a runway, in heels, with wings on your back, while hundreds of people watch. That was Kylie Jenner’s Sunday night in Los Angeles, and nobody who saw the bra will forget it.

The moment came at the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show on 18 October. The brand’s Fantasy Bra had been missing from the runway since 2018, and this year’s version came with a price that makes the old ones look like pocket money: $50 million (₹4,744,528,000). The most expensive Fantasy Bra before it was $15 million (₹1,428,450,000). Jenner also broke a habit. Past bras went to the brand’s Angels, and she is not one.

A yellow diamond the size of a small plum stone

The bra is built around its centre. A 75.54-carat natural diamond sits right in the middle, graded Fancy Vivid yellow, the strongest colour grade a yellow diamond can get. Jacob & Co. cut it in a radiant shape, a style chosen to push light back through the stone and make the yellow glow. Two round white diamonds, together 11.85 carats, sit on either side of it.

Around that trio, 4,410 natural diamonds were added in total, adding up to 1,373.39 carats. Most are small. A group of 91 larger stones carry 405.06 carats between them, and each one weighs between 5 and 18 carats. They come in angel, pear, heart, oval, marquise and round brilliant cuts. The angel cut belongs to Jacob & Co. and was shown for the first time with this piece, in the year the jeweller turns 40.

The other 4,318 stones are round, and they cover the cups and straps. Some of them hang from fine chains that sway as the wearer walks. The supporting white diamonds are all colour grade E to F, and their clarity runs from VVS2 to VS1, which is the top end of what jewellers sell.

Built like a puzzle, not a bra

Here is the part that makes the weight easier to believe. There is no cloth, no wire and no padding. The whole thing is 18K white gold, made from 3,218 separate parts. Each part was drawn on a computer first, then cast by the old lost-wax method, then filed and polished by hand.

Jacob & Co. borrowed ideas from its Rare Touch jewellery, which is known for pieces that bend and flow. The frame uses linked gold bars with gentle, knife-like edges so they sit on the ribs without digging in. The cups curve inward like fabric ones would. To keep the light bouncing around, the team used four ways of holding stones in place: prong, eagle-claw, bezel and pavé.

Fifteen craftspeople worked on it for more than 1,000 hours. They fitted it to a bust form and then to Jenner herself, using her exact measurements and then adjusting again and again.

The man who said yes at once

Jacob Arabo, who founded Jacob & Co., has made jewellery for Madonna, Rihanna, Elton John and Victoria Beckham. When Victoria’s Secret rang, he agreed straight away. He looked at earlier Fantasy Bras first, and he says his goal was a piece of high jewellery that happens to be worn as a bra. He also says comfort was the hardest problem. A measurement on paper, he points out, never behaves exactly the same on a real body.

Adam Selman, the brand’s chief creative officer, says the idea for the show was a kind of fan frenzy. The Fantasy Bra was the thing people asked about most after last year’s show, so he wanted it to be properly over the top. He calls it close to museum quality.

How the price climbed

The first Fantasy Bra appeared in 1996 in a magazine advert, worn by Claudia Schiffer, and it cost $1 million. In 1999 Heidi Klum wore the $10 million Millennium Bra.

Gisele Bündchen’s $15 million Red Hot Fantasy Bra followed in 2000 and held the record for 26 years. The last bra, worn by Elsa Hosk in 2018, was a Swarovski design at $1 million.

So the jump to $50 million is not a small step. It is $35 million above the old record.

What people made of it

Jenner walked in sheer mini skirt, see-through heels and the brand’s white feather wings, so nothing competed with the diamonds. Reports say she closed the show, and that Timothée Chalamet and Kris Jenner were watching from the audience.

Not everyone cheered. Some fans said online that they did not like the choice of Jenner for the bra. That argument is part of the Fantasy Bra’s story, and it always was. Few people can afford it or even wear it, and yet it pulls the whole room’s attention. This year, with a yellow diamond at the centre and a price tag to match, it did that better than ever.