Every holiday season, a bevy of wing-clad models float down the runway from heaven (i.e. Victoria's Secret headquarters in Manhattan) and strut right into the hearts of us mere mortals watching from the world over. No matter how you feel about the show, it's a spectacle we love making an event of every season. Highlights include: sourcing Halloween costume ideas, cheering our favorites (like Kendall Jenner, Gigi Hadid, and now her sister Bella!) as they take their turn down one of the world's most-watched catwalks, and, of course, ooo-ing and aaah-ing at the year's new Fantasy Bra.
As the tradition goes, Victoria's Secret dreams up a blinding, diamond-encrusted bra that costs more than a few college tuitions. It then bestows the task — nay, the privilege — of wearing this dream lingerie onto a single Angel every year. The 2016 edition is just as expensive as past iterations, ringing in at a cool $3 million; and the honor of strutting it down the glitter runway this year will go to VS Fashion Show veteran Jasmine Tookes.
Refinery29 got the chance to sit down with Tookes shortly after the news dropped (via a tear-inducing video, no less) and peek at the Fantasy Bra in all its glory.
Dubbed the Bright Night Fantasy Bra, this year's priciest underpinning was dreamt up by New York-based designer Eddie Borgo and handcrafted by AW Mouzannar jewelers. Borgo's take on the Fantasy Bra features some of the hardware and detailing that his namesake jewelry line is known for, like studs and disks, as well as a sparkling emerald tassel. "I had never worked with traditional emeralds before, and, due to their fragility, they are not used often today," Borgo told Vogue. It also happens to to be one of Tookes' favorite stones. "This matches perfectly with my jewelry collection," she told the mag — something you definitely want to keep in mind when splurging on a multimillion dollar bra.
The numbers are as jaw-dropping as the price tag: The Fantasy Bra took 700 hours to create using nearly 9,000 precious stones and 18-karat gold, and the gems include both diamonds and emeralds.
But don't worry, if a bra that's so expensive it's basically a liability is out of your budget, the Bright Night bra silhouette is available in a much more affordable Beautiful by Victoria's Secret version, which launches this holiday season in-store and online. So you, too, can kind of, sort of get a piece of the action — or, just tune in on December 5 when the whole thing goes down on the small screen.