Dangerous Diamonds
By Suzy Menkes, International Herald Tribune

PARIS -- So here's the screenplay: a black woman, as smart as she is gorgeous, joins an establishment organization founded in the British colonial era. Competing forces operate in the secret world of diamonds and those gems dazzle guests at a party flowing with Moet rosé Champagne and Dior dresses. (Product placements intended.)

This is the new James Bond movie - right? The one where the special agent sees how many diamonds he can stuff into Halle Berry's navel? No! It is the dramatic scenario of the new London store of De Beers LV - a joint venture between an arm of the South African mining company and the luxury conglomerate LVMH (Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton).

Only "Die Another Day" could have a more complex plot than last week's De Beers party. First Iman, the company's glamorous, gazelle-like ambassador, pulled out of the do because of a dispute over displaced Botswana bushmen (although this is not a diamond issue, according to De Beers). Then Shirley Bassey passed on singing the classic Bond theme "Diamonds are Forever," while wearing the De Beers 203-carat Millennium Star - because she would have to cross the pro-Botswanan picket line. But there was Rosanna Arquette (in Dior, of course) and London "It" girls in dresses as brief as their diamonds were bold. They draped themselves over showcases, chilled out on the client sofa or in the VIP room - and then rocked a traditional gentleman's club at the celebration party.

So who plays James Bond? Step forward, Alain Lorenzo, De Beers's CEO, who was prepared to go through fire, ice and influenza to get the store open. For M, think Nicky Oppenheimer, De Beers's chairman. And Q is the diamond specialist Andrew Coxon, whose secret weapon is the "sparkle-ometer." Bond's latest gadgets may shatter glass and torch buildings, but De Beers's invention sets diamonds on fire, by "reading" them technologically and projecting the explosion of color and refracted light on a computer screen.

Ah, diamonds! They are Delicious but dangerous - especially if you remember that Elizabeth Taylor tried to tear the Millennium Star from Iman's neck at the Cannes film festival. The diamond diva's insatiable passion for jewelry is laid out in "Elizabeth Taylor: My Love Affair with Jewelry" (Thames Hudson). This voyage around gems and husbands creates a book of succulent images that any fashionista would be happy to find in her lacy black Christmas stocking. The De Beers store is at Picadilly and Bond Street, where a cluster of jewelry stores is licensed to thrill: Lawrence Graff with yellow diamonds as big as quail eggs; Tiffany's chic gifts in celestial-blue boxes; Cartier with its historical clout; Asprey, under construction as a giant lifestyle store to complement its newly hip sister brand, Garrard. And now Boucheron, a store opened by Gucci Group - as rich and dark as a box of chocolates, gems snuggling among raven feathers, fresh rose petals and mink-lined boxes.

Let's not call it a conflict of diamonds, because that opens up the can of worms that is the subject of the Bond movie. (De Beers has categorically denied that it buys rough diamonds from conflict zones.) But how to make a new retail jewelry store stand out?

"The absolute quality of diamonds combined with designs with a fashion attitude," says Lorenzo. He says that while "other people cut for weight, not beauty," 75 percent of 130,000 stones were rejected by De Beers in creating 300 pieces for sale. The result is winking pavé work and a brilliance even from the small stones used in engagement rings, or when a diamond on a chain splits a heart pendant. The fashion element is in the hands of Reema Pachachi. She has succeeded in creating delicate, modern pieces with a perfume of Africa in reedy diamond fronds of the Grasslands collection, droplets of gems in Rainfall, sensuous curves of Serpent Dance and the setting of stones in leather. Even large, dramatic pieces are light in spirit, with a mesh of open flowers or circles on a bib necklace that can be worn on front or back.

"This collection is not ethnic," says Pachachi "One of the things I love about Africa is that it is so sophisticated and stylish. There is a pared-down quality in the most beautiful African art."

The store reflects that simplicity in glass screens etched with fine stripes, ebony floors, Zulu pattern rugs and African urns. With prices starting at £500 for a tiny platinum heart, there are jewels to die for - on this or any other day.

And this is a rare pic of Giselle with her new beau, polo champ Ricardino Mansur. How can he ride those poor horses without thinking of all the suffering he inflicts upon them? Polo scum!