Home/Fashion/The £162,000 gold shirt: the crazy blinged up clothes

The £162,000 gold shirt: the crazy blinged up clothes

By Sarah Coles

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Datta Phuge, an Indian businessman, has paid £162,000 for a shirt made out of gold. The monster weighs in at 3kg (7 lbs), and could hardly be called understated.

So why did he buy it, and is this the craziest piece of clothing ever sold?

Phuge has a passion for gold - and is nicknamed 'the gold man'. He wears chunky necklaces, rings and bracelets of his favourite metal along with the shirt - which must hamper his ability to do just-about anything. Whenever he wears it, he has to be accompanied by a security guard.

According to the Mirror, the shirt comes complete with six Swarovski crystal buttons and a solid gold belt.

He told the BBC that gold was simply his chosen status symbol. Traditionally in India wearing gold is a sign of wealth, so each time his property and money-lending company makes a profit he buys himself some more. He said a gold mobile phone and shoes were next on his wish list.

It's certainly an unusual choice, and has a decent claim on being the most expensive shirt ever made. However, Phuge is not alone in embracing the 'if you've got it, flaunt it' mantra, and using it to justify insanely expensive and impractical clothes.

Crazy clothes

According to the Guinness World Records, the Mouawad 1001 Nights Diamond handbag is the world's most expensive. The bag, produced in Dubai, is worth $3.8 million, and is made from gold and 4,517 diamonds. It's not the kind of thing to be leaving on the floor of the pub on a Saturday night.

This starts to make the world's most expensive pair of high heels look like a bargain. They were made by designer Kathryn Wilson for a Ronald McDonald House charity auction, featuring 21.18 carats of diamonds, and fetched $418,500.

It's a drop in the ocean compared to the world's most expensive dress, worth $17.7 million. The caftan style dress by British designer Debbie Wingham is encrusted with rare red diamonds, black diamonds, white diamonds and rubies, all set in gold. However, she borrowed the gems to make the showpiece, so the dress will never be sold.

Perhaps Phuge will have to content himself with the most expensive iPhone in the world. British designer Stuart Hughes, coated an iPhone 5 with gold and encrusted it with black and white diamonds. He created it for a Chinese businessman - at a cost of £10 million.