The Jewel That Moved Like Lingerie

The yellow diamond catches the eye first. It is intended to. Yet the true achievement of Jacob & Co.’s Angel Fantasy Bra lies in everything happening around it.

There is no textile beneath the diamonds. No conventional bra acting as a foundation. Instead, thousands of individually engineered gold components create a flexible structure that follows the body, responds to movement and carries more than 1,300 carats of natural diamonds.

This is not lingerie decorated with jewellery. It is a piece of high jewellery designed to behave like lingerie.

The return of an icon

The Fantasy Bra returned to the Victoria’s Secret runway in Los Angeles on 18 October 2026 after an eight year absence.

Kylie Jenner, making her debut on the Victoria’s Secret catwalk, revealed the creation with white wings and a sheer skirt. Its arrival marked the return of a tradition that began in 1996, when Claudia Schiffer wore the Million Dollar Miracle Bra.

Over the following two decades, the annual Fantasy Bra became a meeting point between fashion, celebrity and exceptional jewellery. Its changing valuations, gemstones and wearers turned it into one of the most closely watched moments of the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

Elsa Hosk wore the previous Fantasy Bra in 2018. When the runway show returned in 2024, the wings came back but its most famous jewel did not.

Its eventual return needed to feel significant. Victoria’s Secret chose a jewellery house for which spectacle has always been part of the creative language.

Jacob & Co. responded with the Angel Fantasy Bra, valued at $50 million and described as the most valuable example in the history of the show.

Yet its price tells only part of the story. The more interesting question is how that value was made wearable.

The Jacob & Co. Angel Fantasy Bra

High jewellery without fabric

The Angel Fantasy Bra draws on the construction principles of Jacob & Co.’s Rare Touch jewellery collection, where articulated precious metal structures are created to move closely with the body.

The bra contains approximately 3,218 individually designed components made from 18 carat white and yellow gold. Together they form a flexible structure capable of supporting 4,410 natural diamonds weighing a combined 1,373.39 carats.

The creative process began with pencil sketches before moving to a full size model made from flexible chipboard. Each section was cut, shaped and measured over a bust form so that the team could understand how the structure would sit on the body.

A detailed computer aided design model then divided the bra into its thousands of individual parts.

Each component was cast using the lost wax process. Wax models were encased in investment material and heated in a kiln, leaving moulds into which molten gold could be poured. The cast pieces were cleaned, filed and polished by hand before being assembled section by section.

It is a process more commonly associated with individual pieces of jewellery. Here, it was applied across an object large enough to cover and move with the torso.

Jacob Arabo, founder and creative director of Jacob & Co., with the Angel Fantasy Bra and its original design studies. Image courtesy of Jacob & Co.

Engineering for the body

Making the Fantasy Bra appear spectacular was only one part of the challenge. It also had to be worn.

The bars beneath the cups were given subtly tapered, knife edge profiles to reduce pressure against the skin. The white gold cups curve inwards at the centre, following the shape of a traditional fabric bra while retaining the strength needed to support the diamonds.

The different stones required different setting techniques. Round and eagle claw settings minimise the amount of visible metal around the largest diamonds, opening them to light from multiple angles. Bezel settings secure stones in areas exposed to greater movement, while pavé diamonds fill the spaces between them.

Diamond fringe runs along the lower edge and continues around the back. Each setting was cast separately and linked to the next, allowing the strands to move freely rather than behaving as rigid extensions of the structure.

A heart shaped diamond appears among the fringe at the back, ensuring the piece retains its detail from every angle.

“For me, it had to be about the diamonds, the light and the movement,” said Jacob Arabo, founder, chairman and creative director of Jacob & Co.

That principle shaped every part of the design. The stones were not selected simply to fill the available surface. Their cuts, settings and positions were chosen according to how they would respond when the wearer moved.

A Jacob & Co. artisan fits the diamond set structure of the Angel Fantasy Bra directly onto a bust form, refining its shape, flexibility and comfort. Image courtesy of Jacob & Co

The 75.54 carat centre

At the heart of the Fantasy Bra sits a 75.54 carat radiant cut natural Fancy Vivid yellow diamond, graded VS2 by the GIA.

Fancy Vivid is the highest colour intensity grade given to naturally coloured diamonds. The radiant cut sends light repeatedly through the stone, strengthening the appearance of its yellow colour before returning it to the eye.

Two round brilliant white diamonds, weighing a combined 11.85 carats, complete the central composition.

The yellow diamond did more than provide the visual focus. Its weight, depth and position on the body determined the structure surrounding it. Its setting, supporting framework and neighbouring stones all had to be arranged around the physical demands of carrying such a substantial gemstone.

Across the wider piece are 4,409 additional natural diamonds.

Ninety-one of the largest white diamonds weigh a combined 405.06 carats. Individually, they range from 5.01 to 18.59 carats and appear in six shapes: Angel cut, pear, round brilliant, heart, oval and marquise. They are graded E to F in colour and VVS2 to VS1 in clarity.

The mixture of shapes prevents the surface from appearing uniform. Round brilliant diamonds provide concentrated flashes of light, while pear, marquise and oval stones pull the eye across the structure. The fringe breaks that surface into movement.

The Angel Fantasy Bra centres on a 75.54 carat radiant cut natural Fancy Vivid yellow diamond, suspended beneath the Jacob & Co. monogram and surrounded by white diamond fringe. Image courtesy of Jacob & Co.

The Angel in the details

The project also gave Jacob & Co.’s proprietary Angel cut its most visible platform to date.

Developed over two years and introduced as part of the house’s 40th anniversary, the patented diamond cut contains 37 precisely arranged facets.

Its name honours Jacob Arabo’s wife, Angela. The number of facets represents their 37 years of marriage at the time of its creation.

The cut was designed to preserve the elegance and yield of a rectangular diamond while improving the way light travels through it. A lozenge shaped table sits within a stepped rectangular outline with cut corners, creating a controlled, continuous brilliance rather than a series of sharp flashes.

That personal detail brings an unexpected intimacy to the Fantasy Bra. Its public identity rests on scale, value and celebrity, yet one of its defining diamond shapes began as a private tribute.

An original design sketch shows how Jacob & Co. planned the Angel Fantasy Bra’s diamond mesh, articulated fringe and central Fancy Vivid yellow diamond. Image courtesy of Jacob & Co.

More than 1,000 hours of work

Fifteen Jacob & Co. craftspeople spent more than 1,000 hours bringing the Fantasy Bra together.

Every component had to be cast, cleaned, filed and polished before assembly. Detailed layout maps guided the placement of each section, setting and strand of fringe.

The work required jewellers to think beyond the conventional boundaries of a necklace, bracelet or brooch. The piece had to support significant weight while remaining flexible. It had to retain its shape without appearing rigid. It also needed to sit against the skin without compromising the precision of its settings.

“What looks good on paper doesn’t always work the same way on the body,” Arabo said of the fitting process.

Each curve, diamond and section of gold was adjusted to balance delicacy, strength and comfort.

Victoria’s Secret chief creative officer Adam Selman said Arabo was the right partner because “he designs for the person wearing it”.

That observation reaches the heart of the project. Spectacle brought the commission to Jacob & Co., but wearability determined how it was built.

The diamond set cups of the Angel Fantasy Bra during assembly, revealing the dense pavé work and individually mounted larger stones across its articulated gold structure. Image courtesy of Jacob & Co.

A different kind of Fantasy Bra moment

Choosing Kylie Jenner placed the Fantasy Bra within a different celebrity landscape from the one that shaped its earlier history.

Previous versions became associated with Victoria’s Secret Angels including Heidi Klum, Tyra Banks, Gisele Bündchen, Adriana Lima and Alessandra Ambrosio. Jenner arrived with an audience that extends beyond fashion and into beauty, business and global social media culture.

Her appearance ensured that the Fantasy Bra continued to circulate long after its brief time on the runway.

For Jacob & Co., the collaboration offered an opportunity to place its jewellery expertise before an audience that may recognise the house through its celebrity clients and extravagant watches but know less about the craftsmanship supporting that reputation.

The Fantasy Bra became a demonstration of what the house could achieve when gem setting, engineering and performance were given equal importance.

Kylie Jenner debuts the Fantasy Bra on the Victoria’s Secret runway

The Jewels Club Take

Having worked across both the lingerie and jewellery industries, I find this collaboration particularly fascinating. The two disciplines may appear very different, but each depends on an intimate understanding of the body, proportion, fit and movement.

Lingerie must support and follow the wearer without restricting her. Jewellery must balance beauty, structure and comfort while responding to the body. The Angel Fantasy Bra brings those demands together on an extraordinary scale.

Jacob & Co. did not simply place diamonds onto an existing garment. Its artisans approached the bra as a piece of wearable engineering, creating thousands of individual components and considering how every setting would behave against the skin and under movement.

The $50 million valuation was always going to attract attention, as was the decision to place Kylie Jenner at the centre of the reveal. Yet the lasting interest lies in how two highly specialised worlds were brought together.

For me, the achievement is not simply that the Fantasy Bra contains 4,410 natural diamonds. It is that the finished piece still understands the body.

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Explore the Angel Fantasy Bra at Jacob & Co., follow Jacob & Co. on Instagram and discover the Victoria’s Secret Fashion Show.

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