The woman behind the million dollar bride

In the world of the rich and famous, Debbie Wingham is a star. The 36-year-old London-based designer has been the brains behind some of the world's most expensive objects of desire - a shoe valued at 11.5 million pounds, a black diamond dress priced at 3.5 million pounds, the world's most expensive, diamond-encrusted cake that cost 48.5 million pounds and a red diamond abaya that cost 11.7 million pounds. Just this week, she unveiled a life-size, 120-kg cake, at the BRIDE show in Dubai, where her creation will be on display till February 10. Modelled on a traditional Arabic bride, the cake is dotted with five white diamonds, each worth $200,000, making it - quite literally - 'The Million Dollar Bride'.
Her premium resume begs a basic question - why make the most expensive things in the world? As she begins to tell her story, that query turns into a rhetorical - why not? She does not hide the fact that the idea stemmed from a desire to stand out after living in relative anonymity during her stint as a designer. "Fashion has always been my first love and I knew I wanted to be a designer. Once I entered the profession, I got a chance to work with top celebrities like Kate Winslet, Katy Perry and Hilary Swank, among others. I used to design special finale gowns, which were often one of a kind and I made them from beginning to end. But I worked with a disclaimer. Unfortunately, in the big fashion houses that we all adore, we see one person and begin to imagine that it's their idea, their work. But it's actually a lot of small guys like me who do a lot of work but never get any credit for it. As a designer, you're as important as the dress you're making," says Debbie.
Dissatisfaction can be a great asset for a creative professional. In Debbie's case, it meant creating things that could help "me, Debbie Wingham" stand out. And what better way of doing that than creating the costliest, most premium objects of desire. Five years ago, as Debbie set out to think outside the box, an idea took root. Debbie combined her fetish for black dresses with a black diamond ring her husband had gifted her. The result was the black diamond dress that she created after finding a company that could loan her black diamonds. The dress had 50 black diamonds - "25 on the peplum, 25 framing the shoulders and a centre piece of five carat black diamonds that frame the bustier, while the rest of the gown had 1,500 white pointer diamonds along with fine beading and a delicate chain mail detail".
"I took the dress and showed it in different countries. It was an instant hit," recalls Debbie. By the time the dress arrived in the UAE, Debbie had already received a call from one of her clients to do something similar with red diamonds. "She said her son had collected beautiful red diamonds and offered to loan them to me." And that's how she made her second most expensive item - the red diamond abaya.
Today, Debbie's premium cakes are as much a talking point as some of her other 'most expensive' creations. Though not a trained cake artist, she forayed into the business two-and-a-half years ago, and has since made the world's most expensive cake, which took her nearly 1,100 hours. Designed as a runway with models sashaying on the ramp, the cake had 120 kg of fondant icing and weighed 450 kg. It was one of her UAE-based clients who had commissioned the cake. Initially, Debbie had apprehensions about putting diamonds on the cake since it could make someone choke. "A few weeks before the cake was due for delivery, the family jeweller called me and said, 'You aren't a diamond girl, are you?' I knew where he was getting at and I said I don't want anyone to swallow a diamond. But he said, 'Come on, it's going to be great.' In the end, the cake became a platform to gift diamonds. However, as people ate the cake, we had to account for each diamond. It was a very special project for me."
The legend of her elaborate and delicious cakes has, over the years, reached a new pinnacle with the likes of Justin Bieber and Drake commissioning Debbie to make cakes for them. As the lore goes, while touring the UK recently, Bieber's team got in touch with Debbie to make a special cake for an after-party. "Apparently, once he got into the dressing room, he refused to take the cake out for anyone else. He left by a private jet the next day and I was told that he took the cake with him. I have had my cakes being taken by private jets before, but this one was a funny story," she says, adding that belonging to a lower demographic, lower income group in the UK means she treats her celebrity and non-celebrity clients alike.
It is certainly an interesting space to find oneself in - conceptualising and creating the world's costliest items. But do world's most expensive things be also just as beautiful artistically? Some of Debbie's works have resulted from private orders, which, in essence, means that she works with a certain brief from the client. "I think it's as much a desire to possess the most expensive thing as it is about art. It's quite tricky to be original these days. I think my clients strive for individuality as well as something that could make for a great showpiece. So, I think it's a good balance. For me, art is something that the more you look at it, the more you notice something different. Creativity is the most important thing, so if someone gives me very specific directions, it hinders my work. Mostly, though, I hold my own."
Growing up watching their mum make some of the most gorgeous and elaborate cakes, among other things, Debbie's daughters often demand, albeit light-heartedly, that similar sweet treats be made for them. "My daughter, who is only six years old, saw me make this huge cake and her birthday was two weeks later. She told me, 'Mum, that's a good cake. We should have it.' I told her it's just four of us and that's for 40 people. In the end, I had to make this enormous cake for her just because she's too young to understand why mummy would make such elaborate cakes." For now, though, it's Belgian chocolate that's trending in the Wingham household!
anamika@khaleejtimes.com