Kwiat Diamonds on Display in a New Fashion

As October nears the end, the upcoming events of the season come to mind such as Thanksgiving.  However, something else happens in November - the Country Music Awards. As the country music industry grows its own special anticipation of the biggest event in their entertainment calendar, looking back to past CMA awards shows brings up the fond memory of newcomer singer and American Idol winner of Season 4 (at the beginning of 2005) Carrie Underwood. While she is a fabulous pop country singer in her own right, Carrie Underwood stands out because the amazing diamond dress she wore to the 2006 CMA awards show.

The custom-designed gown was a design partnership between Kwiat Diamonds and fashion designer David Rodriquez created exclusively for her. Interesting to note is that Kwiat Diamonds, celebrating their 100th birthday, and Underwood's favorite designer approached her to create the one-of-kind diamond dress. Yes, not just a custom gown but a custom diamond gown. Her gray dress featured 800 simply brilliant Kwiat diamonds (108 carats) on the strap valued at about $850,000. The Kwiat-Rodriguez diamond dress was created with the highest quality Kwiat diamonds in a "tasteful and refined manner." The dress is simply elegant with a style that matches that of both Carrie Underwood and Kwiat. This was a design partnership made in diamond heaven.

This was not first time Kwiat dressed an Idol star in diamonds. Kwiat has been adorning rising American Idol stars in their dazzling and sparkling diamonds for years now. Some former Kwiat-wearing Idols stars have been Jordin Sparks (winner, season 6), Melinda Doolitte (finalist, season 6), Lakisha Jones (finalist, Season 6), Taylor Hicks (winner, Season 5), Katherine McPhee and the long-running host of the show, Ryan Seacrest.

In addition, the three of them decided to auction the diamond dress to two charities. A portion of the proceeds went to Underwood's charity of choice, The Human Society of the United States for the Rural Area Veterinary Services Program and Kwiat's charity of choice, The Make-A-Wish Foundation. In true Web 2.0 fashion, the auction was conducted online for a two week period. Unfortunately, much investigating did not lead to finding out the final auction price of the amazing Kwiat-Rodriguez diamond dress.