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World’s most expensive diamond dress is $17.7 million

If you think that silk Louis Vuitton dress sitting in your closet is the priciest thing you’ve ever laid your eyes on, you may have a new contender.

U.K. designer Debbie Wingham has created a red diamond and gold threaded black gown that has earned the title of the world’s expensive dress – sitting at a respectable $17.7 million.

The dress features an extremely rare red diamond. In fact, only one in every hundred million diamonds have this natural red hue, reports The National.

"The thought of being able to use a red diamond, a stone that most jewellers don't even ever get to see in their lifetime, was too much of a good opportunity to pass by," Wingham tells TODAY.com.

But let’s not get ahead of ourselves. Surrounding the red diamond are the much more modest and common black and clear diamonds.

Wingham was inspired to create the dress after visiting Dubai and claims the loose gown is modeled after traditional North African and Arabic women’s clothing.

"The Arabian ladies have a certain elegance to them and the abayas have a certain movement that just captured my imagination," Wingham explains.

Calling the dress an Abayas may be a term the media has picked up on, however, it certainly isn’t a traditional looking one.

Subtlety is not this dress's strong point, as this media description makes painfully clear.

“Trimmed with red and black floral embellishments, dripping in opulent jewels including 50 two-carat black diamonds, 50 two-carat white diamonds, 1,899 black-and-white pointer diamonds and 1,000 pointer rubies, all set in (what else?) 14-karat gold,” writes Jennifer Chan for EOnline.com.

It should come as no surprise then that Wingham has designed dresses for Kate Winslet, Hilary Swank and Dita Von Teese for their red carpet extravaganzas.

And this isn’t the first time she has made headlines for her diamond heavy-weights.

Last year she created what is believed to be the world’s most expensive black diamond dress, valued at $4.4 million.

But before you go spouting off about the ethics of financial extravagance in a world stricken with poverty, know that Wingham is not selling the dress. It’s a one-of-a-kind showpiece.

That’s right, not even the uber-rich oil lords of the world will get their hands on it. Sorry!