Before this year's World Cup began, it was a safe bet that few people outside South Africa had ever heard of a vuvuzela, let alone a gold-and-diamond-decked one.

But a Russian businessman approached Austrian jeweler Klemens Pointner about gilding and bejeweling one of the long plastic horns for a business contact who'd come down with World Cup Fever.  Pointner told his client that while he could set the horn with as many diamonds as he wanted, there were few vuvuzelas to be had in Austria.

The jeweler wound up ordering a vuvuzela from South Africa and set to work feverishly, covering the £2 piece of plastic with white gold and gems – including a one-carat diamond.

Pointer said he had to work fast, so the client's acquaintance could trumpet the diamond-decorated horn at the World Cup final, but enjoyed making the piece.

The bill? With the gold and the diamonds, as well as the shipping, the vuvuzela cost close to £20,000.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, diamond-studded stilettos are dazzling fashionistas.

Paul Simon's song might have talked about the girl with diamonds on the soles of her shoes, but Simon has nothing on Christopher Michael Shellis, the award-winning Birmingham designer and creator of the Eternal Diamond Stiletto.

How often do you find a piece of jewelry you can walk in? Eternal Diamond Stilettos are sure to be the next must-have red carpet accessory. The elegant jewel-encrusted heels are handcrafted from pure gold and set with 2,200 diamonds, all brilliant cut. The diamond bling on these babies weighs in at a whopping 30 carats!

If the sparkle of thousands of diamonds weren't enough to knock you off your bejeweled feet, the Eternal Diamond Stilettos also feature a lovely, elegant stamen fluted heel, a design inspired by the stamen of a lily.

These bejeweled shoes – should we call them "jewelry shoes," or perhaps "shoewls"? – are painstakingly handcrafted by an elite team of jewelers at Shellis's House of Borgezie.
Eternal Diamond Stilettos will cost you £100,000 per pair (a mere £50,000 per foot).

But rest assured, even as footwear, a diamond is forever – these awe-inspiring diamond-encrusted party shoes come with a 1,000-year guarantee.

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