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Bensimon Create A $10,000 Pointe Shoe Fit For A Ballerina Princess

By Jenna Woods

Posted on July 3, 2015

Bensimon have brought every little girl’s dream to life with the creation of their diamond encrusted Pointe Shoe, said to be worth well over $10,000, as a of part Create 2015.

Bensimon have brought every little girl’s dream to life with the creation of their diamond encrusted Pointe Shoe, said to be worth well over $10,000, as a part of Create 2015.

When Albert Bensimon came to his team with the idea of contributing their take on the Pointe Shoe as a part of the Create project, which has already seen the likes of names such as Alice McCall, Steven Khalil, Sass and Bide, and even Adelaide’s very own Paolo Sebastian (he has designed two), they obviously jumped at the golden opportunity!

With the chance to be as creative as they could imagine, the three designers, Albert himself, Tanya Hamersfeld (Nee Bensimon) and Hollie Sweet, used the idea of the femininity, grace and elegance that ballet encapsulates to begin their design. Not only this, but the three of them had recently been on a trip to Paris and they were inspired by the ‘beautiful domes and strong architecture’ which they also decided to feature within their design.

Continuing on the Paris theme, they felt that the harlequin pattern that appears in the structure of the Eiffel Tower, so perfectly resembles the ribbons used to tie up a Point Shoe. With this in mind, the designers set out to incorporate all of these ideas into their shoe.

The shoe is encrusted with faceted natural pink aquamarines, diamonds, sapphires, white topaz, silver, god, pearls, rhinestones, natural cabochon opal, agate, hand carved cameos, hand carved mother of pearl, moonstones and… Oh no, that’s all! Just a cheeky $10,000 plus worth of precious stones… The shoe is bejewelled the whole way around and the designers say that it only felt natural to give it a set of wings made of Italian silver and rose gold because, well, why not?

The Create project was formed by now committee member, Rachel Gelis, and interior designer, Michelle Leslie. From an idea that Australian designers could be invited to transform a satin Pointe Shoe which could then be mounted and enclosed in a delicate glass cloche to be viewed as art, now sees 37 beautiful Pointe Shoes from some of Australia’s leading designers.

The amazing designs will be revealed at The Advertiser Foundation and Australian Ballet Gala Function, where they will be available for auction. The Gala Luncheon is to be held on Tuesday 7th July 2015, in the Ballroom at the Hilton Hotel at 12 noon.