Fashion

A Man Celebrated His Birthday With A Golden Shirt

by Christine Cauthen

What's the next step in luxury accessories if gold chains and bracelets are old news to you? Why, gold clothing of course! According to BuzzFeed, a wealthy textile company owner named Pankaj Parakh bought a shirt made of 18-22 carat gold to celebrate his 45th birthday. As you do.

The shirt weighed about 4 kg, which is the equivalent of almost 9 pounds. If nothing else, I suppose a gold shirt would be good for upper body strength. I sure hope the shirt brings joy to its new owner, because the other than the outrageous price tag ($170,305), it also took 20 people four months to sew.

My first question when reading about Parakh's extravagant gift was, "Why?" Why would anyone want a shirt that is literally made out of gold? Not gold in color, gold in material. I love gold as much as the next person (wow, that was a weird sentence to type), but I can't say the piece is particularly fashionable — definitely not worth the ridiculous price tag and surely awkward wearability. He said in an interview with IANS, an Indian news source, that he had always been fascinated by gold. He says his extended family thinks he's strange for his extreme obsession with gold, but his close family has accepted it as a part of him. So we've got ourselves a little IRL King Midas on our hands! He justifies this purchase with the fact that he volunteers for "at least a week each year" at a hospital that treats polio patients in India. I'm not sure if that quite makes up for such an unneccesary gift, but A for effort, sir. I guess you could say it was his golden birthday! (Ok, I'm sorry about that one.)

Gold shirts not the luxury item for you? Here are some other ridiculous items made of gold that you probably don't need, but money can buy you.

1. Golden Pacifier

For the baby that needs bribes in the form of gold and diamonds in order to stop crying.

2. Golden iPhone

Because a gold colored iPhone isn't good enough for true Au fanatics.

3. Golden Toilet

For when you want to feel fancy even in your most human of moments.

4. Golden Facial

Gold may be bad for your pocket, but it's good for your skin or your ego or something.

5. Golden Earbuds

Hopefully the pesky ear pieces don't pop off of this 18-carat gold pair of earbuds. Talk about luxury listening.

6. Golden Casket

So that you can truly go out in style.