What you are paying for when you buy crystal

La Reina costs more than everything else combined. Here is exactly where that money goes.

It is hours, not materials

The crystal in a chain bralette is not the expensive part. The expensive part is that somebody sits with it for the better part of two days, setting stones into a shaped mesh one at a time, checking the line every few rows because a single stone set half a degree off will throw the whole run out by the time it reaches the edge.

Machine set crystal exists and it is much cheaper. It also sits flat and dead, because the whole point of a prong is that it lifts the stone off the backing and lets light get underneath it.

Why the fringe is cut unevenly

On Diabla the fringe is cut to staggered lengths rather than a straight line. A straight fringe hangs like a curtain and moves as one solid block. Staggered lengths break it up so each strand swings on its own timing, which is why it keeps moving for a half second after you have stopped.

That is a deliberate choice that costs more to make and it is the difference between the piece looking alive and looking like a costume.