If you are rich and afraid of everyone, come and meet Miguel Caballero from Colombia. He will protect you.
LONDON: If you are rich and afraid of everyone, come and meet Miguel Caballero from Colombia. He will protect you.
Caballero is the world's only maker of bulletproof designer clothes and is opening a store in Harrod's of London next week. His collection, which includes suede jackets, blazers and raincoats, arrives amid a big increase in sales of personal security products aimed at Russian oligarchs, Arab sheikhs and city financiers.
Caballero's business is worth 4.5 million pounds annually. And his customers include Prince Felipe of Spain, King Abdullah of Jordan, actor Stephen Seagal and Hugo Chávez, the president of Venezuela.
Richie rich Britons can choose from three levels of protections Caballero offers. The minimum is protection from hand guns and the maximum, from automatic weapons. He does not use Kevlar, but will not share the secret of the composition of the lining.
Caballero began making bespoke protective wear during his native Colombia's civil war 15 years ago. He is looking for new outlets and believes that London's wealthy are a largely untapped market.
"Many companies make bulletproof vests, but nobody else does bulletproof fashion," he says.
Protection gear has been the fad of the rich in Britain for half a decade now. Conventional body armour sales have gone up from 200,000 pounds to 1.2 million pounds today. Demand for bodyguards is also on the rise and many of the rich travel in armoured vehicles.
Boris Berezovsky, the London-based Russian billionaire, travels with his bodyguards in a convoy of identical armoured Mercedes. Roman Abramovich, the Russian billionaire owner of Chelsea FC, has one of the biggest private security operations in the world.
And if all other security fails, there is always the panic room - a secure room with fitted steel-plated walls and reinforced doors where a family can find refuge should an intruder make it into the house. The rooms are increasingly popular among Premiership footballers, celebrities and businessmen who travel a lot, according to a security consultant.
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