Ben Baller bemoaned one piece of jewelry he never capitalized on during his career: the polycarbonate Jesus pieces he made for Ye, formerly known as Kanye West, for his now-defunct clothing line, Pastelle.
The jeweler took to X on Friday, writing, “Who remembers these polycarbonate Jesus Pieces I made for @kanyewest and #Pastelle 15 years ago? SMH. Big bag fumble. We coulda crushed the game with these!! We were set to make porcelain and jade ones too.”
He included two photos and one video of the chain. The first picture shows Ye wearing a black version of the Jesus piece with Amber Rose, and in the second image, Rose is seen wearing the red version.
In the clip, Baller showed off the detailing on the front of the red polycarbonate Jesus piece, and the brass backing. “There ain’t a lot of things that I’ve been upset about in my life, in my career as a jeweler,” he said in the background. “This is probably one of the biggest failures of a $100 million bag, straight up.
“This right here could have made Pastelle, me, Kanye a $100 million. I’m still sick about this shit. And I’m sure if somebody would fuckin’ offer me, I don’t know, $10,000, $20,000 for this thing, I would never fuckin’ sell it. This is just disappointing.”
Pastelle surfaced in the late 2000s and it was poised for greatness, particularly because of the many famous hands involved. In addition to Baller, Virgil Abloh, Don C, and KAWS were involved, among others.
In 2018, Baller spoke with Complex about Pastelle and Ye’s ideas behind the Jesus piece.
“Ye had some really super-dope ideas,” Baller said. “He wanted to make a [Jesus piece] in porcelain and in jade. He wanted to make some really cool shit. If a jeweler now were to make Jesus pieces in jade it would change the game. And remember, this was almost 10 years ago.”
Baller also described Pastelle as a “cross between that real golden era of Polo, a simpler A Bathing Ape, and a little bit of A.P.C.”
