Virgin Atlantic has partnered with Swarovski to trademark our most treasured nocturnal activity - sleep. The airline has joined forces with the crystal supplier and created the ultimate on board accessory – a beautiful eyeshade worth £2,500 - designed to give passengers The Most Expensive Night’s Sleep Ever™

Five limited edition eyeshades have been created to mark the launch of new amenity kits which are now appearing on board all Virgin Atlantic flights.  The eyeshades feature stunning sunglasses designs – from the classic Wayfarer to the iconic shutter shade made famous by Kanye West.

Each eyeshade features thousands of tiny red, white and blue crystals, all applied by hand by artist Saima Anwar - who also creates crystal eye lashes for celebrities such as Katy Perry.  It took 10 hours per eye shade to create each money-can’t-buy design, made with 3,000 Swarovski Elements.

Luke Miles, Head of Design for Virgin Atlantic said: “Getting a good night’s sleep on board a long haul flight is priceless to our passengers and our iconic red eyeshades have been helping flyers rest for the past 28 years. To celebrate our new amenity kits we wanted to create something unique and demonstrate just how valuable it is to get some shut eye.”

Each set of eyeshades will be hidden on flights around the globe – giving five lucky passengers the chance to open their amenity kit and find the exclusive crystal-adorned shades inside.

“Virgin Atlantic has always been known as the cool, cutting-edge airline so we chose the iconic sunglasses designs for our eyeshades to reflect this. We have a long standing relationship with Swarovski and are thrilled with how Saima has taken our designs and given them a very unique twist;” added Luke Miles.

Virgin Atlantic’s Upper Class cabin has featured Swarovski crystals on the cabin walls since the launch of the Upper Class Suite in 2003 and most recently unveiled a bespoke crystal curtain adorned with over 1,000 Swarovski Elements in the revamped suite aboard A330 aircraft.

From 1st September, passengers travelling in economy will receive a new amenity kit containing eyeshades featuring one of six fabulous sunglasses designs, including a pair of heart shaped sunnies, John Lennon-esque circular specs and some 80s retro shades.