In 1976, a young couple left their homeland of Turkey for the United States. The man, John Apelian, was a keen student of the technical arts, a leather tanner, a former Turkish jeweler, and a hobbyist painter and gardener. John didn’t know it yet, but this development of coinciding interests in the concrete, practical world of industries like leather tanning alongside romantic and artistic endeavors like oil painting and gardening would completely reshape the trajectory of his life. In 1976, however, John simply wanted to open his own jewelry repair shop with the help of his loving wife, Hilda. Once John and Hilda had settled into their new life in the United States, however, John found the time to dedicate himself to his dream of creating his own jewelry designs. In his wonderfully creative and delightfully inventive brain, John began to dream of jewelry designs that combined the reliable qualities of the industries he grew up around with the spectacular beauty of his beloved gardens. 15 years later, in 1991, all of his hard work came to fruition and he established his own company, which was at first called DiLaro. During these early years, John opted for the extraordinary, diverging from new designers’ typical “playing it safe” strategy for their first collections. With DiLaro, John skyrocketed to the top of the fine jewelry world, as his unique perspective and affinity for antique jewelry—gleaned during his many years of repairing antique pieces—allowed him to bring historical jewelry design into the modern world. John chose the path less traveled, and came out with a line of rose-cut jewelry, reviving this antique style of cutting gemstones and rejuvenating it by pairing it with fresh, modern settings. John Apelian, from his very first collection, had made himself a name in the fine jewelry world, and he realized that he wanted that name more firmly attached to his work. “Since I’m proud of what I do,” he stated, “I want my name to be known. This way I can personally stand behind my merchandise.” In 2006, the brand officially adopted the moniker of John Apel, tying the jeweler’s enchanting designs even more intimately to the John Apelian himself.
Despite reflecting the founder’s unique interests and special view of the world, however, jewelry by John Apel is so much more than a portrait of the man who designed it. Every piece of John Apel jewelry, from its inception as a small inkling to its final display in a jewelry store, is shaped by a vision of the women who will wear it. Wearability, for John Apel jewelry, is equally important as design inspiration, because, above all, as John Apelian puts it: “My challenge is to create pieces that enhance a woman’s beauty, not overpower it.” In the magical world of John Apel, beauty, industry, comfort, color, style, and ethereality meet in the flawless crafting of feminine, nature-inspired jewelry.
By and large, John Apel's pieces value versatility and wearability above all else; what this means in terms of design features is that these pieces are interesting, unique, and elegant enough to be worn on formal occasions while being sleek and classic enough to be worn day-to-day. John Apel jewelry is limited by neither place nor time, which makes it absolutely perfect for what we at Deutsch like to call “jewelry box essentials”.
Some pieces, like the John Apel Rose Cut Diamond Necklace, play on the idea of staple jewelry pieces like a diamond necklace or a universally flattering rose gold chain. What is key to making them different, though, is that for John Apel, a staple is never something quite that simple—it must be invigorated, elevated, transformed. This is the case with the Rose Cut Diamond Necklace, which takes the idea of an essential design like a simple chain necklace adorned by a single diamond flower pendant and modernizes it, alchemically altering the entire spirit of the piece. Instead of using a straightforward floral pattern, John Apel takes the abstract route, laying out three petals of his modernized flowers in a minimalist design. Rather than having a single pendant be the vertical focal point of the piece, John Apel spreads the design out horizontally, drawing equal attention to 5 evenly spaced flower motifs. Rather than choose a traditional round-cut diamond or even a pavé diamond-studded mold, John Apel returns to his interest in antique jewelry design, selecting 1.67 cts of rose-cut diamonds to create his minimalist flowers. The very nature of a rose-cut diamond, which features a flat bottom, and a myriad of tiny triangular facets across the top that swirl like the petals of a rose, results in a larger and more open appearance compared to brilliant-cut diamonds. Thus, the diamonds in this minimalist necklace glint in a billowy, romantic fashion rather than an intense, stark one. The romance of the rose-cut diamonds is only amplified by the 18k rose gold setting, which encourages a soft glimmer that is much truer to the pure beauty of flowers found in nature…or within the beloved gardens of John Apelian himself.
The idea of pushing the boundaries of what constitutes “jewelry essentials” continues in many other John Apel pieces. For example, in the John Apel Diamond Snake Ring, the designer plays with the concept of the classic wrap ring design. This time, however, the meaning is taken much more literally. This snake ring transforms the curves of fine silver into a creeping reptile, coiled dangerously around the wearer’s finger. 1.08 cts of tiny pavé diamonds adorn the snake’s body like the world’s most glamorous scales, coming to a point at the head of the animal, where the angles of the diamond’s prongs imitate the nose slits of a snake. The call of the wild is echoing—are you going to answer?