October 14, 2024 |
“I started off selling from Costa Coffee,” says jeweller Chiefer Appiah. He’s talking to me from the lower floor of his lavish, gold-dripped Mayfair store. Meeting with clients in the café chain, “I never used to show my hands on Instagram; I used to wear a glove to model the jewellery.”
From left: Chiefer Appiah and the kintetic watch winder display he designed for his Mayfair jewellery boutique, Royal Oak Double Balance Wheel Open worked watch in 18k white gold by Audemars Piguet Royal Oak Concept ‘Black Panther’ Flying Tourbillon watch by Audemars Piguet
“When people would turn up, they’d realise I’m Black and start asking me funny questions like, ‘Is the jewellery ethical?’ Or, ‘Do they have certificates?’”
We’re sitting downstairs in a plush private room. There’s a big flat-screen on the wall, with only glass separating it from the office, so the vibe is bottle service lounge meets head coach trophy room. A stocked bar is under the stairs, with rows of golden Armand De Brignac champagne bottles on display. A wall of Black excellence peers out from above the office desk, with framed pictures of history-making champions like Anthony Joshua (a friend and regular client) and Michael Jordan (“the first dark-skinned man I saw on TV”). There’s Malcolm X, Maya Angelou, Jay-Z. They’re the barrier-breakers he looks up to and, having overcome so many obstacles to open the first Black jewellery store in Mayfair, it’s a reminder that Appiah is in good company.
Opening nearly two years ago, his store has quickly become a favourite of the Black beau monde (his 100,000 followers number everyone from the President of Ghana and hot rappers like Sexyy Red to mega-streamer IShowSpeed) along with a diverse mix of executives and professionals. From hedge-fund managers and bankers to retired lawyers and doctors, all ages and walks of life enter his shop looking to commission pieces and buy gifts.
From left: Chiefer’s wall of Black excellence, (worn) wraparound bracelet in 18k white gold and diamonds, ring in 18k yellow two tone, yellow diamonds and white diamond ring, ring (held) in 18k white gold and pink diamond ring
“It took the industry a while to embrace what street culture and streetwear actually do for fashion,” he says, listing the Virgils and Pharrells that got it “popping – but the jewellery industry hasn’t got that yet”. Born in Tottenham to Ghanaian parents, he’s the youngest of six boys. At 42 (a year older than Skepta, plus three up from Dizzee Rascal), Appiah is just about old enough to remember how long it took for the culture to break through.
Starting in music, he used to manage his rapper cousin, Sway. At that time, in the UK, “it was not like what it is now… there was no industry. The only way of blowing up was in America and [at that time] it’d never happened.” Still, they dreamed big and ended up getting co-signs from Akon, Lupe Fiasco and Pharrell; starting a record label, Dcypha Productions and signing KSI. They toured the country. A single hit the Top 40, “a big deal”, he says, when you’re independent. “I loved it. But I wasn’t the creator, Sway was. And I’m such a creative: I wanted something to create myself.”
Then, when Appiah hit 30, he lost his right eye. A consequence of sickle cell anaemia, he quickly made a trade. “I remember saying to God: ‘If you let me keep my good eye, I will not waste my talents. I will stop messing about and go and do this jewellery thing.’ He let me keep my one eye. I went to Hatton Garden and, yeah, 10 years later…”
When he first moved into this new central London base, he had a creative block. His ideas dried up and he decided to focus on renovating the store instead. When his idea for a mirrored ceiling didn’t work out, he suddenly said to himself: “You’re in Mayfair. You’re next to the Maddox Gallery. This could be your first art installation.”
Cuban chains in rose gold and diamonds, ranging from 37k to 94k diamonds
Designing the ceiling to have a golden stream of mixed-size bubbly balls run through, he stuck each one up himself. Looking at the results proudly, he realised he “needed to make a ring out of this”.
What he made reminded him of the huge cocktail rings his mother wore. She got him into jewellery – as her youngest child, she’d always ask him to bring over her jewellery for special events and funerals. “She doesn’t have no daughters: I’m trying on everything. I know what 18-karat gold is, I know what 22-karat gold is. She had a big love and passion for jewellery and I just fell in love with it through there,” he says with a smile. He named the new ring design Flora, after her. “Imagine, two weeks after telling her [the name], the first lady of my country [Ghana’s Rebecca Akufo-Addo] commissioned me to make one for her.” Sadly, his mother passed before she could wear one herself. “But before they closed the coffin, I said, “I need to put something in’.”
It’s part of a collection he designed that is named after powerful women – from his Nya bracelet, named after Nana Yaa Asantewaa – the warrior queen who led the Ashanti Empire (modern-day Ghana) and defeated the British army – to his design assistant Stella, who has played a “big role” in his career. They are odes. “I feel like all my strength comes from my mother. It centres me to wear them.” Often his highest seller, the Flora ring is constantly sold out and the Nya bracelet is one of the most popular purchases – he wears an orange one on his wrist today, complementing his all-brown outfit, the same colour he has made the showroom uniform. Full of eye-popping, dazzling designs, his inventions extend beyond jewellery. As you enter the showroom, a futuristic display hypnotically swirls and waves around his emblematic ‘C’ logo (which has become the staple insignia on his bracelets, rings and necklaces).
From left: Appiah outside his Mayfair boutique, a wall of rare and collectable timepieces
It is the world’s first kinetic watch-winder and, visually, the kind of thing you might otherwise see in fantasy movies – the bit where solving a riddle opens the locks to a billionaire scientist’s safe or something. It keeps tens of shimmering watches ticking: among them Rolexes, Cartiers, Pateks and Audemars Piguets – one, with a royal-purple strap, is a rare Marvel collaboration piece for Black Panther that I later read sells for a quarter of a million pounds.
This is just the start. “I came in today and told my team I want to make a Cuban link chain with kinetic movement,” says Appiah, explaining that the key to his success is that he only keeps people around him who are capable of dreaming as big as him. The moment he came up with his logo, he could see it on clothes, serviettes, drinks, decanters, cars, you name it.
He works with future exhibitions of his designs in his mind’s eye and is looking to the next generation. He’s already helped former gang members off the streets of his area and into jewellery. “Time is of the essence. I’m not playing. Because, God forbid, I wake up and lose my other eye, at least I know I created everything. You gotta live like there’s no tomorrow.” He knows better than anyone that the clock is always ticking.
A watch from the wall of rare and collectable timepieces
Photography by Anna Stokland. 10 Men Issue 60 – ECCENTRIC, FANTASY, ROMANCE – is out now. Order your copy here.
CHIEFER APPIAH: MOST EXCELLENT
