Mayfair’s First Black Jeweler: Chiefer Appiah Takes Up Space

Berkeley Street in London’s Mayfair — an affluent district for shopping and fine dining — has a newcomer, Chiefer Jewellery, joining its neighbors such as Novikov Restaurant & Bar, 1 Hotel Mayfair and Rolls-Royce Motor Cars’ London showroom.

Chiefer Jewellery is a bespoke jewelry and watches boutique that caters to the 5 percent started by former artist manager in the music industry Chiefer Appiah three years ago as a means to get creative.

“I was just making pieces for myself and I would find jewelers that would take bespoke orders. I just wanted to stand out because everybody had the same pieces in my friendship group,” Appiah said.

He would make frequent trips to Hatton Gardens, London’s jewelry and diamond quarter, with sketches he had made on paper detailing every nuance to the jewelers he was visiting.

Appiah would show his ideas to more than a dozen jewelers in the area to compare price points.

“After a year, I knew all of them. They knew me as ‘the kid who asks too many questions,’” he recalled.

Once his commissions started coming to life, Appiah’s friends would question where he bought his new bling from, upon which he would offer to sell them his own pieces to make a profit and for him to have new opportunities to make more bespoke pieces.

“This was about 15 years ago when 3,000 pounds got you a lot and considering the pieces that I was making, they weren’t gigantic, they were small pieces that you could wear everyday to dress up and down,” he said.

With a store set up in Mayfair in the last year, the focus of the business is on the bigger, glitzier pieces that his clients of musicians, C-suite executives and athletes come in for, including Anthony Joshua, Damson Idris and members from the band Gorillaz.

Rolex, Patek Philippe, Audemars Piguet, Richard Mille, Cartier and F. P. Journe watches are the key brands on display at Chiefer Jewellery, with prices ranging from 6,000 pounds for resale of a classic Rolex Oyster; a Cartier Santos Skeleton covered in diamonds for 54,000 pounds, up to a Patek Philippe Nautilus 5980 rose gold number priced at 197,000 pounds.

Appiah has started designing and selling a range of bracelets called the Nya only available in store with prices starting at 1,500 pounds. 

The bracelet features a design that takes after the curve of the letter C, resembling the brand’s logo with a trim of diamonds, ready in six different colors: charcoal gray, baby blue, soft pink, red, brown and orange.

“Eventually we’ll go online; however, I don’t want to overpopulate because that’s currently my bestseller and I’m trying to hold off production on them,” said Appiah, who before settling into the space at Berkeley Street had a small office and atelier in Mayfair to help build his business.

Taking up space in Mayfair’s predominantly homogenous streets means more than just success to Appiah, a Black British man.

“It means the world to me to break boundaries for Black jewelers coming into the city to play where the big houses play. It’s not about me, it’s about the next generation, which is what I am really passionate about — nurturing and championing future creatives and designers,” he said.

He added that the jewelry industry is still behind in terms of diversity, but he’s optimistic about “making waves” and for the industry to welcome more voices, “not just of Black designers, but every designer with a god given talent to have the opportunity to show the world what they have to offer.”