When you walk into Atelier Minyon’s store, you feel you are transported into another country. Beautiful turkish lamps hang from the ceiling, gorgeous tiles adorned the back of the store. There’s inlaid boxes hanging on the wall in a tasful way, and inside those boxes, the most breathtaking jewelry is displayed.
Is always a treat when I met with Atelier’s designer Alp and his team, Erin and Mary, who keep the store in the latest in social media. (You can follow them on facebook, tumblr, twitter and pinterest)
And now, with their new project, their online shop, they are not only putting this amazing store in the map, they are putting it in the universe, and believe me, is worth just to even see what this extremely creative designer can pull out of his head!
I sat with Alp last week, to chat about his new project, “the deadly flowers of the world”, to get to know what inspired this designer; what I found was a great story and some amazing scientific facts!
ATF: You are second generation of jewelers in Turkey, how was growing up around jewelry?
AM: It was nothing special till I realized what I was doing . When I was growing up my concentration was completely different. The store was a must go place for me when I did not have time , that’s why I hated it .
I actually started to like it when I was told I was good. I really was doing what I was doing because simply I had to.
I am second generation , my older brother was much better than me I think but he could not get along with my father and literally he escaped to Switzerland and went into I T business.
I had to do what s left at first .
ATF: You’ve been in NY for two years, what inspired you to move here?
AM: It has actually been 3.5 years for myself and 2 years when I brought my family .
A Trunk show !!!! This is a great story in my opinion and I am so proud of it. We came to a JA NY show one summer and it was a horrible show business wise . The last day of the show a family , 2 sisters and their daughters came to our booth and bought a couple of pieces . We spoke I listened , for some reason I got attached to them . I mostly make my moves emotionally. I went back home and couple months later emailed Joy, that was one of the sisters , offered a trunk show and said I would be happy to give 10 percent of the sales to their foundation. That was what the card said , National Lipid Foundation.
She said ok. Believe it or not I had never done a trunk show in my life but I was eager to learn …
I had no idea where we were going , me and my business partner Selim.
It turned out that it was their house and the dining table was where we would display the jewelry . We looked at each other and without saying anything we started putting out the jewelry . Guess there was nothing we could change at that particular time . After 3.5 hours I felt like I was the king of the world . I took a big sip out of my Camel and looked up in the sky . Boy it felt good.
This is when I said we have to come to USA . I felt I could make it in NY..
The rest followed with beautiful scenarios …
ATF: What do you love most about designing and creating your own jewelry?
AM: I will be honest with you . I love the admiration . I love appreciation , I love the attention , I love the challenge of selling ,
I know the better I can do , more compliments will come ..
Your new collection “deadly flowers of the world” is a little different from your previous collections, what inspired you to make it?
A woman named Melissa , she looked me in the eyes and said “your line is missing a feminine touch” .
This woman is a buyer that I was trying to sell to for the last 3 years. It is not easy to take criticism you know. Especially when you think and when you are almost sure about what you are doing and why .
I always thought if you put a masculine size of jewelry on a tiny or average woman , That is SEXY! This is what I do normally and to me there is nothing else more feminine than that BUT apparently she did not think so .
You know successful buyers have a big EGO , you should never try to change them , cause YOU CAN NOT .
Bottom line she inspired me , her challenge
ATF: What’s the meaning of the “fluorescent diamonds”?
AM: Turned on DIAMONDS!!!! When approached the right way , they become AROUSED
Here is the scientific explanation ;
The UV light excites electrons in the diamond crystal, which then release this absorbed energy in the form of visible light of faint to very strong intensity. Once the light source is removed however, the fluorescence is no longer observed. If, in rare situations, light emission continues for a period after the exciting light has been turned off, the phenomenon is called phosphorescence
ATF: You do a lot of special commissions for private customers. What’s your favorite thing about this process in comparison to making a collection for a show?
AM: I think I can operate easier with the customer one on one , rather than not knowing how people would react to the collection .
I feel much more pressure when it comes to a collection.
When designing a custom piece mostly they come with pre selected components and they want me to put them together . The key point in this is to make them talk as freely and detailed as possible. The more they talk the more you can pick up what they really want . Listening is vital.
ATF: What is your design process?
AM: It is a lot of research . Everyone would be concentrating on different details of a bird lets say . My pick of that detail takes time and how to execute that detail, how to bring it up .
ATF: Where you see your brand going in the years to come?
AM: We will be the best !!! - pause - Simply…
