Julien Arpels (1884 – April 8, 1964) was a

French American French Americans or Franco-Americans (french: Franco-Américains), are citizens or nationals of the United States who identify themselves with having full or partial French or French-Canadian heritage, ethnicity and/or ancestral ties. They ...

businessman who was the heir to the luxury jeweler

Van Cleef & Arpels Van Cleef & Arpels is a French high-end luxury jewelry company. It was founded in 1896 by the Dutch diamond-cutter Alfred Van Cleef and his father-in-law Salomon Arpels in Paris. Their pieces often feature flowers, animals, and fairies, and hav ...

. He served as president of the firm during the early 20th century and was responsible for its international expansion.

Biography

Arpels was born in

Marseille Marseille ( , , ; also spelled in English as Marseilles; oc, Marselha ) is the prefecture of the French department of Bouches-du-Rhône and capital of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region. Situated in the camargue region of southern Fra ...

, France. He was the son of Leon Salomon Arpels, who founded

with his son-in-law, Alfred Van Cleef, who was a Dutch diamond-cutter. After his father's death, Arpels joined his brother, Charles Arpels, and Van Cleef to open a boutique store at 22 Place Vendome, in Paris. During the 1920s, American tourists urged the firm to open a New York branch, and Julien was tasked with opening a store in

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...

. Its first New York location opened on, and closed soon after, October 24, 1929, the day of the Wall Street crash. Nonetheless, it reopened with much success after participating in the

1939 World's fair The 1939–40 New York World's Fair was a world's fair held at Flushing Meadows–Corona Park in Queens, New York, United States. It was the second-most expensive American world's fair of all time, exceeded only by St. Louis's Louisiana Purcha ...

in New York, and the store moved from a small showroom in

Rockefeller Center Rockefeller Center is a large complex consisting of 19 commercial buildings covering between 48th Street and 51st Street in Midtown Manhattan, New York City. The 14 original Art Deco buildings, commissioned by the Rockefeller family, span th ...

to its present location at 744 Fifth Avenue in the 1940s. With the outbreak of

World War II World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...

, Julien and his family were forced to leave

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a subcontinent of Eurasia and it is located entirel ...

because of their

Jewish Jews ( he, יְהוּדִים, , ) or Jewish people are an ethnoreligious group and nation originating from the Israelites Israelite origins and kingdom: "The first act in the long drama of Jewish history is the age of the Israelites""The ...

lineage. Julien also sent his son, Claude, to

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of high ...

so that he would be better prepared to deal with the American clientele. At the firm, Arpels was in charge of the business and managerial end of the firm, while his brother,

Louis Arpels Louis Arpels (1886-1976) was a Dutch/French jeweler. In 1906, Alfred Van Cleef (1873-1938) established Van Cleef & Arpels, a jewellery business in Paris, with his two brothers-in-law, Charles Arpels (1880-1951) and Julien Arpels (1884-1964). ...

, was in charge of sales. His children, Claude, Jacques and Pierre joined the company's operations during the 1930s and took over its operations. Claude headed the jeweler's American operations, while Jacques Arpels became the chief executive. In 1945, he received the

Legion of Honour The National Order of the Legion of Honour (french: Ordre national de la Légion d'honneur), formerly the Royal Order of the Legion of Honour ('), is the highest French order of merit, both military and civil. Established in 1802 by Napoleon ...

in Washington, D.C. from French Ambassador

Henri Bonnet Henri Bonnet (26 May 1888 Châteauponsac ( Haute-Vienne) – 25 October 1978 Paris) was a French politician, diplomat, and French ambassador to the United States from 1944 to 1954. The son of J. Th. and Marie Thérèse (Lascoux) Bonnet; he was ...

. On April 8, 1964, Arpels died in his apartment at the

Hampshire House Hampshire House is an apartment building and hotel located at 150 Central Park South in Manhattan, New York City, on the southern edge of Central Park between Sixth and Seventh Avenues. It contains 155 apartments on 36 floors. History Origi ...

. He was 79 years old.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Arpels, Julien 1884 births 1964 deaths French jewellers People from Marseille Businesspeople from Marseille Van Cleef & Arpels French emigrants to the United States