Pennsylvania – Paul Morelli has built his 30-year career as one of America’s pre-eminent jewelry designers on his reputation of creating modern designs with profound attention to detail and delicacy. A master at working in diamonds and gold, Morelli is most noted for his Diamonds on a Wire Collection. Working with thin strands of white and yellow gold wire, Morelli stations diamonds strategically as if the gemstones were “floating on air”.
The Philadelphia-based Morelli was born to the world of design. His father was a well-known New York theater and opera costume designer, operating out of a workshop on Walnut Street in Philadelphia. As a boy, Morelli was immersed in the family business, and after pursuing a college education in art, he found himself in the 1970s learning jewelry-making with a friend and touring the legendary craft fairs where many of today’s most famous jewelry designers got their start.
Paul Morelli credits the influence of fashion as primary to his jewelry designs. “I have been around the fashion world my whole life. It is what inspires me on an everyday basis.” In 1976, Morelli was commissioned to create a collection of jewelry for Giorgio Sant’Angelo. As soon as he started making jewelry it completely took hold of him.
Paul Morelli today has his design studios is the same building as his father. His is a family operation. He produces all his jewelry on-site, by hand, in his own workshops from conception to completion. He may be the only American jewelry designer dedicated to building his own “house” in the tradition of the European masters. A visit to his pristine design studio is to immediately understand why Paul Morelli creates the exquisitely refined and intricate jewelry that in the end appears contemporary and clean of line.
Embraced by the fashion industry and customer, Paul Morelli has in-store boutiques in Bergdorf Goodman, and select fashion and fine jewelry stores. Paul Morelli was incorporated in 1982. Over time, the designer has blended the worlds of fashion and jewelry design to build a successful business with long-range plans to expand into other product categories.
“I am constantly evolving,” says Morelli. “Most designers have a common thread that runs throughout their work. Mine is that I am forever changing”.
