On West 47th Street, amid the glittering storefronts, diamond dealers and generations-old jewelry businesses that define Manhattan’s historic Diamond District, Reagan John Rada has claimed a ground-floor space for Filipino entrepreneurship.

His boutique, RJP Gems at 29 W. 47th St., is, by Rada’s account, the first and only 100% Filipino-owned standalone jewelry business on the ground floor of the famed district, a global center of the gem and jewelry trade. For the Filipino American designer and entrepreneur, the shop is more than a business address. It is the latest turn in a life shaped by risk, adaptation, loss and an unshaken determination to build something lasting.

Rada’s path to the Diamond District began far from Manhattan. Raised in Jose Panganiban, Camarines Norte, he came to the United States from the Philippines in 2000 at age 19, traveling with his mother on a tourist visa with $684 in his pocket. When he fell out of immigration status, he worked whatever jobs he could find in Los Angeles, including caregiving and dishwashing, while living with the constant fear that one encounter with authorities could upend his life.

His entry into jewelry came in December 2000, when he found work as a runner and cleaning clerk at a downtown Los Angeles jewelry-manufacturing company. The job became an education. He learned to polish pieces, pull wire, set stones, size rings, manage inventory and, eventually, translate a drawing into a wearable object. The work revealed a talent that had not been obvious to him before: the ability to see how an idea on paper could become jewelry in three dimensions.

From Los Angeles to New York

Rada’s skill helped him advance from an entry-level employee into management and design. His employer secured work connected to merchandise for Celine Dion and Elton John, and the company later became part of the House of Taylor Jewelry, the business associated with actor Elizabeth Taylor.

At House of Taylor, Rada worked closely with Taylor’s designs and became director of fulfillment and design. When the company became aware of his undocumented status, Taylor and her team supported his application for permanent residency under an extraordinary-ability visa. Rada later became a U.S. citizen.

Then the 2008 financial crisis brought another reversal. House of Taylor closed, leaving Rada unemployed and devastated by the collapse of a company in which he had invested much of his young career. He returned to the Philippines for the first time in eight years, then traveled through Asia to recover from the setback.

A job offer from Piranesi Fine Jewelry brought him to New York in August 2008. The luxury jewelry company knew his design execution from its business relationship with House of Taylor and hired him to help bring fine-jewelry concepts from sketch to finished piece.

His experience taught him that jewelry is not merely about a stone’s price or a celebrity client. It is a blend of craft, engineering, imagination and trust. An earring must have the right balance. A setting must secure the stone while allowing it to catch light. A design has to hold up not just in a drawing but in someone’s hand, at an event or over years of wear.

A shop built on possibility

In 2023, Rada purchased the gem and pearl shop that would become RJP Gems. The former owner, Kumar, had spent more than four decades building the business and had become a friend and supplier to Rada over 15 years. Rada said he took nearly a year to decide whether to buy the store, eventually seeing it as a rare opportunity to build a permanent home for his own creative work.

RJP Gems carries gemstones ranging from more accessible strands of pearls and fashion pieces to high-value rubies, sapphires, emeralds, diamonds and rare stones. Rada has described the inventory as a comprehensive resource for designers and collectors, with clients arriving from the United States and abroad.

The shop also houses Endearest, a charm bar where customers can create necklaces and bracelets from a collection of small keepsakes and charms. The contrast is intentional: a jewelry store, in Rada’s view, should make room for someone seeking an heirloom gem and someone looking for an affordable, personal piece.

“Jewelry is for everyone, regardless of price points,” Rada told TheFilAm.net.

That belief also informs his support for emerging designers. Through a consignment program, Rada provides inventory to dozens of independently women-owned jewelry start-ups and stores without requiring them to buy goods upfront. He also mentors recent design graduates, sharing practical skills and knowledge as they develop their own brands.

Beyond the sparkle

Rada’s work has expanded beyond jewelry. Through RJP Ventures, he has invested in real estate and businesses in the United States and the Philippines, including projects in Metro Manila and Bicol. He has also been involved in Filipino entertainment ventures and community initiatives.

His philanthropic work includes the MILA Charity, named for his late mother, Milagros. Through it, he has supported schoolchildren and community initiatives in Bicol, linking the success he has built in the United States to the hometown that shaped him.

The shop’s Filipino-owned identity matters to Rada because the Diamond District remains an industry where ownership, access and long-established networks can be difficult to enter. His presence at street level carries its own message: Filipino talent belongs in the rooms – and on the blocks – where global luxury business is done.

For Rada, RJP Gems is not simply a showroom of pearls, emeralds and diamonds. It is evidence of an immigrant story that did not move in a straight line: a young man who once slept in a hallway, worked as a caregiver and cleaned a jewelry shop; a designer who became trusted with translating Elizabeth Taylor’s ideas into pieces of jewelry; and an entrepreneur who now welcomes customers on one of New York’s most famous streets.

At 29 W. 47th St., the store is also an invitation. It tells Filipino Americans, aspiring designers and anyone beginning with limited resources that the distance between an errand job and a storefront can be vast, but it is not impossible.

Reagan John Rada received The Outstanding Filipino Award for Entrepreneurship in 2019, during the organization’s ninth annual awards ceremony at Carnegie Hall in New York City. He was recognized for his work in fine-jewelry design, entrepreneurship, philanthropy and service to the Filipino American community.