Wilton, Connecticut · Est. 2014 · Founded by Joanna Buchanan
Joanna Buchanan grew up in Hong Kong, studied fashion design in London and Newcastle, and spent 20 years designing for major women's apparel brands before she decided she wanted to express her own point of view. In 2014 she launched her eponymous brand in two weeks flat -- pulled together on a dare from a friend at One Kings Lane. The buyers went silent when she walked in. Then they bought everything. Joanna Buchanan makes jewelry for the table: hand-beaded, hand-embroidered, rhinestone-studded, and completely one of a kind.
Joanna Buchanan's aesthetic was always going to be its own thing. She grew up in Hong Kong surrounded by color, texture, and the rich visual world of Asia, spent her adult years living across Europe, and traveled extensively through India before settling in Connecticut with her family. She had spent 20 years designing for large corporate fashion brands -- good work, but work where the aesthetic was largely predetermined. She knew what she wanted to make. She just hadn't made it yet.
In 2014 a friend encouraged her to bring some ideas to One Kings Lane for the holiday buying season. Joanna had two weeks. She pulled together her branding, her product concepts, and her whole vision from scratch, walked into the buying meeting, and was met with complete silence. Then they bought everything.
The original inspiration came from her mother's love of holiday decorating and a dig through her great grandmother's vintage ornament collection stored in her parents' home in the English countryside -- each one with a story, each one passed down with a memory attached. Joanna built a brand around that feeling: objects that carry sentiment, made with the kind of craft that lasts generations. Hand-beaded placemats from India where no two are exactly alike. Hand-embroidered cocktail napkins. Bejeweled brass napkin rings. Rhinestone wine stoppers. Everything she designs is used in her own home first. Her Connecticut garden -- bees, botanicals, birds -- is the constant inspiration. On a registry, Joanna Buchanan is the table detail that makes guests lean in for a closer look.
