Can you give an introduction to who you are and who/what your brand is and how long your brand has been around for? Is this your first Top Drawer? 

I founded Branch Jewellery back in 2003 (Honestly it amazes me that this is almost 20 years ago now) I am incredibly proud that over the years Branch Jewellery have/has become somewhat renowned for what we do.  For 18 years I have felt blessed to lead this amazing small brand.  Our focus has always been on Fair Trade, Fair Wage, ethical production, and ethical materials, long before it became fashionable to do so.

How did you start your brand? (Include where the idea come from and who/what was your inspiration, who helped you along the way etc.)

I have always loved to travel, always had a sense of adventure and spent most of my 20’s travelling the world, working where I could along the way.  During my travels would collect stones, beads, and small trinkets that I would experiment with and make them into pieces of jewellery.  It started as a hobby really and grew from there.  I guess I knew for a long time that I would end up working in jewellery, but at the time I was young, and happy, travelling and being free. 

Whilst on my travels in Africa I commissioned some wood carvers in Malawi to carve some wooden bangles, which I fell in love with, and it was soon after this I realised that this was the direction I wanted to take with my passion for jewellery and that’s when I started to design my first collection - It was after this initial stage of the business that I then decided to head off to Bali in Indonesia as I had heard their work with wood was incredible.  With the help of a very good friend who was living there I found 2 factories to manufacture and managed to put my first collection together.

I was then recognized by The British Fashion Council as a bright new talent, and they awarded me a sponsored space at London Fashion Week and really the rest is history.

It’s amazing to think now when I consider how far the business has come, the stores we work with and the wonderful press we receive and all from such humble beginnings

What’s been your biggest highlight whilst creating your brand? Why is it you love what you do? 

There have been so many incredible highlights over the years and to this day I still get a buzz when great things happen.  From our pieces selling in some of the most prestigious stores around the world, being worn on catwalks across the globe to Beyonce wearing our pieces for a recent shoot in Vogue Magazine.  I love what we do, and I can’t imagine ever finding a more fulfilling career. 

Can you tell us about your new collections/ranges that you’ll be launching at Top Drawer? (include any events you’ll be arrange onsite if applicable)

For years we have been famed for our work with wood and mixing this with other complimentary materials, but a couple of seasons ago we introduced a new ethical horn collection.  I had been keen to introduce a new natural material into the collections for a long time and horn was the obvious choice. From the launch two seasons ago, our horn collection has become extremely popular with our customers and this season we have doubled the collection in size. It’s taken quite a lot of work as we couldn’t visit the small workshops in Vietnam to work on the collection due to COVID but through endless design zoom calls, 100’s of emails back and forth, and more tweaks than you can imagine we have pulled this off. We are super excited to be launching these new collections at Top Drawer as these pieces won’t have been seen anywhere before.

Any personal favourites from your new collection?

Lots and lots… But if I had to narrow it down, I would say our new horn collection. We are literally giddy with excitement to launch this at Top Drawer