An Interview with Joanna Stein

How did you get started at Anzie?

When I was about 11 years old, my mother Anzie and father Barry Stein began collecting gemstones as a hobby. I was like a kid in a candy store, but only it was jewelry. I loved the feeling of picking up a handful of gemstones. I loved physically being able to turn those gemstones into a piece of jewelry. Fun fact, one of our first best selling pieces was made with multicolor briolette gemstones and was called “the Joanna Briolette necklace”. We would sit together as a family and create jewelry for fun. I would come home from school and go straight to the jewelry table to create. It brought out the creativity in all of us, it brought our family and community all together. I always admired my mother’s eye for style and my sister for her ability to sketch and create beautiful designs. Being surrounded by such unique designs brought out the entrepreneurial spirit in all of us. 

We began selling jewelry soon after out of our basement and it was only natural that I loved selling and being part of the meeting when customers came by for appointments or when we had special events. Shortly after my mother and sister began selling to boutiques and fine jewelry stores and the next thing I knew they were traveling across the United States doing trunk shows at Saks Fifth Avenue. When I was 19, I officially started working at Anzie as a sales representative. Today, I am the Vice President of sales, I oversee our social media and I am involved in marketing, product and business development. 

What are your Mother’s day picks?

Oh boy… This list can be very long, but I will try to keep it short and sweet. Any piece of jewelry that you could personalize like the Monogram Love Letter medallion, or the Love Letter initial necklaces would be my go to for Mother’s Day. 

I love a good earring stack, and a girl can never have enough earrings! The Mel Soldera Celestial Ear Cuff is a piece I wear every day. Anything with evil eyes for an extra bit of protection - the Royale Evil Eye Necklace is a longtime favorite, or the Lash Evil Eye studs are so cute. As an alternative to a bouquet of flowers, I always suggest a piece from the Bouquet collection as they will last forever. My personal favorite are the Bouquet Fan Earrings and the matching necklace is beautiful in opal or emerald!

Tell us more about the mother’s day campaign, what was the inspiration behind the shoot? 

We have never been great at taking family photos, and we were due for some new ones! The dream/plan was for Jaclyn to come to Montreal for the photoshoot with Anzie and I but with Covid travel restrictions, it became a challenge for her to make it to Montreal for the shoot. Even though we were sad she couldn’t be there, Jaclyn encouraged us to go forward with the shoot and include my daughter Allyn instead of her. 

The inspiration became “Three generations of women, three generations of happiness.” We had the best time. Allyn at the time was 22 months and was a superstar. She was smiling the whole time and actually had so much fun. She was so excited to be with me and my mom for the day. It truly felt like a girls day out and we got to get work done at the same time. 

What does it mean to you to be at the shoot with your mom and daughter? 

It felt very special being able to spend the day with my mom and daughter and call it “work”. The day spent together being photographed for our mother’s day campaign made me realize how my mom must feel everyday working with her two daughters. Even though my daughter is a lot younger than I was when Anzie first started, it reminded me of how I felt when I was little surrounded by all the glamorous jewels. I can’t wait for our next family shoot with Jaclyn and her daughter Claire!