Joan Shepp Returns to Walnut Street (Finally!)

Joan Shepp, with daughter Ellen / Photograph by Aaron Richter

Here’s something you may not know about Joan Shepp: She loves a hat. “Someone might come into the store looking for a normal piece like a white blouse, but I always want them to try on a hat,” says Shepp, owner of her 54-year-old Center City brand of the same name. “The last customer I took care of today was wearing something dressy, so I gave her a little hat with a veil to try on. She didn’t take it off; she wore it out of the store.”

It’s a sweltering day in late July, and Joan and Ellen Shepp, Joan’s daughter and longtime business partner, are on the couch in the dressing room area of their Chestnut Street boutique. The long-running Joan Shepp annual basement sale is winding down, and racks of designer clothing and shoes dot the space. It’s the last event that will be held here before Joan Shepp — recognized for its innovative approach to retail by some of the world’s top fashion publications — moves to a new Walnut Street address, across from Rittenhouse Square. By the time you read this, the shop will already be open. Neither Joan nor Ellen is caught up in the nostalgia of it all. Just like their approach to fashion over the years, they’re focused on the future.

“Our new space at 1905 Walnut Street offers us a chance to reimagine the boutique experience we’ve spent decades building,” says Ellen, who calls it a “true concept store,” complete with new collections, exclusives, and jewelry at varying price points. She knew the location well. She’d toured the space with Joan 12 years ago as a potential storefront, but the building needed extensive renovations at the time. In 2023, a close friend urged Ellen to revisit the idea. After another walk-through and with the lease winding down at 1811 Chestnut Street, Joan and Ellen were sold. Ellen says they were equally excited to join the locally owned businesses — which, “in this day and age, [are] few and far between” — that line this stretch of Walnut Street: Rescue Spa, longtime children’s shop Born Yesterday, and Stephen Starr’s new Borromini. A retail location within steps of Equinox fitness club’s steady parade of fit members and luxury condo tower the Laurel’s discerning residents were other undeniable draws.

A window display at Joan Shepp’s former Chestnut Street location / Photograph courtesy of Joan Shepp

The 4,000-square-foot, two-story boutique is a more intimate setting to experience the latest iteration of a retail fairy tale five decades in the making. (By comparison, 1811 Chestnut Street totaled 9,000 square feet.) Joan debuted her women’s-wear shop in Lafayette Hill in 1971 and later followed that with an outpost in Elkins Park. Those closed in 1988 and 2001, respectively, but a new store on Walnut Street in 1999 changed her focus to Philly, in the midst of the city’s retail renaissance. In 2014, they relocated to Chestnut Street.

Among the finds on offer here are Fornasetti table decor (Joan Shepp is one of the few retailers in the country to carry pieces from the luxury Italian home and furnishings brand) and scarves by Italian label Faliero Sarti, known for their city-themed pieces. Ellen collaborated with the brand’s in-house artists on a custom Philadelphia design. New clothing collections from Aspesi, A.W.A.K.E. Mode, and Ronny Kobo will join Joan Shepp staple designers like Maison Margiela, Rick Owens, Simkhai, and Norma Kamali.

It may be a new address with a fresh perspective, but Ellen insists that the intention is the same as it’s always been. “Our goal is to never have things that are available up and down the street or easily bought online. Everything should feel special, and it should be an experience. Mom always made shopping at the stores feel like a treasure hunt.”

Shepp in Time

Joan Shepp during a designer showroom visit in the ’80s / Photograph courtesy of Joan Shepp

1971: Joan Shepp opens her Lafayette Hill shop.

1974: Shepp’s iconic window displays are born.

1983: A second iteration debuts in Elkins Park.

1984: Daughter Ellen joins the team while still in college. Now, more than 40 years later, she runs the store.

1988: The Lafayette Hill spot closes.

1998: Shepp gets her first of many Best of Philly awards, for Service in a Boutique.

1999: Shepp debuts her first Walnut Street shop.

2001: The Elkins Park store closes.

2014: The Center City store moves to Chestnut Street. It remains here for 10-plus years.

2021: The brand celebrates 50 years.

2025: The next era of Joan Shepp arrives with a new Walnut Street address.

Shop Joan Shepp’s new location at 1905 Walnut Street, Rittenhouse.

Published as “History, Repeated” in the October 2025 issue of Philadelphia magazine.