14 Brands Like Johnny Was for Embroidered Boho Style
The embroidery is the reason you shop Johnny Was, and the receipt is the reason you hesitate. On the day we checked, its dresses page held 47 styles running $198 to $575, with the Xochi Midi Dress at $575 and the Essentials Silk Slip Dress at $325.
Johnny Was is a Southern California womenswear label built on embroidered dresses, tunics and kimonos, and a suede jacket on the same site runs to $995. We took those numbers to 14 other bohemian labels and read the prices off their own storefronts, in the currency each one charges at checkout. Four of them come in under half. Two ask for more, and the sections below say what the extra money buys.
Quick comparison: prices below are dresses unless the row says otherwise, read off each brand's own storefront. Currencies differ because these shops are based in four countries, and we haven't converted anything.
| Brand | Dress price | What it shares with Johnny Was |
|---|---|---|
| Free People | $118 to $398 USD | Print-heavy boho at roughly half the price |
| Anthropologie | $148 to $228 USD | Artisanal detail, broader range of styles |
| Spell | A$229 to A$349 AUD | Big prints and flowing tiers, from Byron Bay |
| Zara | $49.90 to $169 USD | The cheapest way to test the silhouette |
| Lilla P | $288 USD shirt dress | Same price bracket, quieter surface |
| Reformation | $178 to $398 USD | Feminine cuts, far less embellishment |
| Tularosa | $99 to $370 USD | Embroidery and eyelet, younger fit |
| Ulla Johnson | $450 to $1,200 USD | The same craft ambition, designer pricing |
| Loup Charmant | $120 to $585 USD | Natural fabric, almost no print |
| Christy Dawn | $198 to $378 USD | Vintage shapes, deadstock and regenerative cloth |
| Sea New York | $450 to $650 USD | Handwork on a sharper, more downtown cut |
| Reina Olga | €195 to €380 EUR | Resort dressing, but swimwear comes first |
| Ganni | $335 to $595 USD | Prints and volume with a Copenhagen edge |
| Cleobella | $248 to $398 USD | Hand-beading and hand-weaving, closest match on price |
Grouped four ways, if you want the short version:
- Closest match on the clothes: Cleobella, Spell
- Cheapest way in: Zara, Free People, Anthropologie, Tularosa
- Spend more, get more craft: Ulla Johnson, Sea New York
- Same mood, plainer surface: Reformation, Loup Charmant, Lilla P, Christy Dawn, Ganni, Reina Olga
Free People
Free People carries the widest everyday bohemian range of any brand here, and the price gap is why it's the first stop. The dresses grid we read ran $118 to $398, so the middle of that range sits below where Johnny Was starts. You get the same appetite for florals, tiering and sleeves with volume in them, on cuts aimed at a younger body and a more casual week.
What you give up is density of handwork. Johnny Was builds a garment around its embroidery. Free People uses print to do most of the same job, which is how the number stays where it does.
Best for: replacing one $575 midi with three you'll wear more often. We went deeper on the whole range in our guide to brands like Free People.
Anthropologie
Anthropologie listed its dresses between $148 and $228 at full price on the day we read the grid, which makes it the steadiest mid-range option here. Its bohemian pieces sit alongside tailoring, denim and homeware, so the boho section is one room in a much larger shop rather than the whole building.
That breadth is the argument for it. If you want one embroidered blouse and one plain trouser to wear it with, this is a single checkout. The trade is that the artisanal pieces rotate fast, and the ones you love won't come back next season.
Worth knowing: a large slice of the grid carried a limited-time markdown when we looked, so the list price and the price you pay may not match.
Spell
Spell is the Australian label that used to trade as Spell & The Gypsy Collective and now sells as Spell, out of Byron Bay. Its dresses run A$229 to A$349 in Australian dollars, which is what the checkout charges wherever you sit. The Damask Button Through Gown at A$349 is the house signature, all print and length and movement.
Spell pushes colour and scale harder than Johnny Was does. Where Johnny Was works a motif into a panel, Spell puts the pattern across the whole dress and lets the tiering carry it.
Best for: the loud version of this wardrobe. Roughly half its 2,300-plus size variants were in stock when we checked, so popular colours go.
Zara
Zara, the Spanish high-street retailer, is the cheap way to find out whether a tiered maxi belongs in your life. Its US dresses run $49.90 to $169, and the boho-leaning pieces arrive in bursts rather than as a permanent department. The Embroidered Sequin Dress from its Marisa Berenson collaboration at $329 is the exception that shows what the house can do when it wants to.
Nothing on this rail gets made the way a Johnny Was piece does, and the copy doesn't pretend otherwise. What Zara gives you is a $69.90 answer to a silhouette question you'd otherwise pay $428 to ask.
Lilla P
Lilla P sells knitwear and softly cut separates rather than pattern, and it lands in Johnny Was money. The Dolman Full Sleeve Shirt Dress is $288, and its sweaters mostly sit between $210 and $248. Of the 250 styles on the front of its catalogue, 120 are tops and 51 are sweaters.
Put plainly, this is the brand for the days you want the drape without the decoration. The sleeve volume and the easy waist do the bohemian work, and the surface stays quiet.
Best for: a wardrobe that already has three printed maxis and needs something to wear them against.
Reformation
Reformation prices dresses from $178 to $398 in USD, so it overlaps Johnny Was at the bottom and undercuts it at the top. The Bellin Knit Dress is $178 and the Kyley Dress is $398.
The overlap is in shape rather than surface. Reformation cuts a bias slip and a floral midi as well as anyone at this price, and it leaves embellishment alone almost entirely. If the embroidery is the part you love, this brand won't scratch it. If the flowing line is the part you love, it will.
Its sustainability reporting is published on its own site, and we look at how to read claims like that in our piece on ethical brands like Cider.
Tularosa
Tularosa has no storefront of its own. Its old domain refuses connections outright, and the brand sells through Revolve, where 508 Tularosa items were listed at $99 to $370 USD when we checked. Say that plainly before you go looking for a direct site, because there isn't one.
The clothes are the sweet, sun-bleached end of this list. Eyelet, broderie, small florals, mini and midi lengths cut for a warm afternoon. It shares Johnny Was's fondness for a decorated surface and applies it to a much younger, shorter silhouette.
Best for: a wedding guest dress under $250 that photographs well.
Ulla Johnson
Ulla Johnson is the designer end of this list, and the prices say so. The Nerissa Jacquard Dress is $890 and the Yasmin Long Sleeve Knit Dress reaches $1,200, with knits and tops from $450. That's two to three times a Johnny Was midi.
What the money buys is jacquard woven to the label's own designs, hand-finished detail and a volume of fabric you can see from across a room. Stock is healthy too, with 81% of its size variants available on the day we looked, which is unusual at this level.
Best for: the one dress you keep for a decade. If your Johnny Was pieces are the ones you get complimented on, this is where that instinct goes next.
Loup Charmant
Loup Charmant works in cotton and linen and leaves the pattern out. Prices run from a $120 Scoop Tank in Daisy Embroidery through the $365 Celeste Dress to a $585 Corsica Kaftan in black knit.
The gauzy cotton and the loose blouson shape give you the same holiday ease as a Johnny Was tunic without a single stitch of surface decoration, bar the odd small embroidery. It's the most restrained brand on this list.
One caveat worth flagging: only 39% of its size variants were available when we checked, the thinnest stock of any brand here, so check your size before you fall in love with a colour.
Christy Dawn
Christy Dawn is the closest thing here to a vintage dress made new, and it's cheaper than Johnny Was across the board. The Dawn Dress is $198, the Saunders is $248 and the Marissa reaches $378. Dresses dominate the catalogue, with 111 styles plus 39 petite versions.
The brand runs a Deadstock Collection and a Regenerative Cotton Collection, both named on its own homepage, and the shapes lean early-twentieth-century rather than seventies. Prairie collars, tiny buttons, soft gathers at the bust.
Best for: readers who love the romance in Johnny Was and want it quieter and $150 cheaper. Petite sizing is a real line here, not an afterthought.
Sea New York
Sea New York prices dresses from $450 to $650, which puts it above Johnny Was and below Ulla Johnson. The Hyacinth Dress is $475 and the Ruwa Dress is $650.
Sea uses the same vocabulary of eyelet, smocking and quilted panels, then cuts it sharper. A Sea dress reads as a downtown dress that happens to be handworked, where a Johnny Was dress reads as a handworked dress first. That difference is the whole reason to shop it.
Stock is the best on this list at 88% of size variants available. If you like this register of dressing, our guide to brands like Sézane covers the French version of the same idea.
Reina Olga
Reina Olga is a swimwear label with a small resort wardrobe attached, and the split matters. Of the 225 pieces on the front of its catalogue, 188 are bikinis or swimsuits and 10 are dresses. Prices are in euros, so the Tessa Dress is €195 and the Luca and Susanna dresses are €380.
Come here for the poolside half of a Johnny Was holiday, not the embroidered half. The prints are graphic animal and jungle motifs rather than folk motifs, and the ready-to-wear is cut to throw over a swimsuit.
Best for: a trip where the swimwear matters more than the dresses.
Ganni
Ganni is a Danish label run out of Copenhagen, and its dresses are $335 to $595 on the US site. It shares Johnny Was's love of a bold print and a full sleeve, then routes it through Scandinavian tailoring instead of global craft references.
The result is a dress that works in a city on a Tuesday. Shorter hems, crisper fabrics, a lot more black. If you've ever felt that a printed maxi reads too holiday for your actual life, this is the fix.
Half the dress grid was discounted 50% on the day we checked, so the figures above are the list prices and you may pay considerably less.
Cleobella
Cleobella is the nearest match on this list for what Johnny Was does, and it costs less. Its dresses run $248 to $398, with the Ives Maxi Dress at $328 and the Julie Ankle Dress at $398, across 103 dress styles.
The brand says on its own site that its pieces are made by hand by independent artisans using traditional tooling, weaving, dyeing and beading, with production in Bali and headquarters in California. B Lab's own directory lists Cleobella LLC as a certified B Corporation with an overall score of 82.9, and the brand says it gives 1% of profits to organisations working with women.
Best for: the reader who wants the handwork and can't make $575 work. Stock sat at 88% of size variants when we looked.
Where to Start If You Only Buy One Dress
Work backwards from the part of Johnny Was you'd miss most. If it's the handwork, go to Cleobella at $248 to $398 or, with a bigger budget, Ulla Johnson at $450 upward. If it's the flowing line rather than the surface, Reformation and Loup Charmant get you there for less and in plainer cloth. If you want the volume turned up, Spell is the one, priced in Australian dollars.
And if you're testing a silhouette rather than committing to one, Zara at $49.90 is a cheaper mistake than the $575 Xochi. More of our brand guides live in the Apart Style articles archive.
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Written by
Spencer Lanoue
