Retail is not something I came to. It’s something I grew up inside. My family ran a well-known retail business in Manhattan, and that world shaped how I see everything: how a store feels when you walk in, what makes a customer trust a room, why the edit matters as much as the merchandise itself. I’m not just selling heritage. I’m living it.
I went on to build two businesses along the Hudson with one of my closest friends, a textile business just south of here and a retail store right in my own town. Seventeen years of partnership. When we eventually sold both, I thought that chapter was finished. It wasn’t.
In the meantime, I launched Just North Design, a retail consulting practice, working with people who want to open a store or already have one and need help getting it right. What belongs, what doesn’t, and why it matters. That work continues. But so does this.
What brought me back was the same thing that got me into retail in the first place. The excitement of it. Watching how people shop has changed so dramatically, and rather than observe it from the sidelines, I wanted to be in it again, building something that reflects this moment.
Just North sits in that sweet spot, close enough to the city to feel its energy, rooted enough in this community to breathe. The store reflects that balance. Quietly elevated. Intentional without being over the top. Some pieces are rugged, heavy canvas, worn wood, something with a little history in its hands. Others are new and refined. What holds it all together is the edit. Everything considered, nothing accidental.
My background is in textiles and design, and that creative eye was at the center of everything I built before. It still is. When I source, I’m reading quality before I read a label. I’m thinking about how a piece fits into a life, a room, a wardrobe, a morning routine. The store spans home, apparel, accessories, baby and body care, and it includes something genuinely new to this stretch of the Rivertowns: a real men’s offering. That feels like exactly the kind of gap worth filling.
This is not my first time in this space. But retail has changed, and honestly, so have I. This version of it, new and storied together, sustainable and considered, is the one I’ve always wanted to build. The timing finally feels right. Coming back to this space feels full circle. Same walls, new story.
See you in September.
Lori Slater