Our Story
Just North Design is rooted in my lifelong connection to retail and design. I grew up inside my family’s iconic New York stores where I learned early how buying, merchandising, and customer experience shape a brand. Retail has always been my second language.
For 17 years, I co-founded and built In2Green with my partner, Stefanie — a sustainable textile company known for modern design, American manufacturing, and collaborations with third-generation knitters and weavers. I co-led product design and development, creative direction, day-to-day operations, and the visual storytelling behind the brand, while spending years at every major trade show — gift, apparel, design, and hospitality — sourcing, buying, and learning firsthand how products connect to place.
In 2018, we opened the In2Green concept store in Hastings-on-Hudson, a curated boutique of home goods, apparel, jewelry, and gifts from independent designers and local artisans. It quickly became a destination and helped re-energize our Main Street, reminding me how powerful thoughtful retail can be for a community.
Our work grew to serve over 600 independent retailers and notable hospitality partners, including luxury resorts such as Auberge Resorts and Bishop’s Lodge, as well as collaborations with brands like Pottery Barn, Mark & Graham, Republic Records, and modern independent designers. In July 2023, Stefanie and I sold In2Green, making space for my next chapter.
Just North Design launched in 2024 as the natural evolution of everything that shaped me: design, buying, merchandising, product development, hospitality retail, and a lifetime of understanding what makes a store work. Today, I help retailers and boutique hospitality properties refine their aesthetic, strengthen their product mix, source unique independent designers, develop private-label collections, and build retail experiences that truly resonate.
My goal is simple: to help retailers tell their story through thoughtful product, beautiful merchandising, and a point of view that feels authentic, modern, and deeply connected to place.
“Creative retailing is my passion and in my blood. My family founded New York’s iconic ‘Love’ stores and ‘Ricky’s NYC’, and I grew up surrounded and fascinated by the customer experience and the community of specialized stores. As such, the sourcing, merchandising, and theatre of retail is a part of who I am, what I do best, and what I share with my clients.”
— LORI KENIG SLATER