06/01/2026
This month we celebrate 15 years in business. 15 years. It took me two to develop the idea and its portfolio to showcase Gee June in NYC, another three years to get us to full time, add a year and a half to get us into our own standing retail location, one year to outgrow our starter space and then we moved towards growth -->Skaneateles. A street front location on Genesee and Jordan St., with a sign that our Ithaca alleyway didn't allow us. The sprinkles on top: In Skaneateles we'd have the ability/first dibs to take over 'The Jewler' who was retiring in a year. That was 2019. We needed 2000 square feet badly, so we packed up, moved in and got started. I purchased the product to get us ready for taking over The Jewler-->our growth, and then-Covid. But, still we thrived, masks off: We were ready to establish our system again, no more last minute wedding plans of 2020-'22, and then: Water Intrusion. A flood that took out our neighbors ceiling and would never stop causing us issues inside. I lost our in-progress art pieces, three years worth of fabric and materials for our collections and had to figure out how to keep it all going. The flood during Christmas of 2022 would be harder than covid. These last three years I had to be a Merchandiser most days and then we became Alteration Specialists over Designer's. I'd learn the Jewler had no plan to retire and have to figure out who we were without our ideas until we could afford them again. I'm still figuring that out, but after six months of being closed we're getting ready to move. I thought at 15 we'd throw a big party, the Skaneateles Ribbon Cutting covid didn't allow for, but instead we're pivoting: It'll be a Sweet 16 for us next year in a space large enough to hold us properly back in the city where we started: Ithaca with Friends and fellow Makers who are still there, the relationships we formed in our first ten years...in place, as if we never left :) -Odyssey
