After more than two decades in jewelry retail, Melissa Joy Manning is closing her Brooklyn store. While the designer calls it an “incredibly bittersweet decision,” she believes the next chapter will boost her brand to new levels.
The Brooklyn store is slated to close July 26. But her brand will continue through wholesale and custom work—all done from her new Vermont farm, through her website, and at pop-up shops at her home and other stores.
“I’m not leaving. I’m not losing. It’s a transformation,” Manning says. “I’ve been in retail for more than 20 years now, and I love it. I love being in the store and working with customers one on one. But I’ve also felt the shift of my energies going more to operations.
“I’ve been blessed and privileged to have these experiences. But, personally, it really felt like I needed to do something different. And that journey is taking me beyond New York,” she says.
The MJM flagship at 211 Court St. in Brookyn, N.Y.
Manning has purchased a 32-acre farm in her home state of Vermont, where she says she can work from a 6,000-square-foot barn she is converting into a studio and event space. She also will have more time to work on other creative projects, like an extension of her home line, as well as focus on her soon-to-be teenage son.
“It’s a much more personal way of doing business,” Manning says. “I think we’re conditioned to want more, like a never-ending hamster wheel. I just want to get off of that, build a chicken coop, make content, create heirlooms, and build relationships.”
Manning says part of her decision also came from the challenges of running a brick-and-mortar business. If you type her business name into a search engine, most of the stories you will find relate to the multiple robberies her Brooklyn store had in recent years, and she says she understands that may happen again.
“Those incidents over the past three years took away some of the security I felt. It started to feel like not if it would happen again [so much] as when it would happen again,” Manning says.
To balance her move to the county, Manning says she will expand and improve her website to make sure her new and longtime clients can find the products they love easily and receive them in a timely fashion. She also plans on doing more virtual appointments for custom work; on the day of this interview, she already had done four.
Knowing that consumers are open to online jewelry shopping and more clients are comfortable with virtual custom appointments makes this move easier, Manning says.
With her Instagram post about her move, she felt such an outpouring of support from clients and industry friends. Her grandparents had a farm in her native California, and Manning says her background in sculpture and fashion also have her feeling confident—for the most part—about this shift.
“I’m moving into more of an influencer role, like styling my outdoor table on my back deck with apples from my apple trees. I’ll be putting together vases and candles—all things I sell,” Manning says. “It will be more experiential. Everything will be about telling a story about those pieces that you can buy and where you can wear your jewelry.”
Top: Designer Melissa Joy Manning (photos courtesy of Melissa Joy Manning)