Quality and Community Converge
“The loss of brick-and-mortar stores is tragic,” says MaryVaughn Williams, co-owner of Canvas + Clothier. “They’re a way for people to convene and communicate.” 

Thanks to Williams and her business partner, Jillian Kaufman Grano, Poughkeepsie is now gaining one, in Canvas + Clothier—a micro department store featuring American-made clothing, home goods, and accessories, in the city’s Business Improvement District.

The cofounders are veterans of retail and production. Williams spent more than 20 years as founder and owner of New York City and Bali-based clothing label White Rice, running a retail location for the brand on Warren Street. She later moved to Hudson, opening Hudson Clothier in 2014, a boutique purveyor of American-made clothing and accessories. Through this endeavor, she met Kaufman Grano, the designer and manufacturer of New-York-based, American-made, globally distributed lifestyle brand Utility Canvas. Their mutual passion for domestically produced products inspired them to open Canvas + Clothier in 2023, a 5,000 square-foot retail space with a mission to support the local—and national—economy.

The concept is a natural fit for a city that serves as a gateway to the upper Hudson Valley. “In the same way farmers markets support local agriculture, we aim to support local manufacturing,” notes Kaufman Grano. 

While Williams and Kaufman Grano initially considered a Brooklyn location, they were drawn to Poughkeepsie’s rich manufacturing history, and to the building at 27 Garden St. Formerly a social club, restaurant, furrier, retail space, and most recently, law office, it serves as reflection of the diverse history of Poughkeepsie.

Williams and Kaufman Grano hope to recreate the intimacy and possibility of a seemingly bygone shopping experience. “Jillian and I both grew up shopping in Manhattan, and had fond memories of Bendel’s,” recalls Williams. “Everything there felt special; it was experiential.” 

Upon entering Canvas + Clothier, visitors encounter a light-filled cafe where they can order fresh sandwiches and coffee from Sweetleaf, a New York City-based roaster. Just beyond, stenciling next to a small elevator offers wayfinding to the store’s inventory: first floor, women’s and men’s clothing, outerwear, accessories and jewelry; second floor, home, bed, bath, body, tabletop and gallery. Each level is stocked with well-curated, well-made wares from producers nationwide (including Utility Canvas). The second-floor gallery serves as a flexible space, to host installations from local artists and classes on embroidery, weaving, upcycling clothing, and other handiwork.

Williams and Kaufman Grano’s work to build a community of creators expands outside the store’s four walls: Last year, they founded the Garden Street Farm Market, hosted on Sundays from May to October in the parking lot adjacent to their building. 

“Buying American-made and local goods isn’t about politics,” Kaufman Grano says. “It’s about quality and durability—in the products we make, and the communities they sustain.” In the ground-floor stairwell of the store, stenciled lettering on the wall reads: “Hard-working clothing for women and men. Hard-working interiors for creative living.”  Clearly, Kaufman Grano and Williams don’t shy away from hard work; the community will surely benefit from it. —canvasandclothier.com

By Christopher Stella
Photographs by John Verner