“The creative class is what drives societal progress,” says Gretchen Jones, founder of Weird Specialty. “There is a responsibility in their existence; I want them to realize their job is not just to bring beauty into the world, but to demonstrate how to be in the world.” In this respect, Jones is more than an advisor to creative entrepreneurs. She’s a model.
Jones’s path to founding Weird Specialty—an advisory practice and creative salon—is as unique as her customer base. Raised in Colorado, she pursued a career in apparel design in Portland, Oregon–a decision that ultimately led her to compete on Season 8 of reality show Project Runway. She won. Following her victory, Jones landed in NYC and established her own apparel line, then returned to Portland to take on the role of fashion director of Women’s Wear at Pendleton Woolen Mills.
There, her path took a turn.
“I was spending so much time in the boardroom defending design direction against executives. New ideas can’t be quantified before they go to market,” Jones recounts. “I wanted to pursue my MBA so I could ultimately come back and be better at fighting for creativity.”
She resigned from Pendleton, and earned her MBA at the University of London College of Fashion, writing her thesis on holistic sustainability and intuitive creativity’s necessary intersection with Big Data’s impact on business. This led her on a lecture circuit, and a calling toward creative consultation.
Jones recognized that creatives have few resources to understand how to grow their companies. She founded Weird Specialty in 2018 to fill that gap, providing a holistic approach to managing businesses—from identifying a niche, to building revenue, and ensuring alignment with personal values.
Success, she notes, is about accountability.
“Creative people often go from one idea to the next,” says Jones. “To stay in business, they need to focus, taking ownership not just of an idea, but its execution.” Her customer base now spans North America, Europe, Latin America, and Australia.
Jones wants entrepreneurs to learn from one another as well. Inspired by the salons of writer Gertrude Stein, she created a members-only event series for women in business that meets monthly at the Weird Specialty studio in Tivoli. It’s an ideal setting, with proximity to NYC, and creative communities in the Catskills and Berkshires. Jones believes that communing entrepreneurs of different backgrounds is essential to fostering collective growth. “The individualism of creative people can be limiting and lonely; they often believe their challenges are unique,” Jones explains. “Aspens may look like individual trees, but they share the same root system. In community, ideas get deeper, stronger, and output becomes more meaningful. Gathering people in different stages of business building and different industries gives them opportunities to gain new perspectives.”
The Weird Speciality studio is a reflection of Jones: welcoming, expressive, and multi-dimensional. The parlor combines contemporary and vintage furniture, objects from local artists, and artwork by independent designers (some of whom are salon members). It’s eclectic, but clear that every object is intentionally placed.
“I wanted a space that exposes guests to all forms of creativity, and represents the people I work with,” Jones notes. “It needs to be comfortable, inspiring, and fun.” In the future, she hopes to partner with others in the community to host programming in the studio.
Jones believes that at the heart of what she does is helping entrepreneurs ground their businesses in what they’re best at—their own weird specialties. “One of my super powers is not being everyone’s cup of tea. It’s important to stay grounded in a unique identity.” For Jones (and those she advises) “weird” can work wonders.—weirdspecialty.com
By Christopher Stella
Photos by Ryan Lavine