Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Kathryn and Sarah Griest and Peterson. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Kathryn and Sarah, thanks for joining us today. Can you talk to us about a risk you’ve taken – walk us through the story?

It was 2019 and the buzz of the election was all around. My friend Sarah and I were feeling like we wanted to speak up and make an impact about a topic we both feel passionate about…women’s reproductive freedom. We both have backgrounds in apparel and worked for a female eco-fashion designer, so we decided that putting our message on clothing was a good way to speak out. We decided to call it Onyx Moon for the feminine rising.

Our premier was at an eco-fashion show called Green is the New Black in Carbondale, Colorado in March of 2020. A few nights before the fashion show we got an email. COVID was picking up speed and after much deliberation they decided to call the show off. We chose to do a soft launch and put our clothing in a local boutique and an online Etsy shop, donating a percentage of our profits to Planned Parenthood.

What we hadn’t anticipated was our material stream being disrupted. Our initial stock had sold out, but we couldn’t replenish our supply, so we hit pause and worked other jobs to survive while COVID raged. A year later I had the opportunity to purchase a consignment store that was the home for the eco-fashion line that we had worked for.

This was one of the biggest risks that I have ever taken. I was in the middle of a break-up with my daughter’s father and on my own for the first time in a long time. I put everything on the line and invested in a brick-and-mortar store in a small mountain town in Colorado called Paonia. As a first-time business owner, I was learning as I went. In addition to facing a steep learning curve, the building that the business had originally occupied was about to be sold, so I needed to find a new storefront. I eventually did and embarked on moving everything to the new space.

We decided that this special shop would be the flagship store of Onyx Moon, a place we could relaunch our line and create a space for women to sell their wares and be represented. All of the products carried in the store are made by women, and local whenever possible. Things are going well. Onyx Moon is expanding, but our little town is incredibly slow in the winter months, so we’ve decided to make a space for women to gather and serve local tea and host different events to build community and encourage people to spend more time in the store.

It’s now 2024 and another election is upon us. With the loss of Roe vs Wade, we feel even more passionate about women’s reproductive rights and the need to make our voices heard. This coming summer we plan on embarking on a tour around Colorado and promoting Onyx Moon and our message through dance marches. We hope to empower women to take up space and raise their voices.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

We are two Feminist women who have a background in Eco-fashion and making. Sarah and I met while doing a fashion show in Paonia CO. It was a fashion show for eco designors, and I was one of Sarah’s models. I was already working for Elisabethan (ecofashion brand) and Sarah had her own line, but she was determined to move to town and work for Elisabethan as well.

That was the beginning of our friendship, and we have worked side by side at 6 different establishments since. We have done a number of making jobs-working for herbal companies that make kits, cutting secondhand clothes into pieces to make new clothing, working at secondhand shops, we’ve even interned for a master carpenter making cabinets and other multi-media projects. We just work well together. We love each other, and even have dogs that are mother and daughter.

We are artists and maker’s and we care about our fellow humans and the planet we live on. We feel everyone should have a voice, and we are looking to start projecting ours, and giving light and voice to others. Our Clothing has pro-choice propaganda screen printed on it, and Refinery by Onyx Moon carries only women owned and made products and carries secondhand clothing as ecological choice for shoppers looking to take better care of the earth and pocketbooks.

Can you tell us about a time you’ve had to pivot?

This last year our little town got cut off from three wealthy mountain towns, and the main road that connects us to the eastern slope and Denver. The run off was so intense that it washed out a culvert and the highway that ran over it. It was out for 2 months of the busy season, and seemed to divert traffic even after it was finally fixed. It was as though people made different plans for the summer and we were off the map.

Our little town doesn’t have a resort, we rely on summer traffic to our wineries and music and fruit orchards to bolster the sales for the whole year. Because of the lower sales in the summer our winter account is running low, and because this is the main way that Kathryn supports her family and pays all the bills, we need to find a new way to bring people in.

Enter the tea shop and gathering place idea. We are getting local teas and have a good amount of hype going for the “stitch and bitch” parties, fashion nights, and just a place to come sit with a cup of tea and do your work, or chat with a friend. So there’s the pivot. We’re adding to the store, reimagining it, to make it shiny and new for the locals.

How’d you think through whether to sell directly on your own site or through a platform like Amazon, Etsy, Cratejoy, etc.

We’ve decided to pivot from printing bulk in a range of colors and sizes in store, to using a print on demand service that allows us to upload a number of designs and messages without needing the large up-front investment. People can select the garment, design, size, and the color they want without us having to have the large overhead needed to keep all of those options in stock. Our Etsy shop is linked to our print on demand site.

Contact Info:

• Website: refinerypaonia.com
• Instagram: Onyx.Moon.Apparel
• Facebook: onyx.moon.apparel