There’s a sense of change in Ossining these days, with appealing new businesses opening, bringing a fresh vibe to the town. And among the latest of these, on Spring Street, close to the Sing Sing Kill Brewery, is the bright new consignment store Serenity Resale.
Owner Serena Pitt has been a consigner from an early age. “I grew up in Connecticut, in Litchfield County, and I grew up consigning with my mom. It was a fun thing to do every weekend,” she explained. But there’s a deeper family connection to her business, which is located in a building owned by Pitt’s 101-year-old grandmother, Lena. “She had a shop in this space in the ’80, ‘90s and early 2000s. When she came from Jamaica in the ‘70s, she and my grandfather bought some property here, did property management with rentals and then had a retail shop. They sold a little bit of clothing, but mainly furniture, home goods, a little bit of everything.”
Pitt, who moved in with her grandmother, in Mount Kisco, six years ago, fondly recalls her grandparents’ business. ‘It was impressive to me and inspired me to do the same, made it realistic that you could make something for yourself, being an entrepreneur, from scratch.” That, and the energy of the old store, was the draw for Pitt, and then the space chose her.
Trained firstly at music school, Pitt went on to the University of Massachusetts in Amherst, to study food science and sustainability. “That branched out into sustainability in textiles, which connected to consigning – to keeping the clothing circulating, keeping it in the community, and keeping the revenue in the community too.”
A big help, when Pitt was setting up her plans in late 2024, prior to the mid-June 2025 opening, was the input of SCORE Westchester, a resource partner of the Small Business Administration. “They set me up with two fantastic mentors, one with a retail background, the other in marketing. They helped with the business plan, designing the space, advertising, marketing, getting it all to come to life.”
and children too.
Some of her stock is new with tags, but a lot is in “like new” condition that people have had in their closets but that didn’t fit right or missed a return window online. Sixty to 70% of her stock is women’s wear but there are clothes for men and children too, as well as footwear, handbags, jewelry, even some home goods. Prices range from $7 to $37, and goods are marked down by 30% after they’ve been in the store for 30 days.
Pitt stresses affordability. She does stock the occasional designer item, but mainly the clothes are accessibly priced and feature every day, bread-and-butter labels. “I try to be really open what we take. If someone’s going to love it and wear it again, that’s the whole point… It was important to me, and attractive to me, with the consignment business, to do our piece, our small piece, but every little bit adds up. And help the community understand too the importance of recycling and reusing and that there’s so much good wearable clothing out there.”
Other local businesses in Ossining have been very welcoming, she reports, and sales are going well. “With fall season and back to school, we’re really swinging.”
