The Family Jewel: Stephanie's Marks 40 Years of Selling Fine Arts, Jewelry, Accessories & Gifts
The year was 1984. The minimum wage was $3.35. The most popular car in America was the Chevy Cavalier. And a young interior designer from Haddonfield was about to open a shop that would outlast the phone booth.
At the time, interior designer Stephen DiMuzio was working on a project for the Hyatt Hotel in Cherry Hill when through a stroke of luck or fate, he acquired a massive collection of antiques and collectibles and decided to open a little store to sell them.
He purchased the merchandise from a family friend named Lillian Meyers, with whom the DiMuzios were very close.
“He came home from work one day and said, ‘I’m going to open a store in Cape May to sell Mrs. Meyers’ collection,” recalls his wife and business partner, Angela DiMuzio. “I said, ‘Oh, really?’ thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, our daughter Stephanie was only 5 years old, our son Stephen Christopher was only 9.’”
She quickly realized that her husband was serious. He got a storefront, set it up using his designer’s eye, and named the store after his daughter. On Easter Sunday in 1984, they opened Stephanie’s in Cape May. “I’ll never forget it,” Angela shares. “The kids were giving out carnations to everyone at the door. It was a wonderful time, and my husband was going to make it work no matter what.”
And “make it work,” he did.
Forty years after that fateful Easter, business is still booming at Stephanie’s, now located in Stone Harbor, where you can find fine art, jewelry, accessories, and gifts. While their son has a successful sales career in Florida, the rest of the family is still running the store. And little 5-year-old Stephanie has grown into a sought-after artist, whose beautiful line of “Fine Art Expressions” greeting cards are among many popular items in the store.
In fact, the complementary individual talents of the DiMuzio family have surely played a role in the store’s enduring success. Stephanie is the artist and stylist, Angela is the people person, and Stephen remains the design mastermind and driving force behind the store.
“My dad is so proud of this business,” says Stephanie. “This is my dad’s story. This is his legacy.”
Angela concurs: “My husband is an amazing man. He has an energy like no one I’ve ever met before and he’s just so smart. He has a wonderful gift that he can come into a room and tell you exactly what you have to do to make it the best. He has a lot of foresight. He knows what things are going to look like.”
Of course, foresight is essential to keep a retail business humming for 40 years, and the DiMuzios certainly knew how and when to pivot through the years. For example, as they began to shift away from the antiques and collectibles, they were in the right place at the right time when it came to Troll Beads.
“My mom discovered Troll Beads in 2014; they were from Denmark and popular in Europe,” says Stephanie. “All of a sudden everybody came from all over. There was a skill to putting the bracelets together, which is a design element that I had as an artist.”
In fact, Stephanie’s was only the second store in the entire U.S. to sell the in-demand jewelry.
“The beads were beautiful, and they told a story, and every bead had a meaning,” Angela recalls. “You couldn’t get in the store! We had lines around the corner. It was crazy.”
While trends have come and gone, Stephanie’s has managed to maintain a level of warm service and tasteful artistry that keeps customers coming back. Indeed, artwork from Stephanie herself has become a customer favorite over the years.
“I eventually had a body of paintings that I start selling in the store,” says the Moore College of Art & Design grad. “Then I started getting commissions from people who were coming in and have homes here. It’s been really wonderful.”
When she founded her own line of greeting cards featuring her artwork called “Fine Art Expressions” in 2011, Stephanie hit on yet another popular item. “We sell thousands of her cards,” says Angela. “Stephanie is so well loved, and her artwork is amazing. She has the most beautiful cards, you can frame them, they’re that beautiful.”
Beyond the artwork, cards, and helping customers in the store, Stephanie now also teaches children, teens, and adults painting and drawing in her own studio and through the Cape May County Library system, including classes at the Stone Harbor Library. “I found that I love teaching, I’m very passionate about it,” she says.
So, just as Stephanie the person and the artist has evolved over these 40 years, so has the store named in her honor. Moving through a couple of locations in the heart of Stone Harbor, they now sit comfortably in a store, thoughtfully designed by Stephen, at 9720 Third Ave. The store and the DiMuzios have managed to continue thriving through the ups and downs of changing styles, a global pandemic, health challenges, and devastating floods. Through it all, they still focus more on what they’ve gained than what they have endured.
“I’ll never forget how it felt after Hurricane Sandy to have to strip the whole store. The sadness, and the loss, because we had personal things that got lost, too,” says Stephanie. “But then to see the people who showed up, who cared and reached out, it was unbelievable.”
And year after year, it’s been those people, those customers, who keep Stephanie’s a family business that’s bigger than the family who started it. “We have amazing customers who are like family we’ve gathered over 40 years,” says Angela. “I love the people we’ve met along the way.”
To mark their 40th anniversary in business, the DiMuzios are giving out free, reusable bags, beautifully illustrated with a beach scene. And they’re feeling a great sense of gratitude for the store and all the people who have made it more than a collection of merchandise.
“We are very, very blessed,” says Angela. “We love this business, and we’ll do it as long as we can. Our customers are just phenomenal people. They’ve left an imprint on our hearts that we’ll never forget.”
