The name comes from two people.

Rullow is me — Clifford Rullow. Jacobs is my grandfather, Samuel Clifford Jacobs, a man I never had the chance to meet. But I visited his store in Grenada as a child, and you could still feel his presence there. Samuel was awarded an MBE — Most Excellent Order of the British Empire — for his service to Grenada and Carriacou. He ran a general store that was the centre of the community: groceries, clothing, building supplies — everything the people around him needed, under one roof. That spirit of bringing good things to the people around you, of being genuinely useful to a community, has stayed with me ever since.

My own education in objects began earlier than I realised. Regular visits to the Conran Shop in London had already opened my eyes to what retail could be — the idea that beautifully designed things, presented with intention, could change how everyday life feels. I found a similar conviction in the story of Design Research, Benjamin Thompson's pioneering store in Cambridge, Massachusetts, which had championed the same belief decades earlier: that good design should be lived with, not preserved behind glass.

Those influences came into sharp focus in the mid-nineties at L'homme, a men's store in Manchester carrying Comme des Garçons and Yohji Yamamoto. The store had been designed by Andrée Putman — one of the great interior designers of the twentieth century — with furniture from her Ecart International. I joined the store, worked there, and learned what it meant to sell objects that were genuinely worth owning. It was my real education in retail, in craft, and in the relationship between a space and the things it holds. When I eventually opened my own store in Manchester, I was building on everything L'homme had taught me.

Then came New York. I was ready for a change, and the city delivered — the energy, the ambition, the sense that anything was possible. But it's crossing back over the water to Jersey City at the end of the day that I've always loved. There's a quieter vibe there that feels like home.

Settling in Jersey City, I moved from fashion into residential home design — collaborating with designers, learning how thoughtful objects shape the spaces people actually live in, and deepening a conviction that had been building since that first visit to the Conran Shop: that the things you surround yourself with matter.

Rullow Jacobs is the culmination of that journey, and a continuation of my grandfather's. A curated collection of modern and mid-century furniture and objects, chosen for people who believe that living with beautiful, well-made things is worth it. Every piece is here for a reason. Not because it photographs well — because it earns its place in a room over years, not weeks.

We're glad you're here.

Cliff, Founder · Rullow Jacobs · Jersey City, NJ · Est. 2025