Archives: vintage clothes

On a recent hot and sunny weekday Steve and I decided to do a mini day trip to St. Catharines’ old downtown strip.  To be truthful I had not been in St. Catharines since I was a little kid and the only thing I remembered about the city were its 1970′s suburbs and that huge bridge that crosses over the Welland Canal that makes you feel like you’re driving right up to the sky.  I’d never been to the old downtown St. Catharines and I was pretty excited to take a looksy.

St. Catharines’ downtown is capital O-L-D (for a Souther Ontario city).  According to Wikipedia:

The area was originally known as a storehouse for goods at the crossing of an Iroquois trail over Twelve Mile Creek. Curving Indian trails formed the foundation of the downtown streets as they appear today. Among them remains the largest and most historically-significant of the city, St. Paul Street.

Unlike many planned North American cities whose downtown streets run in a straight grid-like line St. Paul Street curves and meanders along a little ridge mimicking the winding rivery creek that used to run behind it.  There’s no creek back there now, but there is a highway.  This is just my guess as the only indications that there was an old running river was from some old writing I noted on the side of current artsy occupants of Bang On hair salon‘s building that says that it used to be an old flour mill -presumably powered by the current of the river that used to flow behind St. Paul Street?

In any case, our first stop on our mini trip was the  Niagara Artists Centre, which I had been wanting to visit for a quite a while.  It is not by any means a monstrosity of a gallery but similar to the 1-2 room gallery space of  Hamilton Artist Inc.

Artist Jared Charzewski‘s exhibit Salvage Swell was installed in the back gallery.  It was awesome! His sculpture was made up of piles and piles of used clothes.

*Niagara Artists Centre, 354 St.Paul Street, St. Catharines 905.641.0331

A few doors down was vintage clothing store Out of the Past -I know, I know Hamilton has one too but this one is the numero-uno original and I loved it! The prices were so right, and there was such a great collection of items for both men and women.

*Out of the Past, 340 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines 905.288.6007

The next place we happened upon was a real treat.

The Write Book Shop is one of those bookstores that you can get lost in for hours and hours and still have a stock pile of rainy days banked to come back for further exploration. They had two floors plus several back rooms of books ranging form rare antiques to classics, children’s books, books on Ontario, history, crafting, cooking and sewing. You name it they have it.

*The Write Bookshop, 285 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines 905.684.8426

For lunch we stopped in at a vegan restaurant/bakery/café called Rise Above. I first heard about this place via the folks at Mjolk and it looked so good that we decided to check it out for ourselves. The lunch was great and so was the Bill Murray painting exhibit (Still Murray by Grant Redman) but my favourite part of this stop were the vegan donuts. Yeah, it IS possible -vegan donuts!  AND they were good.

You can read more about the creator of these vegan donuts -Kyle Paton here.

I would love for both Kyle (owner of Rise Above) and Bruce Worden (chef or Rise Above) to open up a fresh and contemporary place like this in downtown Hamilton. Can’t you just picture it in one of the storefronts of Treble Hall?

*Rise Above, 120 St. Paul Street, St. Catharines 289.362.2636

I was reading that similar to Hamilton downtown St. Catharines was rampant with one-way streets. In effort to rejuvenate the core they converted their one-ways to two-ways and low and behold look at the new businesses opening up. I’ve even heard rumours of the rerouting of the Niagara Wine Route so that it will eventually pass through St. Catharines’ downtown. Gotta love good city planning and investment in the downtown core!

Overall it was a great little day trip to St. Catharines. I think that it has something going on, and besides I’m always up for a new place to explore.

 

This month’s artcrawl is going to be a good one!  SO many things going on;  Steve and our talented friend Jamie Lawson both have their solo openings tomorrow night, there’ll be the super-fabulous vintage dress sale that White Elephant is hosting, and CBC Hamilton will finally have their official doors open for the crawl too (yay)!

Some sneak peaks…

Steve’s show is called Straits, and is amazing!  It features new 2D and 3D works using mixed media, metal, and routered wood.  His show will be up at b contemporary gallery at 226 James St. North until June 2nd.

Up on the 3rd floor of 126 James St.  North, be sure to check out Jamie Lawson’s exhibit Albedo in Sylvia Nickerson’s Open Studio.  His work is looking fab, and he will also have some prints for sale to adorn your lovely walls.

To get your one of a kind 1940′s-60′s vintage dress you must check out White Elephant’s Dreaming of Dresses -vintage dress sale!  They’ve got the combined super-power forces of Ottawa’s Victoire, Hamilton’s Peacock Chic, and Toronto’s Love in the Afternoon to put on the best vintage dress sale you’ve ever seen!

With the quickly warming weather this art crawl is sure to be a busy one.  I heard that last month the count was 6000 people!  Well done.  If you do plan to stop by the crawl it runs form 7-11pm and please remember to bring a non perishable good to Cannon & James North (specifically baby formula and baby food)!  Help your community!

 

The other day I was walking by Hawk & Sparrow vintage clothing store and I fell in love with their romantic spring-scene window display.  I loved the hot pink cherry blossom (sakura) flowers and the bright red-orange colours of the kimono.  Everything about the display pulled me right in and got me thinking about shopping for the spring season.

If you haven’t stopped by Hawk & Sparrow yet you should.  There are beautiful hand selected items from local Hamilton designers, a wonderful and delicate selection of men and women’s vintage finds, jewellery, shoes and accessories.

With the temperature at 15+degrees today, and crocuses already in bloom does this mean that spring is here to stay?

 

For another Hawk & Sparrow sneak peek check out my blog post here.

*Hawk & Sparrow, 126 James St. north, Hamilton, Ontario

The past few weeks has seen lots of action on Ottawa Street.  Just 2 weeks back on September 16th Ottawa Street hosted Sew Hungry: Food Truck and Restaurant Rally 2011.  I heard about the event the day of, when I saw this poster at Downtown Bike Hounds.  I was already on my way out for a lunch date so I was sad that I didn’t get to sample all of the latest gourmet trucks that have been popping up around the city and around southern Ontario.

Apparently the first Sew Hungry Food Truck event saw 8000 people attend!  The rally featured local trucks; Gorilla Cheese‘s gourmet grilled cheeses, Sweetness Bakery and Cupcake Diner‘s gourmet cupcakes plus a whole slew more of out of town speciality food trucks.  If you’re into the latest food truck craze that’s been hitting the hammer, you’ll also be happy to know that there is also the super amazing Sweet Ice snow cone stand/trailer, which made their appearance at this year’s Supercrawl. Sweet Ice  is hosting a dance party event this Saturday, October 1st at Vasco Da Gama; 175 James St. North, featuring DJ Donna Lovejoy on the 1′s and 2′s, plus there’s promise of a giant lite brite AND mixed drink snow cones!

There’s been big changes happening on Ottawa Street the past few years.  I remember when I was a kid, when Ottawa Street was primarily known as a garment district.  I’d come down with my mom to get fabric and supplies for extravagant dance recital outfits.

Things have been changing over the years and it appears as though Ottawa Street tells a similar story to that of how Locke street looked a few years back (when the street consisted mainly of antique shops, many of who have moved on down to Ottawa Street where the rent is more affordable).  There are still some fabric stores complemented by upholstery shops, a giant wallpaper store, restaurants, delis, and an art gallery.  The storefront landscape is for sure evolving .

I recently visited the strip for some antiquing.  My first stop was to the latest edition to the block; Steel Town Pickers at 180 Ottawa St. north.

There are more antique stores on Ottawa Street.  More than I can count on my fingers these days.  Below are some photos from various antique stores on the strip.

Antique Avenue, which is my favourite antique store, opened up nearly 9 months ago with a huge stock of antique and vintage that came primarily from one man’s personal collection. To read the story click here.

Every time I go by this store I always make sure to pick up a little something.  It’s a great place to buy super unique gifts.  There’s an amazing selection of vintage magazines, books, tins, jars, dishes, toys, furniture, frames, tools etc.  You name it they’ve got it.  The owner’s of the store Tom Watson and Adam Hughes always give out great deals too.

Ottawa street is also home to a weekly farmer’s market, the first Tim Horton’s ever, a super record store, and regular and awesome sidewalk sales.

*Antique Avenue, 329 Ottawa St. north, Hamilton, Ontario, 905.547.7168

I absolutely love all the new stores that are opening up in downtown Hamilton.  I was so happy to hear the buzz about this gem of a store.  Located in the old Factory: Hamilton Media Arts Centre, Hawk & Sparrow at 126 James St. is the latest store to pop up on James north.  It’s another welcome addition to their recently new next door neighbours HOME; antique store and furnishings.

Hawk & Sparrow store owner Sarah Moyal has a sharp eye for choice selections of vintage clothing finds for both men & women.

I like the minimalist feel to the store in that the racks aren’t crammed.  There’s just the right amount of eye candy, perfect for easy browsing.  The style selection ranges from retro 80′s glam, and sparkle, worn jean and leather jackets to soft, and romantic skirts and delicate knits, shirts and blouses perfect for the summer to fall transition.

*Hawk & Sparrow, 126 James St. north, Hamilton, Ontario

I’ve always loved the corner of Walnut and King.  It’s home to some beautiful old buildings that are in great condition, well maintained, and in the recent past have previously been vacant. However…

Last fall I was over the moon to see the consignment shop MODify Your Closet open up right on that block. I remember the very day it opened it because I basically ran right in.  The physical store space itself is gorgeous.  Owner Melanie McArthur and store manager Ally Amato renovated the space themselves stripping it back down to it’s  bare bones -original wood floors, and tin 14 foot high ceilings.  Pretty much restoring the 100 year old+ building to it’s primordial state.

MYC now carries men’s wear too along with a great selection of carefully selected men’s & women’s shoes, clothes, vintage ties, with a huge collection of women’s accessories from hats, scarves and belts down to clutches and purses.

I regularly peak in and peruse the choice selection of vintage and gently used designer finds.  With every season change the ladies at MYC put on some fantastic sales of up to 50-70% off nearly everything in the store.  I’ve found some amazing steals, and will boast my purchase of 2 denim rompers (because 1 is never enough!), a super cute red and white polka-dot shirt and an adorably sexy black dress ALL for a total of $48!

Another recent addition to the collection of great finds at this store is the vintage pyrex cookware.  Love it!

For more information about this great consignment store read The Hamilton Spectator article about MODify Your Closet  here.

 

*203 King St. east, Hamilton, Ontario, 905.522.2229, M-F 10-6, S 12-5