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Duchesse: vintage ventures in the making

February 7th, 2010 | Published in Blog

Duchesse

Words and photos by Maria.

Anna is in the kitchen peeking into the oven. It smells like something is baking in there and that something is sweet. “I’m baking pies for everyone!” she exclaims. “Do you want to try some? They’re almost ready.” The smell is enticing, but what I’m more interested in is what’s a-bakin’ in the next two rooms, because it smells even sweeter. Anna’s friend, known as Skinny Pete, has let her and other vintage pickers like herself turn his home into a makeshift boutique, and their pickings look delectable. A table set up in the corner of what might have been the dining room is filled with jewellery and accessories–one powder case still containing the fragile powder like a relic from a time long-forgotten. There are band t-shirts and coats next to the kitchen entrance, shoes on the adjoining wall, and dresses and bins with many, many accessories in the living room.

And Anna, is on a venture. She’s planning to start her own shop, to be named Duchesse, but having sporadic “guerilla” vintage sales is as good as it gets for now. “We’re looking to open something up by the summer” she explains. “Main Street does not need any more vintage stores so we’re looking to be somewhere completely different.” It’s fascinating to see the process of an idea in the making, and the next step is to have the sales be more known about and have them on a regular basis, making them, perhaps, less guerilla-like. But that’s not a bad thing, since the increased word-of-mouth action is likely to result in buzz for her business venture and the sales to come prior to its opening.

In the bins stacked in the living room I find a colourful scarf with an interesting flower motif in a style somewhere between Japonisme and the glory of the ’80s. I snatch it for a toonie and get on my merry way, but not before making sure I am kept up-to-date with the developments of Duchesse–because that’s a pie I will gladly sink my teeth into.

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