OLDgOLD BOUTIQUE

The beginning of this whole happening can be traced all the way back to the beginning of me I guess. OLDgOLD is an extension of my persona and of a vision that has been, and still is growing with, my ideas on art, society, fashion and lifestyle.

My parents, who are both world traveling artists in the contemporary dance and theatre community split up when I was a young child. Growing up touring with my mother, and with my father, was the beginning of an international exposure to many alternative lifestyles and cultures. As far back as I can remember I had always been passionate about music and dance, these are my roots and will always be a big part of what I do. My interests later expanded towards fashion, skateboarding, philosophy, entrepreneurship, non-academic social studies, video, graphic design, installation design, clothing design and more recently, drawing. Furthering my academic studies in arts and culture at Dawson College, I began making a living producing and promoting parties and events at various clubs, bars and lofts around Montreal in 2002. As the season would slow down (and get ridiculously cold) in winter I would save up, sublet my room and escape to warmer places. My first four month trip to Asia proved inspirational.

It was refreshing to see that there are places in this world where industry doesn't have such a tight grip on local scenes. In places like Bangkok, Tokyo and Sao Paolo I saw young designers and entrepreneurs able to sell their creations without having to open their own store. Social structure and climate in these areas of the world encourages street and market vendors, a trade which can function independently from government and corporations. Also, there is an abundance of production on many different scales in those places thus easing the work for a young designer. Finding ways to get products made is easy (clothing, accessories, etc), there are options as to where and how the goods can be made. Merchandise can be produced by locals, sometimes employing friends or family, under standard conditions for affordable prices, with very small minimums. You can then buy almost directly from the creators. These aspects combined, in turn facilitate the connection between the maker and the buyer in many ways. Just like buying your produce from a farmer, or meat at the butcher, a connection is made and there is something very human about that. I think this trend can be a vital asset in rebalancing our model of consumption during an age of industrialisation.

It wasn't too long before I decided to spend the rest of my money along with a little borrowed extra cash to select a collection of garments and accessories which I sent back to myself at the end of the first trip to Asia. Montreal doesn’t make it easy for small time businesses like the places I had just witnessed, I had to be resourceful. I managed to secure an area outside my friends clothing store for the St-Laurent street sale while I was still in Asia (which takes place only twice a summer and is quite difficult to access for anyone who doesn’t have a clothing shop on that street), insuring a place to sell the collection once in Montreal. It proved such a success that I went right back to get two more boxes for the August sale a few months later.

During the next few years I'd go get merchandise as a side thing and continued with the event production and winter escapes. I'd sell from my apartment, to other shops, and get in on loft sales with local designers, basically hustling my gear wherever I saw fit. My winter escapes and other buying trips afforded me a lot of time in Asia over the years. I now have a whole other life there, similar to the one I live in north America, where I dj, do parties, photo shoots and of course, manage the buying/exporting for OLDgOLD. I’m good friends with most of the designers who I buy from now. It’s the best atmosphere to conduct business because I’m more than happy in supporting these artists who I know are making an honest living doing what they love. I sometimes wonder if people are conscious of their influence on societal consumption patterns. Supporting independent businesses (in any market), who try to offer something unique, is a step towards a changing the way we consume. It spreads awareness and proper values, as well as establishes communal platforms on which independent businesses can develop. More importantly, it puts money in the hands of honest people which successively helps renew a consumption pattern toward the right direction: The value of which outweighs the monetary savings provided by most mass producers.

Whilst traveling and at home, I noticed myself constantly observing how people like to look, what certain people like to buy for themselves and how these people like to live. For me, making the connection between supply and demand was a clear path to good business. It was just a matter of doing business between people I want to connect, and at the same time creating a new way of consuming (which I may have not invented, but which I thought up as being the right way of running my own business) that is concerned with originality, artistic focus and authenticity, independent thinkers and doers, and even other lifestyle choices like environmental concern, sustainability, and good production conditions and quality. The latter are aspects I plan to sharpen as OLDgOLD evolves.  

As a teenager I had always preferred shopping outside of Montreal because I could be sure that no one back home would have the same pieces I found abroad. I didn’t have the budget to shop in high end stores with limited stock, and didn’t feel like turning to big brand names or franchises with large quantities of the same items. This helped me realise that there was room for an alternative style of shopping in Montreal (and many other cities). A place where you can find unique pieces available in small quantities by good people at an affordable price. This shaped the course of my buying for many years. Instead of booking western lines which require higher minimums and booking 6 months ahead of times, I started off with choosing the few pieces I liked from one shop and moving on to the next picking up my collections right there on the spot. Unrestricted to seasonal bookings made the renewal of my in store stock a lot more fluid and frequent, with new pieces pulled daily. Today I’ve balanced out my buying quite a bit, booking pieces from European and north American lines who fit a likeminded aesthetic and approach, and compliment the rest of my stock. Another angle I like to cover is Vintage: Current and approaching trends can often be accredited to certain vintage pieces, in many instances retouched to suit present day looks. I like adding a dash of new and second-hand vintage to my merchandising as a kind of tribute to the originals, but more so simply because I try not to limit myself in buying. If I like something, I get it.

Reinvesting the profits into the business and building steadily on what I was doing without living beyond my means lead to the opportunity of taking the next natural step: Opening my own boutique in October 2006.

The name OLDgOLD came to me in the year before I opened the shop. I liked the ring of it, and I also enjoy how it balances itself out graphically. I also wanted the name to reflect an entity that is timeless and comes from a period when goods were made with more care. Before industrialisation, people made what they were good at making. Things weren’t as mass produced. A potter made your dishes, a cabinet maker built your table and chairs, your grandmother knit your sweater. Things were made to last, and most importantly, they were made by people who put good energy into what they were doing because they were passionate about what they did. From the people making the products to the ones selling them, they were craftsmen and people who believed in their trade. I was brought up on tales of the times where these things happened. Maybe it’s partly my imagination weaving up these ideas but I wanted to live that magic through this here venture, OLDgOLD.

The aesthetic of OLDgOLD is focused on care and attention to detail. The website design carried through by Liam Oscar Thurston and myself was customized in it’s entirety to fit my specifications. Just like the design of the physical shop a few years prior where I stripped the space down and started from scratch, I wanted to appoint every step of the design, as these were opportunities for me to learn, grow, experience and expose as a creative. The resulting work is surely a reflection of my character and imagination. Both aesthetics are independent one from the other - the physical shop being quite intricate, and the website being more bold, yet they share similar qualities as would siblings. Similarly there are unmistakable parallels between proper parenting and the influence it can have on a community, whether it be concerning real people or real ventures, I know from experiencing it myself that projects like these can inspire other people as an example to trust themselves in creating something that is not part of a pop movement, but rather something that will pertain to open minded independent thinkers who see quality, unpretentious creativity, and magic as part of their lifestyle. 

   - Jonah Leslie, 2009

Press

• 'The Orient Express' in the Montreal Gazette
• 'Gift of Gab' in the Montreal Mirror
• 'Passerelle' in Nightlife Magazine