Toronto Craft Alert

Hollie and Jane on White Elephant’s 1st Birthday

Interview by Jen Anisef

When I mentioned a plan to visit friends in Hamilton, everyone crafty that I spoke to told me “you have to go to White Elephant!” (including said friends).  So I went, and I strongly suggest that you believe the hype!  The boutique (located at 152 James Street North) is a perfect fusion of sweet vintage housewares and stylish crafty goods from indie artists near and far (lots of TO talent represented as well as artists you don’t often find in local shops).  White Elephant ignited my now steadily growing crush on Hamilton – read on to learn more about the shop and the community that hosts it.

First things first: What motivated you to open White Elephant? (And where does the name come from?).
The motivation definitely came from the desire of not wanting to work office jobs for the rest of our lives. We’re both not huge fans of office culture, and thought that our creativity and skills were being wasted sitting behind a desk working on Excel spreadsheets. We had so much more enthusiasm and dedication to give to our jobs, but it had to be something that interested us fully.

The name White Elephant comes from the white elephant sales that we used to go to as kids. The idea that one person’s junk is another ones treasure. That kind of thing. We found out later that White Elephant is actually a term for something that exceeds it’s value and is hard to get rid of. Whoops. Oh well, we still like the name.

You mention on your blog that people thought you were crazy to open the shop in the first place, why was that?
When we toyed around with opening the shop we got a lot of negative response to it from family and friends. They thought that we were nuts to open in the midst of a recession  (ok, we kind of were) and that there was just no market for what we wanted to sell. We’re sure that a lot of it had to do with wanting to protect us from any downfalls, but we’re both stubborn and determined, and were pretty much in the mindset that this is something that we wanted to do with our lives.

A year and a half later we’re getting ready to move into a bigger location (just across the street) because we have been doing moderately ok, and we don’t have any plans of slowing down. We even opened an online vintage clothing shop late last year, Ainslie Wood Co. , and have plans to expand even further.

What has the response been like from the community since you opened?
The response has been awesome. James Street North, we’re we are located, is a street that is still in a transitional phase, so there are definitely a lot of customers who walk in and don’t get the aesthetic or product at all. We frequently get asked if we are a museum, if this is “for art”, if we are a tattoo parlour…etc. But the customers who do get it, really get it. We couldn’t even count how many times we’ve been told that we are someone’s favourite shop in Hamilton. And that feels so good. It’s exactly what we set out to do.

You guys get a lot of unsolicited donations from friends and family…what is your favorite donated item to date?
Hollie: I think it would have to be the broken, out of minutes, no charger included, President’s Choice brand cell phone. Not vintage, not working, not something we could sell EVER.
Jane: My favourite were the dirty and used chopsticks that had obviously been stolen from the Pho restaurant across the street from us.

Tell us about some of your favourite items in the shop, and your inspiration in curating the shop, both in the vintage and handmade department.
Currently we have a big love affair with geodes and minerals in the shop. We love big crystal necklaces, geode earrings. We also love love love fabric covered button earrings. They are so cute and feminine and go with everything. We also love anything bear related. It’s hard to narrow it down to specific artists because we honestly and truly love everything we carry. We appreciate the time and patience that has gone into every item in the shop, as everything we have is either handmade or vintage.

Curating is pretty easy between us. We both completely trust each others taste in things, because it’s so frighteningly similar. Websites like Etsy and Supermarket are huge resources for us in regards to scouting out new artists. We also are lucky enough to know a ton of creative people within the community who we harass until they bring us pretty things to sell. Vintage shopping trips are always fun, and most times are a breeze. We have no method to the madness, we just buy things to carry that we like. It’s as simple as that.

Do you think Hamilton is undergoing a “cultural renaissance” (to steal a buzzword from the City of Toronto) in the arts and craft scenes?
Most definitely. We have met so many creative and artistic people in the past year, it’s mind-blowing.  In the small time that we’ve been a part of it, we’ve watched the Art Crawl grow immensely in numbers. The number of new gallery, studio, and retail spaces that have popped up in the last year is nuts. Watching the street and the community change around us is awesome, and it makes us feel all tingly inside to be a part of it. Hamilton is awesome.

Rumour has it that you are the “funkiest” shop in Hamilton: confirm or deny.
We both confirm and deny. Jane, in a bout of stage fright during an interview with the local news called us “a funky little shop.” Hollie’s husband called it a PR nightmare. While we do consider ourselves a pretty rad shop, we try to steer clear of words to describe it that makes us think of our mothers trying to be young and hip again.

Visit White Elephant online:

Website
Blog
White Elephant Vintage Housewares Shop
Ainsley Wood Co. Vintage Clothing Shop