The Little Shop - A Treasure Hunt in Montreal

The Little Shop

A treasure hunt in Montreal Carla Alaide Arรณn Rul

The Little Shop

A treasure hunt in Montreal Carla Alaide Arรณn Rul

Cultural Landscape Seminar ARCH 566 Winter 2017 Professor Robert Mellin School of Architecture McGill

Parc Jarry

Jean Talon Market

little Shop

Cimenti Mont-Ro

Université de montréal Polytechnique Montréal 2

Parc La Fontaine

Université du Québec à montréal

ière oyal Places des Arts Chalet du Mont-Royal

Université mcGill

Palais des confrès de Montréal Basilique Notre-Dame de Montréal 3

4

The The Little Shop or La Petite Boutique is a vintage vintage store located in 1002 Avenue Ogilvy, Parc Extension. The sign located next to the door is not so easy to see, but if you look closely you’ll clearly see the name of the store. The owner decided to keep the original sign with the name in English. The place it’s not easy to find, probably you’ll have to ask to be able to locate the store, but once you find it you’ll not forget your way. The boutique it’s located in an old brick house in the corner of the streets Avenue Ogilvy and Rue Birnam. The main entrance leads you to a beautiful small space full of all kind of vintage articles.

The space is not curated so you’ll have to take your time and explore the store from side to side, it might take you a while and you might fell like you’re in a treasure hunt but it will be worth it.

The shop is opened to the public just four days a week and only a limit time of hours, Wednesday, Thursday and Saturday from 14:00-17:00 and Sunday from 12:00-15:00. The rest of the days the owner works directly with the show business, the articles she owns are used in all kind of projects but especially in movies and plays.

5

6

The store started around 50 years ago with Ann Silverstone and her best friend Phyliss Lewis; together they kept the store working, having an incredible collection that includes all kind of articles, colors, textures, and decades you can imagine. The first time you enter the store you fell a little overwhelmed, there is so much to see so you don’t know where to start precisely, or at least for a clueless person as me that’s what happens, it might be easy if you go with the idea of what you are looking for. The first space is the living room, if you look to your left as you walk through the door you will be able to see some old photographs and posts, in one of the photos you can see the original owners of the shop; in this area you can find a little bit of everything, hats, bags, jewellery, dresses, cameras, brooches, miniatures, clocks, jewellery boxes, scarfs.

In the room to the left you can find kids clothes and toys, then alongside this space you can find the stars to the basement. If you keep walking through the hallway you will find three more spaces, two to the left and one at the end.

First you will see a little room with a lot of quilts and bed sheets of different kind of materials. The second room is an old bathroom that now works as a hanger and a tea dispenser. The third space is a room full of boxes, baskets, steel pots, plates and cups, porcelain miniatures, pots and mugs, ties, corsets, jackets, scarfs, sweaters, vest and pillows.

7

The basement floor is basically full of clothes, principally all from before the 60’s but now with the 80’s and 90’s coming back again you can also find some collections from that decades. As you go down the stairs you see some bangs hanging from the walls and some shoes places one pair in each stair. When you reach the floor you first see a shelf full of skirts, the space automatically leads you sight to the right, so first you see a pipe full of jackets and coats hanged, then as you continue walking you find women clothes, dresses, jackets, coats, blouses, t-shirts and even all kind of shoes, after that you will find a extend collection of fur coats, all the styles you can imagine. Pants are also available in a shelf next to the wall. Under all the hanging clothes you will find suitcases and vintage boxes, you will be surprised on where you’ll be able to find something hidden. To the left and behind the women clothes you can find men garment. It’s a really big space where you know you will find a special piece of clothes from your preferred decade.

8

9

10

To access the second floor you have to go outside the store and enter a second door, then you have to go up the stairs and you will find a floor full of housewares. Eight spaces are located in this floor, where you can find a large collection of the nicest glassware, porcelain, steel pots, shelves, paintings, quilts of the materials you can think about, old writing machines, pillows, lamps, books, old VHS’s, kitchenware and more. This second floor it’s not open all the time, you have to ask Jill to open the door so you can access the space, a lovely collection of the most delicate materials that please every costumer.

11

PLANS

Vests

Corsets

Blouses

Jackets

Shirts

Porcelain

Sweaters Scarfs

Figurines Hats

Dresses

Clothes

Bed sheets

Quilts

Jewelry

Kid’s clothes

Dolls

Porcelain

Books

Ground floor plan 13

Coats

Shoes

Jackets Coats Dresses Suitcase Shoes

Women clothes Jackets

Skirts

Fur Coats

Jackets Coats

Pants

Basement floor plan 14

Magazines

Dresses

Pots

Books

Paintings Kitchenware Fabrics Dishes

Books

Dishes

Books

Dishes

Dresses

Pots

Books

Quilts

Porcelain Pillows

Quilts Pots Bed sheets

Bed sheets

Porcelain

Second floor plan 15

February 23, 2017. Approximately 4 pm.

Jill Moroz

My mother started in different ways, she was a product of the depression so she always sold things from her basement, she always got things for her brother in law who gave her thing for a seconds from the factory, she was always trying to make a few bucks, she grew up in the area, she had seven kids, that was her way and she started looking for… I think the way the shop really started was because Phyliss her partner bought a house in the country, in the 40’s or 50’s and she was helping her furnish it so they will go to sales and my mother son discovered that nobody else was buying beautiful things, textures, lace from the churches, from you know, just didn’t exist back then and she just got the bug and had very good taste, she also used to have an art gallery upstairs and showed new art and things like that so she was in that world of art and growing into it and just got better and better and realized there was beauty in the old and she was interested in textures and it brought a lot of women who where in art, women art, handicrafts, quilts, sewing, broidery, and a lot of artist and her children, me included, where in the fashion and in the film business and it was a natural thing for us to bring our industry here and that started her in the whole rental and selling to films and theater world and samples for fashion and textures so she was exposed to a lot of different areas and it just grew word of mouth.

It wasn’t open all the time but she did have a few hours but it was more worth of mouth, like it is still now although there’s set hours, there’s not advertising or anything like that, it’s more for people who work and use it as a source for theater, stylist, films, you know, the few people who come here and buy or anything are just an afterthought. It’s not a commercial enterprise, it’s more an unique place and it’s not a place that need to be exploited or promoted, it wouldn’t be successful if it was because it’s a particular presentation and a particular milieu and it only is for a certain part of the population so there’s not point in trying to be out there as a commercial enterprise. It’s the way I like it.

16

17

18

What kind of stuff do you like to collect?

I buy all different types of things, textures, old clothing, I try to keep everything pre 1960, it’s rare that I buy something after but the exception to that rule is now 70’s and 80’s are popular so I sometimes buy collections of that in clothing and I also since my mother I added a lot of designer clothing, vintage and even recent, if I see it or if I’m offered it I buy it because I see there’s a huge demand for it and when I say designer I mean like luxury goods like Dior, Versace, Japanese designers, and people like that a lot., it’s a bigger investment for me and I don’t like to have things that are that much more expensive in the store, I like to keep prices down, that’s another thing about the shop, is that I like to make it available so a lot of other vintage and second hand shops do come to me to buy their stock, that’s another aspect, but the things that I have to pay a lot for I have to sell for a lot so, I don’t like it because it doesn’t make it available to the young people, I like them to be able to buy vintage and what I have at an affordable price, it’s important I keep that going and it also pushes the stuff out to turns it, so the designer stuff it’s more price but it ads something to the shop I guess.

Where do you recollect all of this?

I go to all types of sales but I don’t buy one thing to resell because I never know what the films and theater and people want, I’m not that good, but I do, like I buy when someone is moving and if I live everything in their home I’ll buy the hole place and I’ll go through it.

Is there any object that you find really interesting or with a lot of history?

Well I have things, I recently buy a huge collection from a costumer and that is a lot of the stuff I buy, people in the film and theater business, they collect a lot, they have a lot or they rented and buy it back, a lot of that its back and forth and recently buy a huge collection, it was a huge thing for the shop, a huge investment and everything and a lot of it was from 1850 and 1910. The thing about this is place is that is like a star, it has all different points that come together to make a very interesting week, I have musicians, stylist in fashion, I have film people, I have young people, I have regular people and all that different, it’s all the people that come into the shop that make it so different and they are curi-

19

ous cause again, it’s not for everybody but people who come here have a little bit of a creative or to find themselves or to express themselves and it’s a unique place for that and for someone like me it really stimulates me and I really like it and I think Phyliss who has been here over 50 years can tell you also that it’s very stimulating.

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

31

32

33

34

35

36

37

38

39

40

Phyliss Lewis When this started?

55 years ago, (around 1962), we have been in this building since 1980’s, there where two other shops before these one, it started in the basement of the apartment I was living in, that got to small then we move across the street, that was to small then Jill’s mother bought this house and we moved here, that was in the 80’s, and she thought we had all the room we needed but we don’t as you can see.

How did you start this?

Jill’s mother, she was my dear friend and I don’t know why she started, she was interested in arts and she had a lot of things, she had seven kids and we went out, I was looking for things for my summer house, really, so we went, we bought furniture and it just sort of grew it and then we had to move because we didn’t have enough room, and she was always interested in arts, and quilts, and textures, and things, she was a lovely lady, dear friend.

What do you find most interesting about this place?

It’s hard to say, it’s all interesting, I like it, because I meet people, young people and it keeps me young and interesting people, lovely things to look at, it’s all interesting.

I think that all things have a great value because of the history they went through Yes, you wonder whey they where, who made them, where they lived, everything picks up a history.

Is there a specific object that you find interesting?

I like the laces, the textures, materials, trying to figure out how were made and who made them maybe, so that’s interesting, but it’s all wonderful, there’s not a specific thing, and this is Jill’s mother, terribly, she was a good friend, she had an eye open for art and textures, she loved all the textures, you can see cause they are all around here. We just grew with Jill, when Jill took over I was so glad she did because I was here, she had to take me too, I was leaning against the wall so I had to come too.

So what is the most interesting thing you have seen so far in here?

Meeting people, interesting people, we have a lot of celebrities in here, theater people, you can learn something from all of them, listen to their stories, I just love

41

coming, that’s all, I guess I’ll have to stop one day but so far I’m still able to come.

But everything it’s interesting if you look around. And there’s a collector for everything, there’s someone who’s collecting either elephants or people who want turtles or there’s a lady who wants clowns, everything, there’s someone always collecting things. And it’s interesting to always see old things, things from Queen Victoria or her son Edward, it’s good to have and it’s a good place to be three times a week. Jill gave me my 90’s birthday a while ago; I’m 94 so if I keep going I’ll make a 100 years, if the shop stays.

42

43

44

Jill Moroz For also the experience of the shop is that today everything its online and impersonal, and mail ordered and chain stores and here it’s an experience that you used to experience everyday as we grew up, the small shop, finding something unique and different, even going further like at the old curiosity shopping in England having a cup of tea and a cookie and knowing the person who owns it and so that experience is something that a lot of people don’t get to see anymore, mostly the younger generation, everything is depersonalised and that part of it, and in juxtaposition I went on social media because I felt the need to show what I have and know that people communicate by that I felt it was a good combination and also an odd one so I don’t sell or anything on Instagram or Twitter but I educate, I take a picture of everybody who comes into the shop, the celebrities and I show a lot of my new things, just to create, otherwise I’ll be invisible in general, and It’s also a continuation of a tradition that when my mother had the shop she took a picture of everybody who came into the shop and printed it and sent it to them as a souvenir, and so when I took it over when my mother died 9 years ago and I was helping her, I didn’t think that I could continue that tradition and one of my children suggested I continue it but adapted to todays world which is using the phone and putting it on the social media and it worked out very well, it updated and gave me an outline also, also the tradition of the photographs comes even further back because my father who fought in the World War II and enlisted twice since 1939, he also pass away 30 years ago, he was also a unique person and he took a picture of everybody he ever meet in his whole life, and documented it and when he died he left all his children, seven, all his albums, they were a couple of hundred albums and they were all classified from year to year and what it is and so my whole life and everything so that was a continuation from my father to my mother and I tried to maintain it and that where it came from.

But I do find social media did sort of an awake to the shop, bring the new generations to the shop, and that’s one of the reasons why I decided to continue the store, I wasn’t that anxious, it wasn’t my vision, I grew up here, I helped my mother, I knew everything about it, I brought the fashion business, I brought the film business, I

45

worked in both, but it wasn’t my vision but I had to find my way in there and one of the ways was to do the social media and bring it up to date, and I just felted there was life in the shop, you know the last ten, twenty years my mom was getting older, she died at 90, she wasn’t as proactive here and everybody working here was over 80 and they hadn’t been upstairs and they hadn’t clean and everything was sort of dying down and I just felted that there was a whole new generation of your age that would be interested in it, I saw something here that was unique and incredible so I spent the last, I have been here 9 years, it took me 5 years to clean it, and took me a couple years to figure it out where everything was, thanks to Phyliss, otherwise I wouldn’t know where, I suddenly got more confident about it, I brought my own footprint to the shop but it stayed uniquely my mothers vision and we had similar taste, I have a few things but we have to expect that.

46

47

Textures

49

50

51

52

53

54

55

When the professor asked us to find a place we would like to study I was a little lost, a was new in Montreal and I knew anything about it so I didn’t know where to start, at first I started looking for vintage stores because I have always find the interesting and The Little Shop was rated as one of the best in Montreal, but there was not much information about it, so that is how I decided to work in there. The store is located in a residential neighbourhood so from the outside it looks like a normal house, it would be difficult to see it from the other side of the street and guess that the Little Shop it’s located behind those walls, so it might look like it’s getting lost in the space but it’s the opposite, before, when the store was being run by Ann and Phyllis didn’t have a set schedule and advertisement, it was just what people around knew and recommend. Now thanks to the technology and some apps like Yelp it’s easier to locate it, it doesn’t have a web page but you can find a Twitter and Instagram account where you can see the new stuff that arrives to the store as well as the people that goes there.

Before I had never take the time to analyse a space like this, a little shop, just like the name, that is full of vintage objects that have a history behind them, every single object, how the first owners used it and how it arrived to there, to the store and now to your hands, how some things simple catch your sight and makes you want to buy them to gave it a new life. Also not a common person would be able to sustain this kind of store, take the time to recollect and really appreciate vintage clothes, objects, shoes, etc. and to find in them a value that a lot of people don’t appreciate, to gave them a new use and find them a new owner to keep their story going.

56