The Vintage Clothing Shop Owner: Kealan Sullivan of 69 Vintage and Buy the Pound

After talking with the lovely ladies at Pink Mafia I have decided to begin writing about the “Who’s Who” in the current fashion industry. For the past few years I have expressed a strong desire to work within the industry but like many, found it difficult to learn about the many positions that exist in the fashion world. In my upcoming articles I hope to cover stylists, designers, fashion directors and any other influential players in fashion to keep you all informed on the many different positions out there.

For my very first article I decided to interview well-known shopkeeper Kealan Sullivan, proprietor of the popular 69 Vintage. And new kid on the Bloor block Buy the Pound. 69 Vintage, located at 1100 Queen Street West, is what I like to call a one stop shop for all your vintage needs. From 20s beaded flapper dresses to 90s neon windbreakers, one is bound to find a unique piece of clothing they will covet for life. And side note to those who can’t stand the smell of their local Value Village, Kealan takes pride in the fact that each item of clothing is washed ensuring you don’t go home smelling like Grandma’s closet. Also before the items hit the racks, the team takes time to fix broken zippers, sew on missing buttons and patch up any holes. Regardless of the extra mending and tailoring, the prices remain reasonable ensuring you won’t be dipping into your weekly booze budget.

Even easier on the pockets is the not even year old Buy the Pound, located at 1234 Bloor Street West. The basement store is a goldmine of vintage duds which are fairly priced at fifteen dollars per pound of clothing. Unlike the old Goodwill By the Pound, clothing hunters don’t need to be equipped with latex gloves and doctor’s masks to find what they are looking for. Actually very little digging is involved as the majority of the clothing is organized into categories on racks. This store is reserved for the more laidback vintage shopper who could care less about a hole in their 60s minidress.

Late Monday afternoon I met the bright-eyed, fiery Kealan Sullivan dressed in a Canadian fur trapper topper, army button up, ripped jeans and combat-style boots.

We met in her cozy store 69 Vintage to discuss everything from the recession to Mark-Kate and Ashley Olsen to being referred to as the godmother of the Toronto vintage clothing scene. So without further ado…

B: When did you open the store? Because I was here five or six years ago and it was totally different.

K: We opened the store in 2004. It was very sparse, very cold, twice the size. It was myself and two guys who now own The Social who opened together. I had a vision for the store and they had a vision for the store. They wanted 80s chic and sparse and I wanted to build a store that was going to bring everyone in and have something for everyone, which I have successfully done. I still do get the edgy cool kids come in but I also have their parents come in. At the time we met I was trying to open a store in Kensington. They had a successful online business, they were selling mainly t-shirts and they were wholesaling. One of the guys started dating my roommate and the rest is history. I started working with them doing eBay which lasted 48 hours before I was like, “This is so not me”. I knew I wanted a store and they wanted a store but they didn’t run one. They didn’t want to be Retail Guys. So it was actually perfect and then I bought them out because they were so immersed in The Social.

B: How long were you collecting this stuff for?

K: With the focus of having a business and reselling it, about three years. But I was also collecting certain things forever. Except jewelry, I sold through my whole collection of jewelry which took me about four years to build it and it took me about 6 months to sell it, which I regret. I had suitcases and suitcases full.

At this point a customer comes in to return a dress she borrowed for a staff party at the Drake. They chit chat while I peruse the store for hidden gems. Just before Kealan returns she says to the girl in a jokingly manner “Thanks for bringing back the dress”!

B: So you rent out the clothes?

K: I do it mostly for artists. It’s different, if they want the dress for an event, I don’t generally rent like that. I rent for photo shoots.

B: Do you get magazines and stylists calling you to pull samples for photo shoots?

K: Yeah, I’ve done really well with the stylists, that’s the coolest part of the business. Again I don’t charge as much as other places do and I am not as strict. If it is an artist starting out I am a lot more generous as they don’t have a budget. Also lots of musicians have come to me and been like “We’re doing this shoot and we don’t have anything” and I’m like “Just bring it back tomorrow”. I love this stuff and I want it to be worn. Just because someone isn’t buying something doesn’t mean they don’t love it. Not everyone can afford a beaded lace full length dress for only a day, so then I try to use my best judgment.

B: Why did you pick to have the store down here?

K: Actually to be honest I was terrified of having the store here but it was the only logical/affordable place to do it because east of the park was outrageous, and east of Bathurst was even more ridiculous and east of Spadina was obviously not to be even touched. So five years ago this area was still pretty rugged.

B: I came down here five years ago and I remember thinking I had never been to this area before.

K: I had never really been here either. I had never been past Ossington especially for shopping. I used to sit outside in the car and stare at this building and watch people in the neighbourhood and I would bawl. To make matters worse we took the lease over in December and the store opened in May. I kept thinking “This is the biggest mistake of our lives”. The Drake hadn’t opened yet, there was obviously no Starbucks. There was nothing. There was Friendly’s Burgers and art gallery after art gallery. Luckily we had done our research. We knew what was happening in the neighbourhood, we just had to make sure we could hold on that long for customers to catch up.

B: Once it opened, were people coming right away or did it take time?

K: At first it was a wave of curiosity. May and June were good, July was still promising, August was terrifying as summer sucks for retail. Then September and October got busy again so after that we had the confidence that everything was going to be fine. At first it was scary because we hadn’t built a nest egg, you don’t really have the client base, you don’t have a reputation, so really you are no one. The thing that was cool is that really this was the first store like this in city.

B: Do you kind of feel like you are the godmother of the Toronto vintage scene?

K: Well it wasn’t a new concept. I had been to lovely stores in other parts of the world.

B: But here in the city…

K: But here in the city it was a risk. The attitude five years ago was very different. Most people wouldn’t notice how differently girls dress now, but I do. When I first opened nobody wore plaid, nobody wore tights, and nobody wore tights with a shirt [referring to my ensemble]. A lot has changed in terms of the way people dress. It’s hilarious to see. Years ago I was interviewed by Much Music as a style icon and I predicted it’s going to be plaid plaid plaid and wearing an element of every decade. That’s what it’s really about right now. If you can do the 20s dress with the 80s stilettos and the 50s bomber fur and really take all the best elements and make them work, that’s cool.

B: So your new store Buy the Pound…what’s the deal?

K: So there I am selling the stuff that I could maybe sell in here but at 69 Vintage I don’t want to see things with flaws but these days girls don’t give a fuck if there is a hole or a run, they think that’s cool.

B: Quick rundown of Buy the Pound.

K: I fully saw the need in that. I was so tempted to buy things and sell them cheap in my store. I started with the ten dollar bin and then the ten dollar rack and then it was getting a little crowded. I thought that this could be a concept. Even though the items can be slightly damaged or they’re not in demand or they’re oddly sized, if I can negotiate reasonable prices for the items then I can sell them for cheap in the store. Fifteen bucks a pound is actually really good, if you weigh a dress it doesn’t even weigh a pound. Every month now I have been adding more sewing machines there. We just started a whole program teaching people how to sew, how to cut stuff and so on. You can go buy a dress and be like “Can you help me this shorten the dress and fix the waist line”. It’s gives people something to do there.

B: Wow, what a great idea.

K: For Buy the Pound I can buy much crazier styles and I can see what people are into. I’ve been surprised.

B: So you find the clientele is different here as it would be there?

K: There’s a lot of cross over, a lot more than I would have thought. But I don’t work there so I don’t really know. Irene who works there would know. When I hired her in September I explained to her that I opened this because it’s smart but I needed someone with a personality to take it on because I’m here [69 Vintage] all the time. I’ve been here for five years and if I am not here, people are like, “You’re not in your store”. What people don’t get sometimes is that I am working buying clothes while everyone else is working and shopping in the store. Buy the Pound is a year old in April and it’s needed that year of settling itself in. More and more people are calling me about it. I could have done two things. I could have put a lot of money into promoting that place or I could have just given it the whole year to establish itself. You never know how effective advertising can be anyways. This spring I am probably going to put a much bigger promotional push because every kind of company needs. You know, I didn’t anticipate the recession but that store is doing quite well because of it.

B: I think people are foregoing buying the expensive stuff and instead buying classic items that will last. Like we mentioned before style is becoming more and more recycled.

K: For sure. We have entered the era, and I am going to thank Mary-Kate and Ashley Olsen, where girls feel they can pile on whatever. That’s very independent. I say to girls, “Don’t worry, if you want to be a diva, be a fucking diva. If you want to dress like a slut, dress like a slut. If you want to look like your boyfriend, then so be it”. There are no rules anymore.

At this point my tape recorder craps out and I am left to ask Kealan the one question I have been waiting to ask her.

B: When you are out vintage hunting, how do you decide what to keep for yourself and what to sell at the stores?

K: When I am out shopping and I see something, it’s not a question of should I keep it for myself or should I sell it. It just either is or it isn’t.

Meeting with Kealan was a wicked experience. It’s evident from the non-stop phone calls and customers coming in during the interview that the girl has a million things on her plate. She manages to take them on with passion and little fear. She is truly in her element welcoming new and old customers into the store and giving style advice like it were food for thought. Now to those who haven’t yet ventured out to the west end to check out these two vintage gems, please take my advice and go, you never know what you’ll end up with.