Treasure

After you've lived in the same city for a certain length of time, it's easy to forget, or to stop being able to see, what surrounds you. The daily routine brings you to the same workplace or campus, your favourite coffee shop, your most convenient convenience store. Whether you commute on foot or by car, by bus or bike, your passing surroundings eventually turn into a familiar blur. Am I right? This has certainly been my experience, and I often have to remind myself what a huge number of awesome things to buy, do, eat and look at exist in my downtown St. John's neighbourhood.

One of the treasures I'm thinking about is The Bookery/Sweet Relic on Signal Hill. I had a wonderful visit there on a recent sunny Saturday. The books are so well chosen, and the way they are presented (perched on wooden tables, on the fireplace mantle, in small window sills) made me want to bring them all home. The little kid's section is excellent too. I found some treasures- not just books- this place also sells some quality foodie items, and I bought a package of Birds and Beans coffee, which is delicious. After about two hours, my partner had to drag me away so we didn't miss out on the day's sunshine entirely!

Another treasure of a spot is the Leaside Manor. Though not quite downtown, it's not much of a walk from the west end of Water St. This has got to be one of the best places to stay in the province. A few years ago in the Fall, my fella and I stayed here for a night (in the Confederation Suite) and, though it's actually in walking distance to our house, we both really felt that sensation of being totally removed from the familiar. A very friendly woman welcomed us when we arrived, and otherwise, we were left completely alone. Also, the variety of suites seem to reflect different sorts of moods- some are quite sexy and some are more traditional, and all are lovely. Such a treat.

And of course I include Posie Row in this list, not just because I work here and and know it to be a shop unlike any other, but because I remember this place opening when I was a teenager, and it was always such a treat to visit and wander amongst the great assortment of treasure- from fine silver jewellery to all manner of odds and ends that even my unemployed, teenage self could afford! And as far as the shop goes, the stock has changed, but overall this continues to be the case. Oh the treasure!

World of Good

Okay, so remember how a few weeks ago I wrote a post about sustainable consuming? In that post I mentioned the wonderful company Mata Traders, whose fair trade line we proudly sell at Posie Row. I included a sneak-peek of a few dresses from their upcoming Spring line (which I continue to wait, rather impatiently, for). Well, Maureen and Michelle, the lovely gals who run the company, just sent along this video of themselves talking about all the good things they do! Enjoy!

Hooray for Saucy Ladies!

Nobody beats Anne Taintor's ability to marry vintage images with saucy commentary. The company calls itself "the original vintage humour company," a label likely necessitated by the vast number of imitators who've taken Taintor's 1950s-domestic-goddess-style picutres + cutout-typeset collage formula and tried to replicate it. In my opinion, and though we've carried funny products from Taintor-esque companies, no others quite measure up in terms of quote choices (Taintor's generally have a timelessness and universality) and product choices.

To some degree, I guess you can slap a funny saying and a price tag on just about anything, and eventually someone will buy it. This line, however, is made up entirely of high-quality items that are a mixture of practical and fun, slightly higher-cost to super-affordable. Maybe not everyone would agree with me, but I would categorize the ol' stainless steel hip flask as a practical item. And I would categorize the following saying as hi-larious:

And actually, at $30, this is the most expensive item we carry from the line, so the prices are really pretty awesome. There's also some Anne Taintor stuff I think to be especially clever. For instance, we've seen emery boards printed with a variety of things from a number of suppliers over the years. The Anne Taintor version, however, is made like a big pack of matches with a whole bunch of little "purse-size" emery boards inside ($6) :

So very cool. To add to that, on a recent buying trip, I discovered some *new* Anne Taintor items, which I immediately ordered. The company is now producing a gorgeous line of soaps in flavours like Lemon Verbena, Olive Soy and Grapefruit!

The new stuff hasn't yet arrived, but I'll certainly keep you up to date!

One last thing! I recently discovered something cool- if you go to the Anne Taintor website, you will find on the front page The Anne Taintor Caption Contest! You can enter your suggestion for a photo caption that might end up on their products. Here's the image for February's contest:

So many possibilities...how would YOU caption this?

Brand Spankin' New

Oh paper products, how I love you. Oh stationery and pens and paper clips...ok, wait, I've got to stop geeking out in this semi-public forum (I'm reasonably new to the blogging world and can see myself getting carried away). I do love paper products though, and I'm pretty stoked on the new line I've decided to try out at Posie Row.

The line is extensive, and I'm just testing a carefully-chosen selection for the time being, but I think it's gonna be great. I mean, who could resist a self-inking stamp that so perfectly and succinctly expresses feelings:

 I'm not even someone who uses WTF in any sort of online or other venue, but I can easily picture myself excitedly stamping this all over the place- on tacky items in wholesale catalogues, on mail from Canada Student Loans, on pictures of Mubarak in the Globe and Mail...the possibilities are endless!

(FYI: We also have the "Blah Blah Blah" stamp, the "Thanks for Being" stamp, and the "Crap" stamp. $10 each! Yay!)

I am also coveting each of the four styles of guided journals we've received:

Along with My Dysfunctions and My Sex Life, we've also got I Can't Sleep and In My Humble Opinion (which is about why you're right and everyone else is wrong). $20 each. The 'guided' part of the journal gets you started with prompts like "Why I am dysfunctional today" and "Why sex matters today." They are such fun- I want one of each for me, along with one each for pretty much everyone I know.

Ooooh, also, each journal is full of great quotes pertaining to its subject. By way of signing off here's a Steve Martin one for you from My Dysfunctions:

"You're nuts, but you're welcome here."

Being that it's Valentine's Day...

...I figured I'd post my favourite love song. Enjoy!

Curatorial Ambition

Any travel plans I've made have always prioritized museum visits over most other things. I love museums, and I really love museum shops. They are a particularly fascinating brand of retail space, and I've always harboured a desire to curate such a space. I suppose choosing the stock for any sort of shop is curatorial in its own way and, in the case of Posie Row, the museum-love sneaks in in certain items...more on that in a minute.

On a visit to NYC last year, I was deeply enamoured with the MoMA design store. Such clever items! So beautifully presented! Despite limited suitcase space, I came home with a bunch of goodies, including New York City in a Bag- imagine that! I also really appreciated the attention to designers and design years- this acknowledgement of context makes things seem so much more special (or perhaps I get this from my dad, for whom the Oracle Delphi MKII turntable is as much a work of sculptural art as a Degas dancer. He often laments that the designers of electronic gadgets are rarely publicly credited, and wonders why Sony Walkman inventor Nobutoshi Kihara isn't as big a celebrity as Brad Pitt :)).

Anywho...here is something museum-style carried by Posie Row. It's called an Art Cube, and it's such a neatly compact little item that it often gets overlooked. You can watch a video of one being played with here, though the video doesn't do total justice to the coolness or design variety of this item. We have them in designs ranging from Gustav Klimt's paintings to Monet's Waterlilies to the paintings of Toulouse-Lautrec. The fun of this item exists in the variety of surfaces that can be revealed as you play- apparently there are more than six sides to a cube! Who knew!

Fashion + Sustainability = Win, Win

It doesn't take a working retailer to affirm that today's shoppers are more savvy, educated and demanding (in good ways) than ever before. One need only look as far as the ol' tee-vee, where programs like CBC's Marketplace and W Network's The Shopping Bags attract massive audiences interested in learning not only what to buy, but how to buy responsibly.

At Posie Row, we're experiencing increasing interactions with people who want to be assured that a product is fair trade or, in some instances, made anywhere but China. I recently spoke to a woman whose family had made a collective New Year's resolution to buy nothing made in China for the entire year, food included. They were having a difficult time of it...and it's only February.

The response from many of our suppliers to the demand for fair trade product has been especially notable over the last two or so years. Much like the "green movement," this is likely borne, at least in part, of the current trendiness of fair trade- but hey, as long as such practices are regulated (i.e. qualifying the fair trade claim with the backup of an accredited organization), I think it's a great trend! And regulated they are becoming. A few of our suppliers carry the official stamp of the Fair Trade Federation. Others spend parts of their year amongst the people who make their products, personally overseeing not only design and production, but keeping an eye on wages, working conditions and community impact. Increasing numbers of customers demand transparency with their purchases, and this is the sort of demand I can really get behind.

But wait! This was meant to be a post about sustainability, which is not the same thing as fair trade. So let me get to that...

As a rampant consumer of fashion-y stuff, I have been giving increasing thought to the decisions I make about what to buy and what those decisions are saying (as a consumer, my choices are my voice). I fortuitously stumbled across Summer Raine Oakes' style, naturally: the savvy shopping guide to sustainable fashion and beauty (found in the sale section at Chapters for about 8 bucks). This thorough and fun-to-read resource is a handy how-to for responsible shopping. I'm realizing that I already participate in many of the approaches Oakes suggests to this end, as I imagine do many of you, whether or not you're making a conscious effort to shop sustainably:

1.  Purchase second-hand clothing: In St. John's, options are somewhat limited for buying chic, affordable, quality second-hand duds. Luckily, Model Citizens fills the gap in a big way for men and women alike. I've found so many pieces here of the "I'd wear it every day if I could get away with it" ilk that I've completely lost track. Product here is often chosen by label and quality, so what you're getting is way above the throwaway quality of mall gear, and usually at a much better price.

2. Purchase stuff made from other stuff: At Posie Row, for instance, you can buy beautiful reversible silk skirts/dresses that can be worn about a thousand ways, and for just $36! To top it off, they are made from recycled saris, so not only is every piece different, but the quality of silk is quite high and the purchase is in the interest of sustainable fashion! Win-win-win!

3. Purchase stuff made of durable materials or made close to home, as your wallet allows:
One of our aims at Posie Row is to stock clothing that is not only beautiful, flattering and fun, but durable and still affordable too! This best-of-all-worlds mixture is not easy to find, but we've got a great example in the Mata line (coming in April); beautiful cottons, lovely prints, vegetable dyed and block-printed, fair-trade and affordable. It doesn't get any better than that combination, and I might just be in the market for an embarassing number of these lovelies when they arrive:

That's just a little sneak peek- I'll post more pictures when the arrival date nears.

5. Do the clothing swap thing: Seriously, it's so much fun. A good friend of mine has hosted two such swaps at her place over the last year (six months between swaps seems to be enough time for the ladies to gather more stuff). She provided snacks and drinks and the promise to bring all leftovers to the local Sally Ann (leftover clothing, that is). Amongst other great stuff I dragged home, I found a bunch of pieces that a friend actually bought at Posie Row years ago...lovely cottons, lovely prints, and still in great shape after so many years...whaddaya know!