"Our whirlwind weekend came to an end. And man, was it ever a good one. Ottawa ladies love their vintage, and we love Ottawa ladies. We got into our capital city late Friday night after a 6 1/2 hour drive full of construction, traffic and a George Stromboulopoulos sighting at a rest stop in Port Hope. We tweeted that we saw him, and he tweeted us back a picture of him searching for us. It made us totally giddy and made the rest of the drive that much more bearable.
As soon as we arrived at Victoire, we set to work with the help of Regine, Katie and one of their fabulous employees, Emily. Steaming all of the dresses that got wrinkled in the car and sorting all the pieces by colour. [Part of what was so great about having Hollie & Jane bring their dresses is that with so much more selection we were able to merchandise the racks by colour, and it was so beautiful! A full rack of peaches, seafoam and pastels, a rack with every shade of blue, black and grey in the spectrum, another for creams & whites, and finally one for brights!] What a serious haul. We talked about how exquisitely beautiful all this vintage was together, and how sad it is to think that each year the supply will dry up more and more. 
Saturday we opened up bright and early to a lineup of people wanting to check out the collection. I don't think anyone was disappointed. So many good dresses went to so many good homes. There is seriously nothing more satisfying for me than to see an incredible, well-tailored dress fit someone like a glove. They just don't make them like that anymore. A woman visiting from the UK took home two beautifully crafted pieces. A girl walking by who stopped in without knowing that the sale was going on went home with her wedding dress. A couple of ladies bought dresses because they had balls to attend. Balls! [I'm embarrassed to admit that this made me laugh] Making real life fairy tales come true, over here.
Luckily we had some time for sight-seeing this time. I found out the last time that we visited that there are a whole bunch of stray cats that live behind Parliament Hill - The Canadian Parliamentary Cats. Why isn't this common knowledge? Maybe it is. It wasn't to me, anyways. We didn't have time to stop by last year, so I made it a priority that we visit Sunday morning. IT WAS GREAT. Stray cats, living in harmony with politicians, with their own little cat homes. Maybe White Elephant and Victoire will jointly sponsor these cats one day, as it is an volunteer based humane effort. [BEST IDEA!!]
We had some chill out time too. With neighbourhood cats that Regine allows to stay in her apartment [I hope this doesn't make me sound weird!! They just follow me in! And I love them. So there.] We named this one Morris and he snuggled and purred by our sides all night. And pizza [We brought them to Vanier for Louis' pizza! Hollie & Jane started hatching a plan to get White Elephant spelled in pizza dough on their next trip like this one. Also check out my horoscope themed nails in that pizza pic. Susan Miller said I would have a "magical and enchanting week-end", so I painted my nails accordingly. Though they came out a little Harry Potter, I still like them.] and hamburgers [Hintonburger!] and french pastries [Macarons et Madeleines!] and good sandwiches [Art-is-in!]. Cats, good food, vintage and shop talk are common themes when White Elephant and Victoire get together. [There really is no need to ever talk about anything else. Except for inspirational/hilarious youtube videos now and then too.]
[Now the next part is weird for me to post for obvious reasons, but I think it will help to put my extreme gushing about Hollie & Jane in context and not make it seem like creepy weird fandom here.] I seriously cannot gush over Regine and Katie enough. It's so weird to think that we only really met them in real life a mere year ago. It feels like we've known them forever. [It's true! We actually only met for the first time 1 year ago, when they came down for the vintage sale at the Chateau Laurier. But it was INSTANT friendship, and before we knew it we were already making plans to go visit them in Hamilton. Now we hardly go more than 3 months without seeing each other? It's like, when you know, you know!] Without sounding overly cheesy, these ladies are big time inspirations. Our mentors. Smart, passionate, stylish women making a go for themselves, and making their city a better place. [We feel the same way about them! The small business & arts community in Hamilton they've fostered, their beautiful and hilarious blog, their eye for vintage & new designers are such inspirations to us too!] We can only dream that White Elephant will one day achieve all of their successes. If you're in Ottawa, make sure that visiting Victoire is on your list of things to do. You won't get a warmer greeting in the city than you will from these two. [Ditto!]
We already planned our next trip back. We're going to do the vintage sale all over again in the spring. I'll be counting down the days, ladies. And we better start hoarding some amazing dresses starting now. [Ottawa (& Morris) eagerly await your return! Until then, we'll have to keep playing pen-pals. We want our Beyonce tour video back, and we'll send ya the next issue of Faces in a few weeks.]
2 comments:
this looks so fun. it really makes me want to come back to ottawa for the day and see your other store when i drop clothes off and maybe visit the museum of nature (nerd).
Sounds amazing, so sad I missed it but I was in St. John's! Something I must know.. WHERE DOES REGINE GET HER HAIR DONE? It is stellar. Please please share your secret? :) alyssavirginia@gmail.com!!!!!
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