Just in time for summer, there’s a new shop on Ossington where you can buy all the adornments for your inner beach goddess. Shop owner Silvina Antunes is part-vintage curator and part-crochet designer. With long mermaid-esque hair, and an ever-rotating wardrobe of bright, whimsical outfits, Antunes perfectly suits the vibe of her brand, On the Map.

Her colourful, detailed creations come in every shape you can imagine — from bucket hats, shrugs and sweaters to festival tops and full-length dresses. The rest of her shop is stocked with her favourite vintage pieces including everyday Y2K apparel, ’70s bell bottoms and bohemian tops and ’80s sequined party dresses.  

It may as well be her own personal closet, and yet you can walk into it right off of Ossington and College at 454 Ossington Ave. While she’s overjoyed to start sharing her personal taste with the neighbourhood, Antunes says that four years ago, she never would have imagined herself operating a retail business. 

Though she was always a vintage shopper and began knitting in high school, she was set on a different career path. In 2013, she was studying international development, and taught herself to crochet simply to keep herself from getting bored during the summer break. 

Soon enough, Antunes found herself unable to put her crochet hooks down. “I became kind of obsessed with it,” she says. “I was making all kinds of clothes for myself and eventually started giving stuff away to my friends because I was stockpiling it in my house. That’s when people suggested that I try selling it.” 

But her plan was to work overseas when she graduated, so she began applying for jobs while working at a bar. It seemed unlikely that she’d find time to dedicate herself to a crochet business — that is, until COVID hit and forced her to re-imagine her future. 

Since everything was put on hold, she continued crocheting and opened up an Etsy shop she named Mudança (meaning “change” in Portuguese), which she quickly replaced with her own website. It wasn’t until she started doing the Toronto market circuit that she really found a foothold. 

At one of the markets she was vending at, she signed up for half a booth and was paired with vintage curator and upcycler Bobby Raffin of Three Pieces Shop. “We just got along so well,” says Antunes, “I think our work looks great together. His style is a little more neutral than mine, but still has a beachy, kind of boho vibe.” The pair ended up sharing booths at numerous markets throughout 2022 and 2023, and developed a friendship. 

It was under another tent at a market that they launched a conversation about opening a brick and mortar store. As it turned out, another vendor at the market owned a space in Guelph that he was looking to rent, and Raffin is a Guelph native so he was well acquainted with the community there. They made a date to see the space the following week and immediately fell in love. 

“We kind of looked at each other and were like, ‘Are we going to open a store?’ and then three or four days later we signed a lease,” Antunes says. Neither of them had ever had a store before, but trusted that they could do it together. Antunes added her own thrifting practice to her business model, and began selling equal parts handmade and second-hand pieces. Their original plan was to use the space as a pop-up between September and December of 2023, but they had so much fun, they decided to stay indefinitely. 

She didn’t intend to expand her business beyond that, until another opportunity presented itself: a family friend had a 200-square-foot space available on Ossington. Though she was nervous to venture out on her own, she knew the space was perfect for her — though you might not have guessed it at first glance, since every single wall was painted black. 

After extensive cleaning, a new tile floor, and a hefty (colourful) paint job, Antunes managed to turn the space into her dream shop, On the Map. 

“I had this vision for the store being somewhere that you go for the clothes you’re going to wear on vacation,” she says, “very colourful, very standout.” The store is open from Thursday to Sunday from 12-6 p.m., and she splits her time between Toronto and the Guelph location. 

She’s grateful for Raffin, and the amount of passion that he has for the business. “We balance each other out well,” she says. “We’re always able to fill in for each other, and that really takes some of the stress out of running the business.” 

Even for her Toronto location, she still bounces ideas off of Raffin. Her hope now is just to build her presence in the neighbourhood. “One of the best parts about jumping from markets to having a shop is the social interaction, and getting to meet and talk to customers more,” Antunes says. In Guelph, she has regulars who stop by the shop every Saturday after brunch and she’d love to be that place for Saturday shoppers on the Ossington strip. 

Every once in a while, people still ask if she’s planning to look for a job in her field, but she feels she’s on a new path. “I’m so deep in it, I love it so much, and I get so much joy out of my work,” she says. “I can’t imagine any other job being this fun and this fulfilling.”