The pandemic has led to countless individuals re-evaluating their relationship with work. How they work, when they work, why they work. When even the New York Times is picking up on a trend worthy enough to write about, it must be real. For Danielle Green, the owner of Toronto’s latest vintage, consignment and rework shop Artisanal Design Co., this sentiment rings especially true.
“It doesn’t matter how much money you make – if you’re not happy, you’re not happy, and you have to do something for a living that you love and that sets your soul on fire,” she says over the phone. This mindset is imperative to Green herself, as well as her mission at ADC.
Originally established in Kitchener, Artisanal Design Co. initially began as a store specializing in goods and homewares made by local artists and entrepreneurs. Among the artwork and soaps, there was a rack of clothes, but, as Green notes, it wasn’t the main focus. When the pandemic began, Green looked for a more profitable source of revenue, and she realized she could match her life-long love for vintage with her entrepreneurial pursuits – including a new Toronto location.
Green has been wearing vintage for as long as she can remember. She’s welcomed the general public’s newfound love of vintage, but she does recognize that there’s a lot of work to be done. Part of that is making the price range accessible for customers, and another is demystifying the stigma around vintage itself in Toronto.
“I’m hoping ADC expands to the point where it’s not just something that’s just like, ‘Oh, it’s vintage.’ But it’s like, ‘Oh, it’s vintage. This is a regular part of shopping.’ There’s no taboo or any idea of it being ‘less than’ attached to it anymore,” she says.
When asked about the move from Kitchener to Toronto, she answers in her typically bubbly and self-assured fashion, “I stayed for a boy, and I left for a boy.”
She’d moved to Kitchener with her mother and sister years earlier when her mom decided to change careers and enrolled in the nursing program in Conestoga. While in Kitchener, she fell in love and bought a house with her boyfriend. When they broke up, she sold the house and saved the money for some unknown future endeavour. Later, after meeting someone else and moving in together, she decided to bet on herself, opening ADC in 2018.
Two months later, when she and her boyfriend split up, she had to decide whether she wanted to live alone or keep ADC. She chose ADC, and began commuting from Brampton to Kitchener for nearly three years before she moved to her Dundas West location. Though her commute has been cut significantly shorter, she jokes that the tamer traffic as a result of the pandemic has given her a “false sense of hope.”
In a recent TikTok, Green discusses how at one point in her career she worked in a factory packing socks. Though she did excel, she realized that she had different ambitions. Her professional career was varied, working in factories, or at McDonald’s, or as a paralegal – she’s worked in so many industries that, before opening ADC, she already knew what kind of boss she wanted to be: her own.
“As a business owner you get more freedom. You have that illusion of freedom,” she says. “I did those types of jobs that made me go, ‘Okay, I’m going to do something, I’m going to try something, and I’m going to see what happens with it.’”
As opposed to the well-trodden Queen West area, Green chose to open her Toronto location of ADC at 903 Dundas St. W., between Bathurst and Ossington. She felt it was more tame, and had the right amount of foot traffic. ADC is only a few stores down from where Drake’s flagship OVO location first opened in 2014, though it has since closed.
“If Drake chose Dundas West, I’m like, ‘Damn, I feel like I made the right decision,” Green says.
Though she’s only just opened ADC in Toronto with a curated vintage selection, Green has a long-range plan for the future. They do currently have a small rework section, but Green would love to expand that portion of the store. She likens her customers to artists. The clothes are, “a palette, you know, when they’re creating their own piece of artwork.”
She notes that contrary to popular belief, a lot of work goes into preparing them for customers, and rework is a part of that. The sustainability inherent to vintage shopping isn’t just in buying clothes as-is, but also incorporating resurrecting pieces we’d otherwise discard.
“I’m just hoping now I’m able to really transform how people look at pre-loved clothing and vintage, you know? Seeing the possibilities and that even if it has a hole, it can be turned into something amazing that’s going to last.”
Though it hasn’t been easy, Green feels genuine fulfillment with the work she’s doing. In putting her career and needs first, she’s been able to pull from her wide range of experience and has solidified her dedication and drive. This, mixed with her self-confidence, will propel her and her dreams further. “I truly believe in my abilities. I was able to make a business out of it that, really, I had to pivot a million times to get to this point. But I wouldn’t change it for the world.”
