By Juliet O’Neill
A stroll east down York Street in the ByWard Market, just a little out of the way, takes you to two shops in a small yellow building with an intriguing past and a delightful present. The two vibrant women’s fashion shops are a far cry from the stodgy image invoked by the plaque outside that says the “Brown Tenements” were built for hotelkeeper Archibald Brown in 1875.
Frou Frou by Pat
Frou Frou by Pat at 159 York St. is owned and managed by Pat Pythian. With long curly hair and a contagious smile, Pat is as artsy as her “caviar and beer” fashion principles. Think blue jeans and bling, fake fur collars and colourful yoga leggings, comfortable slacks, and sweaters. Pieces that can be dressed up or down.
“I hate rules,” Pat said in an interview. “I hate it when people ask, ‘What is the colour this year?”
Adorit Boutique at 153 York St. is owned and run by Emma Inns. Emma applies her idealism about fair trade, ending slavery, and environmental conscience to her business in a shop mixing made-in-Canada with exotic pieces from far flung lands. “My goal was to change the world,” Emma said in an interview. “I’m still working on it.”
The two women have something else in common other than the joy of fashion retail: a love of local community and compassion for the street people in the neighbourhood who are having an extra hard time during the COVID19 pandemic.
“I’m concerned for them,” Pat said. “A lot of them have mental health issues and some walk around in bare feet. They need more social workers. They need to be clothed, fed, medicated, and have shoes put on their feet. Where is our heart? Let’s take care of them.”
Pat decided to go into business for herself in 2018, the day a truck pulled up without notice while she was at the hairdresser to take all the merchandise out of the shop named Frou Frou. She’d worked as manager for Frou Frou for many years, and for Sassy Bead for years before that. “I was 65. What the hell was I going to do?”
She bought the mannequins, hangers, shelves, and other fixtures being left behind by the owners who were moving to the west coast, and set out to build her own shop, selling clothes and accessories for women aged 18 to 80. The previous owners didn’t own the name Frou Frou so she kept it and added “by Pat.”
Emma, age 42, began her business when she was a bike tour guide in Tibet. She helped a small group of villagers with nomadic lifestyles set up a sewing collective to make colourful cloth bags they could sell to her tour clients.
From her early microfinancing projects to her York Street shop since 2007, it’s a twisty story. China’s crackdown on Tibet freedoms in the last few years, which worsened during COVID, means she can no longer get products from her original community.
But she’s expanded her product line greatly since she returned to Canada to sell Tibetan products as a street vendor in the market. Her shop slogan now is “stylish, sustainable fashion” that, as much as possible, is made in Canada, with jewellery all made in Ottawa. She has an enthusiasm for “zero-waste clothing” and eco and ethical fashion.
Before COVID, Emma said shop sales provided a pretty good basic income, but shopping plummeted during COVID. To top up her income she taught a small business course in the fall and early winter at Willis College, partly in person and partly online.
COVID put Pat on a fast-track learning curve on social media to show her products on Instagram and Facebook. She doesn’t have an online business and is still learning how to use her tablet, but she took orders by email and phone for curbside pickup during lockdowns. It wasn’t that easy because Pat is someone who “can’t sleep” if a customer hasn’t tried on what they bought.
Both women put dressed mannequins beside the walkway to their shop doors, and set out chairs that are, in good weather, occupied by friends, family, neighbours and strangers, who are welcome to stop for a coffee and a chat, whether they are buying or not.
“I’m in business for people,” Pat said. “I want to hear about the grandchildren and the travelling. Customers want to come in and they want to talk.”
Pat thinks of individual customers when she’s buying clothes and accessories for the store. And she asks herself “Would I wear this?” She doesn’t exaggerate the importance of clothes or fashion. “They’re not important like food or heat,” she said, but they can lift feelings.
“The most fun is to see people happy with what they’ve bought,” she said. Some customers ask her for recommendations on what to buy. Some put on a new outfit and ask her to cut the tags off so they can wear it right away. “They walk out with a spring in their step.”
The two shopkeepers know nothing of the original history of the building, which appears a bit rickety on the outside, though they’ve seen there’s a back space that was evidently for horses. Pat had a friend who helped her design a renovation and she points out a wooden box that covers what looked like remnants of a kitchen space. “It must have been a rooming house at one time.”
Emma’s end has not been renovated for decades and she has high heating bills to prove it.
Emma’s advice to other young people who want to go into business? “You should just follow your heart and your goals and your dreams and work toward them and don’t let anyone stop you.”