Q&A with T&A
Tim and Amy are the enthusiastic owners of T&A Vintage on 2078 Halifax Street. From the time we spent talking with them, one can tell that passion for the community and care for the people that come through their doors are immense. We meet up with them to get some stories of the neighbourhood and their beginnings. Part of their story will be display in the spring in the Story Stop outside T&A Vintage, here you can find the full interview:
How did you come to be?
We were married in August of 2013, which was a huge project. It was our introduction of working together on something large and we both come from families of entrepreneurs. We visited a pawn shop in Medicine Hat and it had the most incredible collection of Jazz records. We ended up buying all of them and Amy said that if your going to be buying, you need to be selling, so it became “why don’t we start a pop up?”. At the time, pop ups had been gaining popularity in 2014. A friend of ours set up at Cathedral Village Arts Festival and he had a booth beside him the we could rent, so that was our first popup. Everyone was asking where our store was, and we didn’t have one. We both had professional careers and this was just a hobby, but we were so excited. Then one of the folks from Regina Folk Festival asked us if we would consider doing a popup at the Folk Festival that year and we said okay!
That snowballed to us renting out spaces for a weekend. We did three different commercial spaces. It was hell, we were setting up and tearing down a store in 36 hours, meanwhile we are still working Monday to Friday job so it was very taxing. The first brick and mortar space we got was with Malty National. They were renovating the space they are currently in, 1130 15th Avenue. We had messaged them about doing a popup and they suggested opening with them. They already had 33 ⅓, so all of us were opening a store that hadn’t opened before, and we were all opening together. We opened on November 26, 2015 and we were the first to open.
Inside view of T&A Vintage Halifax location.
What is the most inspiring thing that you did not expect to happen?
Tim and I opened up T&A because we’re both passionate about vintage items. We love hunting for things and collecting. We like past era’s of things like clothing and record collecting. That’s why we got into the business but the thing we realized pretty quickly after moving into our Victoria Avenue location is we are providing a space for people. A space for people to meet, to connect: a safe space. In the Heritage Neighbourhood community we have lots of people that don’t have the best resources for food, money, or phones. We realized that it is what a small business can do for a community.
It’s things you wouldn’t necessarily think of, but all of a sudden we are seeing day to day needs in the community. Something as simple as providing a washroom to someone in the neighbourhood is huge. Not hassling them for asking or requiring them to buy something. That’s a community service, that some businesses don’t do, but for us it was a calling.
The Victoria Avenue location is a house, it was split half residential half business. Physically being in a home, we took ownership as if it was our home. When you have company, anyone that came through the door we were treating them not like a customer, but as a guest in our home. Just treating people with respect and it came very natural given the space.
That was the really inspiring thing because it changed our lives. It changed our perspective on what we want to do for the city and the community. We want to connect to the community and we get to meet so many different types of people because we have a store that any type of person you can think of ends up in our store at some point and we get to talk to and get to know these people.
What is your favourite memory since opening?
First thing that came to mind changed the way we perceived our business and in some ways the way we’re operated was we were in a small town in Saskatchewan. We were buying inventory from a thrift store and up until that point, when we were going into thrift stores we were buying garbage bags full of clothes. We were in there on a Friday at the very end of the day, and maybe spent $300. The person volunteering ringing us through started crying and we were like are you okay? Do you need something, what’s going on? And she said you have no idea what this means to us. She elaborated that this $300 we are able to help “x” amount of families this month and it changed out view on what we were doing and our impact or potential impact in other communities other than Regina, and people, real people. I will never forget that. That town and store has a special place in our hearts and we always make a pint in stopping there.
As a reseller of vintage clothing there are a lot of ethical approaches you have to make or think about. You need to think about the approach. We used to buy often from thrift stores so are we buying items that other people should be able to access at a reasonable price. We don’t want to be taking away from someone in need. We buy get our inventory know from estates or vintage collectors. We are getting the stories and offering those people money for their treasures and they are trusting us to find good homes for it. It means something to them that its not just going to a thrift store where it might get thrown out. We are actually passing off some of that, their style and showing it off.
We actually got to know one couple, Kal and Tina, little did we know how far their collection and knowing about them and knowing the family. The original call was we have a few things at this house, will you come and take a look? They were moving Tina into a home, Kal had passed a few years before, and they didn’t have kids. It was the niece and grand niece that were helping with the estate. They were showing us a little bit of their collection and things they thought were cool, and as we got talking we found out that there was a bedroom with a closet packed full of clothes and another bedroom packed full of clothes and furniture and there is a basement you go into and the length of the basement has two bars about 40 feet long with clothes hanging off it. We start going through these clothes and it is packed chronologically by the decade. They put it there to store it and it never got touched again, all the way back to the 50’s and you can see when Tina grew and how her body changed as the clothes changed. Which is great for us because we want inclusive sizing. Then we went into the rhombus room in the basement and Kal had custom built a tiki bar. Kal and Tina liked to party, so we got into the bar and found at the back bottom shelves was a stack of polaroid’s and these polaroid’s were all taken in the basement, New Years Eve 1966, but the clothes that they were wearing we are seeing and are there in the space. Walking into that basement was really like walking into 1966, like walking into an era. You could still smell the smoke and the spilled drinks from 50-60 years before. We ended up going back 6 times. It was an emotional connection and by the end Amy had a vision to pay tribute to Kal and Tina. Amy produced this photoshoot and a video to feature their clothing. It is Electric Summer, from 2017. The photoshoot is at a picnic party in the summer and there are 8 models in Kal and Tina’s clothing. The clothes are all colourful and a party and celebration and that is how we felt when we were in their house.
What inspires your look books?
The look books started even when we were doing popups. I wanted to take pictures of the vintage clothes in an artful way to show what would be at one of our popups. The first one was a Halloween one, and I just got my friends to model for me and take photos and I styled them. It was so much fun and I love styling people and being inspired by the clothing that comes in. When a vintage collection comes in, usually it will be from someone's personal closet, like Kal and Tina’s story where we got so many clothes and so many options to be able to pull together a concise series and then do a photoshoot with that. It’s kind of like my art in a way, that’s how I have my artistic expression through the store. Mostly it starts with a clothing collection and what things go on in my head, or inspiration from a movie or pictures from the past, and it just comes together. I like to use amateur models or people who have never modelled before, and local hairstylists and makeup artists. Most of the photoshoots we do the photographer uses film. I really love film and it really speaks to the vintage collection. It’s capturing a moment you can’t plan, it’s still going to take a week to get those photos and really see how they came together. There’s something about the collaboration aspect, I’m coming at it with my ideas, and the styling and the vision, and they bring in there artistic eye, and the models they are bringing their experiences and letting them feel comfortable and seeing what happens. It’s a bit of storytelling, right now I am doing two per year, in the past I’ve done six per year. The challenge with doing vintage fashion is it has to fit the person, we can’t just go and pick another size or something of that style. The stars have to align, and that is what is so magical about it.
T&A Vintage - Electric Summer Look Book video based on Kal and Tina’s collection. More look books available on T&A’s website.
A lot of people turn to vintage for sustainability, how does that affect your community at T&A Vintage?
Sustainability is one of our values on how we approach running the business. Going back to how we source things and buy from individuals and small towns. We also try not to ship things around and approach it that we are finding it locally and selling it locally so it is staying within the community or Saskatchewan. Its important to us that people within Regina have access to cool vintage clothes and vintage clothes that fit their style. When we are buying vintage clothes we are saving it from a landfill, and we will find the right homes for it.
How has the neighbourhood changed?
Tim started spending time in the neighbourhood as a teen in the late 90’s. I remember my family being a little nervous about me hanging out near the general hospital. I never felt unsafe, and its been 23 years and I have never encountered anything violent or anything to that extreme. The neighbourhood is wonderful, still has the badass, wonderful, caring community and energy. It’s like a goldilocks neighbourhood, close to downtown and the park. There’s lots of community minded people here, we are looking out for one another. I love this neighbourhood because it is so diverse but yet I still feel safe.
What could be improved about the neighbourhood?
Definitely the housing need, better low income housing is what needs to be focused on in this neighbourhood, and insuring there is low income housing. There are certain blocks that have a lot of boarded up buildings, and that kind of stuff needs to be taken care of. There is some retail spaces that have been empty for decades, and what is the city doing about it? Those spaces could change a community. It would be perfect for a small grocery store or new business.
Tell us about Core Coffee
Core Coffee is going back to how our approach and vision has organically changed over the years. When we introduced core coffee we saw our role in the community change. To make it feel like a home, to serving food and drink to people is a hospitable thing. We provide complimentary drink and food if people ask, with no questions asked. The money we make from our tips goes back into it. There is an article about the Latte Effect, the whole concept is that underprivileged people that were seen with a latte in their hand were not being profiled by police. Not being profiled changes a community. That does go through my mind when we hand out free coffees, its a ripple effect whether or not we think about it. Same thing with the washroom, were not going to hassle you, if you need a coffee or the washroom, we take care of you. I think we’ve gained respect in the neighbouhood for doing that. It’s something that fuels you, you’re actually making an impact in someone’s day.