Have you ever wanted to walk into a store where everything you need to design your life is in one place? The mannequins are dressed in your dream outfit, a dining table is set to perfection, inspiring art lines the walls. That’s exactly what Torontonian Leah Mersky set out to create when she opened River Crossing Shop in 2024.
“Through my travels, I’d seen stores that have blended together home goods and fashion and jewelry and art in really exciting ways, and I felt like that was something that Toronto didn’t have yet,” says Mersky. “I wanted to create a true lifestyle concept store.”
Mersky grew up in Toronto but as an adult her career took her to New York City, which she began working in fashion and studied sculpture at Parsons School of Design. Eventually connecting with an artist group that was based in Toronto, she was drawn back to the city, doing some work in the non-profit sector before her creative muscles started twitching.
“At the time I was really starting to miss having a creative practice but I hadn’t quite formed an idea for what it would look like or how to integrate it into my life,” she says.
It was after the pandemic that she started to envision a store that blended all of her interests under one roof.
“I was thinking, what is a space that can really embody a creative oasis and bring together designers and makers from all over the world?” she says. “That’s how the name River Crossing came to be as well—knowing that when you step into a river, the kind of path it can take you on is unexpected and full of many possibilities.”
The shop stocks a large variety of international and local brands with products drastically ranging in price from $50 (like a handmade mug crafted by UK ceramicist Ali Hewson) or $100 (a Flore Flore top) to $1,000 (a vintage Celine skirt) or upwards of $2,000 (a Maison Margiela silk dress). Other brands include Cecilie Bahnsen, Jean Paul Gaultier, Prada, Louis Vuitton, Bottega Veneta and Gohar World. To offer more affordable prices, Mersky curates a vintage collection as well.
“One of our core beliefs as a shop is to really get to know our clients and understand what it is that they would like to wear, and how they’d like to decorate their homes,” says Mersky. “With each season, we continue to refine our buy to speak to our clients.”
The shop has a lot of blank wall space, so Mersky often features works by local artists throughout the store, and this year will be launching an exhibition series in which 100 per cent of proceeds will go to the artists. She also hosts events and workshops, like an Ikebana workshop (the Japanese art of flower arrangement) in collaboration with Vancouver-based ceramic artist Nathalee Paolinelli and Ikebana expert Reiko Machiyama of Moment Flora.
This year she plans to host even more events—at least one every two months, she says—such as branded shopping events, product launch parties, a dinner series and a beading workshop.
Since Mersky frequently travels to source products for the store, she also intends to share more behind the scenes stories about the sourcing process, as well as the designers and makers and the places that they come from. She advises following the store on social media, and subscribing to the newsletter to keep up with happenings.
River Crossing Shop is open Wednesday-Monday from 11-6 p.m., and is located at 754 Queen St. W.
