A designer vintage store for head-to-toe lifestyle dressing just popped up in Yorkville, and shoppers will be able to browse rare second-hand finds sourced from around the world. Vintage and the City is helping to bridge the gap in Yorkville between high-end label dressers and sustainable fashion lovers on a budget.
Naomi Sebu recently opened the doors to the shop after the Yorkville BIA asked her if she wanted to pop up in the space, since she had been making successful appearances with her brand at markets. Local shoppers, residents and other local retailers were particularly excited about a vintage brand in the area.
Sebu’s collection includes women’s and men’s (Sebu launched the “boyfriend line” after frequent requests to incorporate menswear into the brand) and is organized into brands priced under $300 and over $300 — think Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, Hermès, Escada, Louis Féraud, Gucci and more.
Though a lot of the pieces originate from the ’70s–’90s, Sebu’s curation prioritizes design and quality, so she also has pieces that range as far as the early 1900s to 2000. She describes it as “everything from around the world at your fingertips.”
“It’s curated to make it easy to mix and match,” she adds. In the higher-end range, prices depend on how highly sought after a particular piece is, such as a Richard Tyler couture reversible gown priced at $3,000.
Though Sebu grew up in Toronto, her first job opportunity brought her to New York City, where she spent the following 25 years working in the fashion industry and honing her taste. She began working as a designer before making her way up to senior positions, and in 2014 she started her own brand consultant business. There, Sebu created brands for many retailers ranging from Barney’s to Walmart, as well as celebrities and popular personalities. She says vintage was an early influence for her since major brands often used vintage references for design inspiration.
Since a part of Sebu’s job also involved travelling the world to conduct market research in key markets like Paris, NYC, London, Tokyo, Miami, LA and Dallas, she was able to build a vintage collection sourced from all over.
When she returned to Toronto briefly during the pandemic, an inner voice kept telling her that it was time to launch her own brand, one that prioritized sustainability. The idea to start selling vintage quickly took hold, and she launched her first site on Etsy.
“I knew that vintage was the way for me to do my part in the industry, to curate and collect all these incredible pieces from all over my travels and bring them together,” she says. She named the brand Vintage and the City to honour her New York life, and decided her motto would be “fabulous vintage is always in style.”
Sebu then returned to New York and launched the brand at an existing brick and mortar store in Brooklyn during New York Fashion Week. She juggled the business for a few seasons alongside her brand consultancy work.
Later, on a business trip to Toronto, she discovered the Toronto Vintage Clothing Show for the first time.
“I was stunned by the amount of people shopping vintage,” she says. She knew that all major cities had a vintage scene but what she was seeing in Toronto felt next level, so she began travelling back and forth more frequently to host private showings and participate in Toronto’s market circuit, making appearances at Sunday Variety, the Hippie Market, St. Lawrence Market, The Well, The Royal Winter Fair, and Yorkville Village. She’ll also be at the Toronto Vintage Clothing Show next month, April 5-6.
All in all, Sebu thinks she made upwards of 80 brand appearances in the past year, so she was grateful when the Yorkville BIA approached her in January with an opportunity for a pop-up.
“Yorkville has been nothing but super welcoming,” she says, noting that customers have told her how excited they are to discover vintage in Yorkville. Others have said that her collection feels like shopping vintage in Paris, but in Toronto.
In the future, Sebu hopes to extend the brand to include home decor as well, something in which she is currently dabbling.
You can visit Vintage and the City at 55 Avenue Rd., on the lower level (off the oval) from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Saturday and 12-5 p.m. on Sunday.
