Treasure Chest celebrates history, vintage fashion
At the Windsor Arms, someone opens the doors for you, the seats sink with plushness and the decor is classy, but ornate. Its newly opened boutique, the Treasure Chest, housed in a nook off the hotel’s entrance, is cleverly able to embrace these same oldschool qualities and fit right in.
If this vintage shop feels utterly apt, like it’s got the blood of the Arms flowing through it, it’s because it does. It’s been launched by Samantha Michelle, the daughter of the hotel’s owner, George Friedmann.
While Michelle, a 25-year-old actress, DJ and allaround jet-setter who has gotten degrees on a few continents, had yet to dabble in the family business, she and her dad chatted last August about the littleused nook — which has played many roles, including recently a space for private parties.
Michelle, who loves vintage clothing (“I look like a 90-year-old who wears amazing face cream”), suggested a gift shop stocked with curated vintage finds. The approach not only suited the granddame style of the hotel, but got around the issue of trying to compete with the array of tourist tchotchkes and designer brands for sale just steps away in Yorkville.
Her dad was sold on the idea and Michelle, despite the fact that she was on the cusp of hobnobbing with friends at the Toronto International Film Festival, boarded a plane to London the next day for a whirlwind shopping trip in Soho and Brick Lane.
Two more trips followed and the store opened in December (with almost no changes to the already opulent decor of the room) with a modest selection of oldschool goodies, such as coats, dresses, handbags and trinkets.
Guys get a few items: patterned ties and cufflinks. Michelle also brought in new sunglasses from London and a jewelry line called Raucous Nymph, which she put together with designer Jason Chellew.
In keeping with a tradition popular in London, Michelle will be donating 10 per cent of all sales to a charity — in this case, the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre.
The store has a full-time “shop girl” and a part-timer who helps with marketing and social media. Michelle — who is busy acting and travelling — stays in touch with the store daily and will continue to act as buyer. (Her eight-month-old lab, Gatsby, serves as frequent model and mascot.)
A tour of the shop with Michelle is all about the tales this history major discovers in vintage fabrics. A camel coat with faux-fur trim is the “Penny Lane Coat” (selling for a tidy $1,800). A ’60s frock is “Mad Men Jessica Paré.” Her deep, deep love of leopard print is everywhere, from the carpet, to dresses, to stoles and bags.
“What I love about vintage is it reminds us that our experience exists in the grand trajectory of human history,” Michelle said.