The “Community Over Everything” crew-neck sweatshirt from Community 54.Brendan Jessamine
Community 54
1275 Queen St. W., 416-901-4342, community54.com
The owners
Daymon Green and Jason Jacobs
In a nutshell
A vintage boutique and cultural hangout in the heart of Parkdale.
The story
After moving from Toronto to New York, my friend, and future business partner, was raving about how much Toronto has evolved and how it could use a concept like Community 54. I call it a lifestyle concept. While it is a boutique, we also incorporate art, music and fashion – it's always changing. We host an event at the end of each month called Finale Fridays and that's where all the brands – mainly local and independent artists that have approached us during the month – come to feature their product. Most stores only carry what's already hot, so we felt it was a good opportunity to get their names out there and create a space for everyone to mingle. We also incorporate competitions: The brand that excels at our events will be featured in our window displays and on our social media for the month – it's something we've become known for and a good way to give back."
The stock
"We carry a mix of vintage and 90s brands like Ralph Lauren, Tommy Hilfiger and Starter. We also design our own Community 54 line, which is definitely vintage-inspired and consists of a lot of collaborations with other brands like Ebbets Field Flannels and Champion. A lot of our products change every month because we also do features from Finale Fridays. The artwork on our walls changes each month to feature local artists."
The philosophy
"We're called Community 54 because our motto is 'community over everything.' At the end of the day, so much of what is happening is online and we feel that people still need a place to congregate, meet up and promote their own events. If you don't support a movement it will not move. We continue to support others and in return we've been blessed with amazing and continued support in Parkdale. Parkdale has become part of our DNA – we like to support the creative people who live here. We get inspired by the area first and allow the concepts to evolve from there."
The buy
The "Community Over Everything" crew-neck sweatshirt from the Community 54-Champion collaboration. $80.