The Martlet

There is a new boutique on Douglas Street—it’s chic, affordable, and completely non-profit.

The new Out of the Closet Renew Boutique is a thrift store operated by the Out of the Closet Queer Sustainability Society.

Besides endeavouring to offer great merchandise to their customers and great deals to students, they are committed to social justice and “promoting queer visibility by maintaining a visible queer business.”

On their shelves is everything from formal to casual, from top quality men’s clothing to women’s plus-size fashion, jewelry and even school supplies.

The store is run by store manager Dawn Heiden and volunteer co-ordinator Jordan Duffy who are assisted by a dedicated staff of volunteers.

Heiden and Duffy both sit on the Society’s board of directors and have previous experience in the non-profit sector.

Heiden ran a successful thrift store in Nelson called Win, and Duffy used to manage volunteers at the Crisis and Intervention Line and was formerly a Pride Director at Camosun College.

“Part of our mission … is to provide a safe place for diverse people in the community to come and volunteer, and work and shop,” said Heiden, “Especially for those in the trans community, shopping can be a very uncomfortable, scary, threatening proposition but here it’s a safe place to come and be.”

Duffy says that Victoria is long overdue for a safe shopping haven for marginalized citizens.

“It’s important that there could be a place that people can shop with dignity and respect,” he said. “People have been harassed. If you look gay or transgender or if you are just a person presenting anything outside of the norm you could be [harassed].”

But the store’s customers haven’t been limited to the trans community.

“Shoppers [from off the street] come in here and they don’t really know who we are, but I haven’t had anyone running out screaming either,” said Heiden.

The Renew Boutique is not only aimed at helping those in the queer community, but anyone else who might need help­—including students.

“We also like to help students. We give a 25 per cent off discount for students on Sunday. There is great clothing and really cool trendy stuff for men and women,” said Heiden.

The Renew Boutique has received support from several different places in the community, with donations coming in from pedestrians, local clubs (donating clothing left behind by late-night partiers) and Gap, who donated a set of mannequins that the store uses in their front display.

“People are certainly coming in from the community; people love the store. Even people who aren’t in the gay community are donating stuff to us and are happy to do so,” said Heiden.

Renew Boutique is attempting to help other organizations as well.

“We don’t sell kids clothes [so if they’re donated] we donate all of them to the Single Parent Resource Centre. We don’t sell electrical because we don’t have the insurance for that … so all the small appliances [we get] go to the Single Parent Resource Centre. We also donate clothing and linens to the Sandy Merriman House for homeless women,” stated Heiden.

Other organizations receiving donations from Renew Boutique include the SPCA and AIDS Vancouver Island.

Renew Boutique is also looking for donations from students specifically. “In the spring when a lot of students leave a lot of stuff gets left behind. So we would like to see that donated, so we could sell it all back to them in the fall,” said Heiden.

In addition to providing and collecting used clothing for their customers, the Queer Sustainability Society’s ultimate goal for the thrift store is to use it to sustainably promote local artists, queer events and work with local community groups to address social justice and social inequality issues.

“[The Society] wanted to have a thrift store [because] a thrift store can sustain itself—we do not need government hand-outs,” said Heiden.

“We are running a professional, boutique style thrift store.”

The Queer Sustainability Society is also interested in working with Pride societies at UVic and Camosun College for clothing drives and Pride events to promote queer culture in the city.

Currently, those plans are still in development.

The Out of the Closet Renew Boutique is located 1736 Douglas Street. They can be reached at 250-590-2719, on Facebook and at outofthecloset@shaw.ca. All clothing donations and volunteers are welcome.