by: Aoife Gold

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Honest Ed’s (581 Bloor St. W.), a Toronto landmark of over sixty years, is no longer just a department store. With the unveiling of Honest Threads, an art installation by Iris Haussler (curator: Mona Filip), this mecca to bargain hunters has become an extension of the Koffler Gallery.

The exhibit showcases clothing and accessories volunteered by dozens of Torontonians who share the stories behind them through photographs and written accounts. Visitors are then able to treat the exhibit as a second hand shop and sign out items that interest them for a few days. The new participants therefore add to the history of these pieces through their experiences wearing them, and new stories descend from the old.

Many of the original stories are unbelievably inspiring: An African dress represents the history of a woman from Sierra Leone. At age twelve, her hands were cut off during an invasion of rebel child soldiers. She found herself in a refugee camp where she was a victim of rape, bearing a child as a result. This child was soon lost due to malnourishment. After being sponsored to come to Canada in the mid-80s, she is now working on a memoir that is to be published.

Some of the stories elicit laughter: A wedding dress characterizes a particularly thrifty bride. While living in Singapore, she decided to elope to Bali with her fiancé. A wedding dress was found online and purchased by her parents, who managed to pack it inside a shoebox to save money on shipping costs. On the eve of her wedding, she avoided pricey hotel laundry services in favour of ironing it herself – only to leave a large burn mark in the delicate fabric.

Several items act as good luck charms to their owners: a Leafs jersey led its wearer to victory, scoring three goals in her first hockey tournament. A pair of sneakers rescued an aching body on a New York City vacation, spawning a walk to a bar instead slinking back to a hotel in pain. The young woman met a new love at this bar, and began a relationship.

The majority of stories are in remembrance of loved ones lost. A young man loans a jacket that had been his father’s, who passed away when he was four. The young man wore it to his high school graduation, happy to finally be able to fit in to it. A wooly sweater is present: a hand-knitted, mother-to-daughter gift to wear while away at university. After arguing over size and construction (“… it was the only thing my mother ever knitted”), the daughter wore it and was reminded of her mother, only to lose her during her fourth year away at school.

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There are hospital pants acquired after being treated for a broken arm caused by a fall into Lake Superior. A coat worn by the first model to grace the cover of a Canadian magazine using colour photography. Precious articles that accompanied survivors of the Holocaust and, more recently, Rwanda.

The family of the late Ed Mirvish, founder of Honest Ed’s, offer a pair of shiny black shoes he wore for over forty years, a tan suit in which he met four Canadian politicians, and a white suit worn to his annual birthday celebration at the store, free to the public to attend.

These items are sure to be returned bearing new stories; for instance, a jeweled jacket has been loaned to a student to wear to her own goodbye party as she prepares to leave Canada, studies completed.

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According to staff, the most popular item to be signed out is a white chef’s coat on offer by culinary master Jamie Kennedy; its borrowers will surely be attempting ambitious culinary feats to the amusement of friends and family.

But perhaps the most intriguing story will be that of a simple blue conductor’s hat. The hat’s owner wore it to a festival in Spain only to have it plucked off his head by a girl dressed in flamenco costume, speeding away on a Vespa and waving cheekily. The hat on loan to Honest Threads is only a replacement, and he beseeches visitors to borrow and return it with a story of its very own.

Why don’t you?

Honest Threads runs until March 29, 2009.