Business is in her blood

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This article was published 28/06/2023 (859 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

The Exchange District’s newest vintage shop carries handbags, satin dresses — and a 42-year familial legacy.

Located on the fifth floor of a repurposed warehouse at 70 Arthur St., The JAR is a love letter to owner Blue Patriarca’s grandparents, who ran a clothing store under the same name in the Philippines for more than four decades until it closed in 2016 when her grandfather died.

Sitting on a velvety, bubblegum-coloured love seat, Patriarca sports a silky, striped night robe — a nod to her shop’s patron saint, Sex and the City’s Carrie Bradshaw, who towers over the cash register.

“My Dad this morning was like, ‘Why are you wearing a nightie?’ I was like ‘Dad, it’s my aesthetic!’,” the 29-year-old entrepreneur said.

As the sole designer of the space, The JAR’s shop floor is a physical manifestation of Patriarca’s favourite things: ’90s movie posters, Looney Tunes merchandise and Betty Boop figurines among the racks of vibrant fabrics.

Near the back, a Rubbermaid “bin of shame” holds an assortment of clothing from fast fashion retailers like Shein and Zara.

“I’m not judging,” she said.

The shop gets its name from Patriarca’s nanay (grandmother) — Juanita Afan Rivera’s initials. Rivera opened the original JAR with her late husband in 1974.

“They had that spot for 42 years…,” Patriarca said.

Before opening on June 3, Patriarca and her siblings sold their secondhand garbs on the e-commerce platform, Depop. Around eight months ago, Patriarca decided to transition to a physical store and make the store her day job.

Leasing a studio in the Exchange District, which already boasts the highest concentration of vintage stores in the city, was a no-brainer for Patriarca.

“I’ve always worked around this area. My first-ever job was at ArtsJunktion,” said Patriarca of the community art studio that focuses on reusing materials. “Before going to work, I would always go to vintage stores.”

Remnants of her grandparents’ store are proudly displayed in The JAR in Winnipeg. The spiral rack in the back corner, now holding a selection of handbags, was brought from overseas.

That’s not the only thing Patriarca inherited from her grandparents. Watching her family run their store as a child nurtured an intuitive business acumen that she builds on to this day. Her mother, Rowena, recounted fond memories of travelling to the city centre to make deals with clothing suppliers in the Philippines.

“After school, we’d go to the store, my mom and dad packed up the store, and then we’d go home together,” Rowena said. “As we grew older, when we started university, we started being the ones who ordered the supplies.”

Staying true to her grandparents’ way of doing business, Patriarca is in-store Tuesday through Saturday, from its opening at 11 a.m. till it closes at 4 p.m.

Some items in The JAR’s curated selection of clothing are sourced from Patriarca’s closet and Rowena’s wardrobe from the ’80s. The rest is from the West Coast in the United States, where Patriarca hunts for Y2K-era finds and visits her family down south.

“I go to L.A. every year. I pretty much source my stuff there, so now I have to go there pretty much every month,” Patriarca said. “(For) every single detail here, I have a story of where I bought it and the reason.”

Like any savvy business owner, Patriarca keeps up with the times. A few days ahead of the shop’s opening, she posted a short shop tour on TikTok. When she opened the app the next morning, she was shocked, to say the least.

“I had like 10,000 views. I went from 16 followers to 800,” she said.

Though she amassed a loyal base of buyers from her four years online, she credits TikTok for the success of her opening, which drew over 400 people. The video, which many customers referenced upon arrival, currently boasts 41,000 views.

While every detail in the store, from the colour-changing mirror to the curated line of silk dresses, has been selected by Patriarca, she still views The JAR as a family business.

“Without my siblings, I wouldn’t be here, to be honest. They’re my biggest supporters, my biggest inspiration,” Patriarca said.

Her nanay, who still resides in the Philippines, also watches her granddaughter’s success from afar via video chat and phone calls.

“It’s really a love letter for them. If it wasn’t for them, we wouldn’t be here,” Patriarca said.

cierra.bettens@freepress.mb.ca