Shoptalk

• Carolina AndradE

Name: William Kim
Spotted: Corner of Tower Road and South Street
Wearing: Coat, Burberry; Sweater, H&M; Hat, Calvin Klein; Belt, Off White; Pants, Calvin Klein and Shoes, Raf Simons

What inspires your wardrobe? Japanese street fashion. I started showing interest in Japanese fashion culture after going to Tokyo and seeing all these different types of styles. From traditional Japanese dresses to futuristic styles, it is impossible not to acknowledge that Japanese people have an incredible sense of style. But, at the end of the day, I don't have a specific style; I like to wear what I want.

What is your favourite brand right now? I'm currently in love with Acne Studios. I love how their clothes look minimal with innovative designs.

What is your favourite piece of clothing in your closet right now? My Liful Minimal Garments hoodie. It's an oversized sherpa hoodie that's warm and cozy—perfect clothing for the fall-winter time.

Favourite local shops? Elsie's Used Clothing. I like how Elsie's has a variety of clothes—from formal clothes to street fashion—and it's not overly priced for good quality clothing.

• Samuel Turpin

Rage Room Halifax
2820 Isleville Street
rageroomhalifax.ca

WHAT HE DOES
Terry LeBlanc has become desensitized to the sound of breaking glass. "I love seeing people genuinely happy!" he shouts over the sound of a computer monitor in the next room being obliterated by a golf club. Perhaps it's odd to associate happiness with a place where people vent their rage, but LeBlanc, co-owner of Rage Room Halifax, says people consistently leave with a smile on their face. At Rage Room, the tiresome warnings you've heard throughout childhood—"be careful with that" or "please don't touch that"—are disregarded. Instead, when clients emerge, cheeks flushed and slightly out of breath, LeBlanc simply asks, "So, what was your favourite thing to break?" 

WHO HE IS
Before Rage Room, LeBlanc co-owned a glass business on Isleville Street. When it closed, he knew he wanted to keep the space and start something new. "The area is growing," he says. "I didn't want to leave." A horror-themed escape room came to mind, but LeBlanc wanted something that would attract a broader audience. He googled "smash a room," discovered the concept of rage rooms and the deal was sealed. "I think I spent all night watching videos of people breaking stuff," LeBlanc says. Compared to his glass business, he says Rage Room has much higher levels of customer satisfaction. "People never smile when they get a bill for a new window," he says. "But the percentage of people who walk out of here disappointed is very low." Along with managing Rage Room, LeBlanc is a chef at Mount Saint Vincent University. Eventually, he would like to add a food element to Rage Room, effectively merging his trade and business together.

WHERE HE WORKS
LeBlanc and his mother, Donna LeBlanc, opened Rage Room in May 2018. To transform the space, LeBlanc installed cameras, lined the concrete walls with boards and purchased safety suits. He also made sure that each room was supplied with a Bluetooth speaker for clients who wanted to play their own music. LeBlanc buys items from Mission Mart, Auction Hut and Rick's Riches Thrift Store to stock his endless supply of "smashables"—the objects that are destroyed. After clients leave, LeBlanc cleans the room and recycles all electronic waste and glass. Occasionally, people ask to repurpose the debris into art. As a result, LeBlanc has several miniature Zen gardens assembled from scraps of metal and shards of glass on display at the front desk. On top of providing people with a place to purge their energy, Rage Room has unexpectedly become a way for LeBlanc to support local non-profits, keep waste out of landfills, and even inspire the odd local artist. 

• Samuel Turpin

WHY IT WORKS
People seek out Rage Room for all sorts of reasons, and LeBlanc welcomes them all. "We're entertainment first," LeBlanc says. "It's all about having a good time. If you happen to de-stress while you're here, then that's great too." He has seen people bring in stuff their exes left behind. He watched a family convince their 81-year-old grandmother to take a crack at breaking something. Another time, when LeBlanc asked a client how their day was going, the individual simply said, "Well, I'm supposed to be at the altar in five minutes." Rage Room Halifax provides a safe, controlled environment for people who are in need of catharsis, an adrenaline rush or just a good laugh. No matter who you are or where you're at in life, LeBlanc believes everyone needs to cut loose from time to time.

• Charity Doucette beads for hours.
• COREY ISENOR

Shimmering opals, oceanic blues, cream white pearls; that's Charity. Fresh sweetgrass, shapely moose antler, textured birchbark; that's Mi'kma'ki.

Charity Doucette, of Potlotek First Nation, combines the dazzle of trendy jewellery with the meaningful beauty of Indigenous beadwork to create show-stopping pieces that represent a restored pride in her heritage. "Know your worth—because that was the thing I struggled with," Doucette says, via FaceTime. "But, now I can see my worth."

In February, after years of selling to friends and family, Doucette created @beads_bychar, an Instagram account that showcases and sells her Mi'kmaq beadwork jewellery. In eight short months, the 20-year-old amassed over 1,000 followers. Her designs have been worn by Indigenous and non-Indigenous folk all over Canada and the US. 

What sets her apart from her contemporaries is how she incorporates symbols of Mi'kmaq culture—like hand-harvested and braided sweetgrass, real moose antler and artificial sinew—in a way that reflects her personal expression of beauty.  Though her beads aren't locally made, they're bought from an Indigenous entrepreneur in Eskasoni. Doucette ensures every aspect of her creations are locally sourced and supportive of her community.

"I like to take from the earth because Native people protect the earth," she explains. "I put that touch into my work because that's what I find is important, and that's what our people look towards." 

Doucette's eyes sparkle brighter than her shiniest jewels as she reveals handfuls of braided sweetgrass and thumb-sized gems. It's hard to imagine she was once embarrassed to call Potlotek home.

"I always had such an ugly concept of my culture," she says. "We were always centred out as the 'white kids.' We got bullied because we were 'white' and not as dark as other Natives." She learned to defend her mixed identity on and off reserve—especially at her predominantly white school.

"I never wanted to say I was from the reserve."

In 2008, Doucette's mother, Jeannie Marshall, took her kids to live at a hotel until Potlotek's habitually unsafe water was clean enough to boil and drink again.

"We don't even make our dogs drink our water," Doucette says. 

One day, all Indigenous students from Potlotek were called into the school gym. Doucette remembers the humiliation as she and her peers were rounded up and told they were allowed showers at school if they brought their own soap. 

"It was so embarrassing," Doucette says. She recalls shamefully explaining to classmates the reason for her absence. "They're really grossed out by you because you live somewhere where you can't even drink or do anything with your water."

Water conditions at Potlotek improved, but that didn't stop kids at school from targeting Doucette and her friend. "They were always on her back," she says. "'Oh, is the water making your skin that brown?' they would say. 'Shouldn't Charity be darkening up too?'"

These experiences, Charity says, soiled her Mi'kmaq pride. Then she was introduced to beadwork.

As a child, Doucette found comfort in drawing; a talent her mother recognized—and hoped to preserve—in her late grandfather, who was a chief. When Doucette was 13 years old, the Nova Scotia Mi'kmaw Summer Games were hosted at Potlotek. For her worried mother, the games meant boys from all over Mi'kma'ki would be eyeing her teenage daughter. Marshall called her close friend, Marcia Johnson, and asked her to teach her daughter how to bead. A hobby supposed to distract Doucette from boys soon became an obsession.

"When I started beading, I saw the beautiful things in my culture, my reserve and traditions, instead of looking at the bad things that happen," she says.

Today, Doucette is more proud of her heritage than ever before. The young entrepreneur is currently studying hairdressing at Elevate Beauty Institute of Cosmetology in New Minas, and dreams of opening her own full-service, Indigenous owned-and-operated salon.

"I want to be able to have a safe place for people to go," she says.

Doucette hopes her beadwork inspires other Indigenous women to find pride in their traditions and pursue them. 

"Traditions that we've always held onto are still beautiful," she says, "even though our living conditions aren't." 

• Forest Eden Greenwell says any moment can be special—with the right tools.
• Carolina Andrade

Fiends
5775 Charles Street, second floor
Opens Thursday, October 31

F orest Eden Greenwell's new shop, Fiends, is a one-stop shop for folks interested in leading an intentional lifestyle. Linking self care to our own unique rituals, whatever those might be, Greenwell wants to elevate the little moments we give ourselves. A poet and a tarot reader, she co-hosts new moon gatherings with The Circle Womxns Society, where attendees can get their cards read, journal and discuss astrology and related topics. With Fiends—which opens on Halloween—Greenwell can put all these pursuits (and more) under one roof and create a community around it.

"We want to create a real space in the community for rituals and how we perceive them," says Greenwell. That includes regular workshops and meetings, thrifted clothing and jewellery, house plants curated by House Full of Plants, essential oils (including a custom blend just for the shop) and "a free library and available resources on spirituality and occultism and good books that teach you about life, as well as yoni eggs, sex toys, crystal wands—pleasure relates to ritual as well."

Greenwell explains small intentional pieces—like brass lighter holders—can help turn something as simple as lighting a candle while you unwind before bed into a special little moment. Even if you don't believe in astrology, tarot, crystals or the like, Fiends will be a place to support local makers and buy special thrifted items.

She also plans to offer $45-a month tarot memberships that include one monthly workshop and reading, plus 10 percent off in the shop. Greenwell hopes regular memberships will help clients "keep [their] spiritual selves accountable." Fiends will also offer tarot readings on a PWYC basis on Wednesdays. 

Fiends aims to be a place for everyone to find a little something special to make the everyday a little more magical. "Small rituals enhance every day life, whether that's wearing power colours, carrying rocks or diffusing essential oils," says Greenwell. "We all make up our own belief systems in our lives and we don't always relate to the same things."

• Anna Tremblay and Ashley Cluett have a community-minded approach to wellness.
• IAN SELIG

What started out as a seemingly unattainable dream and inside joke between friends has become a reality for Anna Tremblay and Ashley Cluett, creators of Nature Folk Wellness Studio (88 Portland Street).

After meeting as servers at a restaurant, the two bonded over a shared passion for wellness, design and an interest in entrepreneurship. It was only after the complementary nature of their skill-sets—Cluett has a background in nutrition, marketing and holistic modality, while Tremblay has experience in graphic design—that their ideas blossomed into Nature Folk.

• IAN SELIG

Nature Folk seeks to invoke a sense of community in its space, welcoming and encouraging practitioners and individuals alike on their path to well-being.

• IAN SELIG

Nordic-inspired, the studio was created as a fluid, functional space where people are free to come in, participate in workshops, get a massage or hang out. Nature Folk also offers a range of spa services, from the two-person infrared sauna to an in-house doula, a massage therapist and even Thursday Pilates classes. On top of that, it carries skincare products that are minimalistic, multi-purpose, sustainably and ethically sourced, and are run—and owned—by women.

"Nature Folk is our name because we are a group of like-minded people that engage with, care about and find peace in nature," says Cluett, "It is through this that we want people to have a deeper connection with themselves, a deeper connection with their environment, and a deeper connection with their community".

• Hannah Kovacs has a Masters degree in policy but her real passion lies in fitness.
• SUBMITTED

Hannah Kovacs' career path might have been, as she puts it, "very non-linear" but eventually it led her back home. The born-and-raised Haligonian, who spent the last number of years living in Toronto, fell for fitness after dabbling in a few other worlds—earning a Masters in policy, working for a tech start-up and exploring the world of marketing and branding. But sitting at a desk didn't really do it for her.

"I really missed playing soccer at a competitive level," says Kovacs of the team mindset that drove her to take the workouts she'd lead for her friends to the next level. She became a certified fitness instructor and started building her own brand: HIIT with Hannah.

"It started for just me and my friends but word spread and my classes were quite busy," she says. "I would wake up every day looking to bring people together to sweat it out, and take that hour of their day to connect with themselves and other people." After putting in the work on the ground level, working with and learning from other studios, Kovacs decided to come back to Halifax and open her own, Move East (6130 Quinpool Road, in The Keep).

Aiming debut in mid-October, she'll offer high intensity interval training, fast- and slow-paced yoga, technique focused strength training and military-style fitness classes, for starters. Move East will also have a heated infrared room for hot classes and mobility work. There'll be major focus on team, community and offering something for folks of all fitness levels.

"I have always been the friend that brings people together, and I'm so lucky I get to do that through owning a fitness studio," says Kovacs. "I love that people from all walks of life and backgrounds can connect with each other in one space."

• Late-blooming dancer Abady Alzahrani wants to see your inner Beyoncé.
• LENNY MULLINS

House of Eights
1717 Barrington Street, 2nd Floor
houseofeights.com

D ance like everyone's watching, but like everyone watching isn't a judgemental asshole waiting for you to slip and fall. That's more or less the ethos at Halifax dance studio House of Eights, which encourages people of all levels of dance prowess to live their best lives.

Having launched in January, the drop-in style studio recently moved into a 2,000 square foot space downtown to accommodate growing demand from Haligonians wanting to have a ton of fun and learn a ton of new moves with their wide array of classes. If you're not convinced that merely having an interest in dance is enough, look no further than House of Eights founder, Abady Alzahrani. Having grown up in Saudi Arabia, where dancing "was not allowed," Alzahrani moved to Halifax in 2008 for school and quickly became enamoured with extra-curricular dance classes at his university.

"I got into dance a little late, technically," says Alzahrani, "because most people start dancing when they're kids, but I started when I was about 19 or 20." 

Outside of university dance practices, Alzahrani was disheartened by Halifax's lack of dance spaces available to novice dance enthusiasts like himself. He began travelling to cities like Toronto and Los Angeles for intensive training with renowned dance instructors. 

"I felt I needed to make up for lost time as a late-blooming dancer," says Alzahrani, who developed such a knack for the craft, he was soon teaching classes at his university as well as local schools.

Fast-forward to quitting his day job in marketing and advertising. Now, Alzahrani is fully committed to the craft and wants to inspire others like him with House of Eights. 

"The name comes from the whole house name in the vogue world," says Alzahrani. "In vogue, when you join a house it's like your chosen family and your safe community where you can be yourself—so I wanted to use that term about how we want to be that judgment-free space for you." 

And he's not lying. The vibrant, Instagrammable studio is home to over 10 in-house instructors who teach a vast and varied curriculum. K-pop? They got you. Heels? They got you. Getting high and doing improvisational dance? They got you.  

"I wanted to make sure that there is a space for both super-advanced, experienced dancers who want to keep up their training," says Alzahrani, "but also for absolute beginners who've never danced before and want to try something new."

One of the main draws of the studio are the acclaimed guest instructors it hosts every month or two, some of which have choreographed for big names like Ariana Grande and Nicki Minaj.

"Just because you live in Halifax doesn't mean you shouldn't have access to someone who is a professional commercial dance instructor who's constantly in shows and music videos and stuff like that," says Alzahrani. 

Bringing a breath of fresh air into Halifax's dance scene, House of Eights plans to offer over 30 classes per week beginning in September and hopes to expand further on its class offerings. However, one thing remains the same.

"What I want people to get out of the classes is that this is your release and your place to be yourself, shut everything out and have fun," says Alzahrani. "It's super amazing getting to see people who are super shy, and then you see them in class living their best life—it's such a confidence builder. There's nothing like seeing someone perform like they're Beyoncé."

• Jill Mulveney and the fire truck she (and Adam Otmar) converted into their big-little coffee shop
• SUBMITTED

It was about a year ago that Adam Otmar and Jill Mulveney had the idea to run a little coffee shop out of the back of a bus. The two veteran baristas envisioned a sustainable mobile cafe in a small school bus, but struggled to find something tall enough to accommodate their north of 5'10" heights. With a gut feeling, the couple bid on a decades-old, adorably squat fire truck in an online auction—without seeing it in person—and won. Six months later, after bringing it from Kingston, Ontario to Otmar's hometown of Hubley, the bright red, boxy rig is now Frankie's Espresso Bar.

"We've both been really interested in cafe culture and cafes that create ambience—it's more about that than coffee in general. That feeling you get when you're in a nice warm, welcoming cafe," says Otmar. "That's the drive behind what we're doing, creating that atmosphere and ambience but in a more mobile setting."

Together the pair, inspired by many of the inefficiently laid-out cafes they'd worked in, designed and renovated the truck themselves, making the very most of the compact space. The truck itself was in good shape, save for broken blinkers and a busted alternator, making the beautification process fairly easy.

• SUBMITTED

"We wanted it white, bright and open," says Otmar. "We serve out of the back door so you can see the whole truck, making it seem as big as possible."

Apart from the whole firetruck thing, Frankie's also stands out because of its 100 percent plant-based menu. Every single drink is made sans-dairy products, and Otmar and Mulveney bake all of the vegan and gluten-free cookies, doughnuts and macaroons themselves.

"We try to eat as locally and consciously as we can, but another thing we learned from working in coffee shops is the amount of dairy milk they go through in a day," says Otmar. "We were off put by it, it could be 20 to 30 litres of milk a day for a small cafe. We decided if we were to open something, we'd want to be different."

For now, Frankie's is parked at the Tantallon Farmers' Market (16 Sonnys Road, Upper Tantallon) on Tuesdays from 2-6pm, and its owners are working hard to secure more parking spots in the city. Keep tabs on its whereabouts, special event appearances and general cuteness via @frankiethefiretruck.

• SUBMITTED

• IAN SELIG

Safer Space Massage Therapy
@saferspacemassage
Online booking is available here

Six months ago, Leah Inman dove into a business idea by starting a massage clinic run out of their Fairview home.

"I've always been very entrepreneurial," Inman says. "I love working for myself, making my own hours. And it just made sense for me to try and break into my own massage business."

Inman is a Registered Massage Therapist who identifies as queer and sometimes uses gender-neutral pronouns.

"It's queer-focused therapeutic massage. I really try and cater to folks that maybe don't feel as comfortable in a traditional medical setting," she explains.

In massage school, Inman says some classmates would voice their annoyance with and lack of understanding of the needs of clients in the 2SLGBTQ+ community.

"Being a queer person, it was really hard to see how people talk about queer people. I was sad to see my colleagues or my classmates complain about it or make it seem like it wasn't OK," Inman says.

Upon graduation, Inman began working at Massage Addict in downtown Halifax. But this past February she also opened Safer Space Massage Therapy.

• IAN SELIG

"I just wanted to create a space where I myself would feel comfortable, along with my friends, my queer community," she says. When she first started Safer Space Massage, Inman reached out to consult people in the local queer community on how to make the practice welcoming for everyone.

"As a feminine-presenting white person I wanted to make sure that my space was as comfortable as it could be," she says. Clients "know that when they come here, they're going to be comfortable, their pronouns are going to be correct, their names are going to be correct."

Inman says about 95 percent of her clients identify somewhere on the 2SLGBTQ+ spectrum, and about 60 percent are trans.

"There's really nothing in the Maritimes that specifically caters to queer folks. There are lots of queer-friendly places but I think having a queer-centred business makes it even more comfortable for people," Inman says.

While she's tried to learn as much as they can, Inman says she's always open to improving.

"I've learned and gotten education on how to treat specific injuries, or any dysfunction associated with things like wearing a binder or chest surgery," she says. "Any way that I can make this more comfortable for people, I want to know."

Safer Space Massage sees eight to 10 clients each week, and is gaining new customers every month. Massages at Safer Space are priced on a sliding pay scale—$65 for an hour for first-time clients, with direct billing options available.

"I was expecting to have maybe three or four clients, but even in my first month I had 15," Inman says. "By the end of the year, I want to be just focused here."

Later this month, Safer Space will be partnering with Halifax Pride by offering free massages at the Community Market. Eventually, Inman hopes Safer Space can offer a whole range of wellness needs.

"Physio, chiro, I even have friends who are hairdressers. I think we can really create safer spaces in all different ways," she says. "But for now I'm very happy just seeing where my massage business goes."

• IAN SELIG