Getting dressed is something we all have to do, yet how we each experience it is unique. Along with being curious about how people choose to style their bodies & lives, I'm fascinated by what drives folks to follow their hearts & endeavour to shape our world in unique ways. My hope is that this project will inspire others to live creatively, with love & passion. 

Can you please tell us a bit about who you are?

I’m Jane Williams, the owner & curator of LOCAL Atelier. I’m also the Creative Director of Kindred Studio, a small boutique design studio. I like to think of myself as a creative jack-of-all-trades — I do a bit of everything, from brand design to shop curation to web development.

What is LOCAL?

LOCAL is a curated online mercantile selling a variety of products made or designed in Canada. We partner with local artists and makers from across the country who share our passion for slow living and sustainability and showcase their products in our online shop. 

What inspired you to start LOCAL?

It started as this little seedling of an idea during the deepest, darkest part of Covid lockdown here in Toronto last year. I really love research and what my mother has always called “choreography” — by which she means taking a bunch of seemingly unrelated details and figuring out the vision of how they fit into a larger whole. The way that was taking shape at the time was in saving endless Instagram posts from Canadian artists I love and researching locally-made sources for my favourite sustainable home goods. I ended up with this huge list that didn’t seem to have any practical application other than it made me happy to add to it haha. Then I woke up one morning and this tiny voice bubbled up and said, “but what if you shared them with other people?”. I think I registered the business and set up the domain name for the shop within three days. I’ve found that really good things come from listening when my intuition speaks up like that. 

What types of products will you carry? What is your inspiration for how you select them?

We carry ethically & sustainably made Canadian home goods and personal accessories, and we plan to launch an apothecary collection in the next few months!

I’m most inspired by products that are beautiful, useful, and thoughtfully made. Items that can be cherished for a lifetime, that are grounded in the place they’re made, that are lovingly crafted and hold meaning to both the artist and the customer. 

Which brands are you feeling really excited about at the moment?

It’s so hard to choose! I have such special relationships with so many of our artists. A couple of upcoming products I’m really excited about are the most gorgeous hand-beaded earrings from an Anishinaabe & Filipina artist (and new mom!) that are coming in the fall, and wood & natural fibre dish/pot scrub brushes from Quebec! The latter were the hardest things to source locally out of everything in the shop — it took me months to track them down. I really wanted to find a Canadian alternative to the classic German-style wooden utility brushes because they’re so useful and so beloved. Even though most of the ones you commonly find are made sustainably, they’re still shipped here from overseas, so it’s really lovely to be able to support a Canadian business that hand-makes them from locally sourced wood. 

What is your dream for LOCAL? What do you hope it will grow into?

I’m honestly working really hard at not having set expectations! I have dreams for what I hope my life will look like and how the shop will fit into that, but I’ve learned that letting things grow organically and intuitively is what works best for me. I do hope that it inspires people, and connects them more with Canada’s incredibly rich and diverse community of artists. I’d love to see the slow living community, both here and abroad, become much more enthusiastic about supporting marginalized folks and their creative endeavours. 

What does personal style mean to you?

As a plus-size person, it’s something I’ve struggled with for a long time. I’ve always had a very strong sense of my aesthetic preferences, and am therefore pretty particular about what I like. It can be tough to find exactly what I’m looking for, and even when I do, 9.5 times out of 10, it just doesn’t exist in my size. It can be really frustrating to mostly be excluded from accessing the clothing I’d feel most myself in. So I think in large part because of that, I’ve focused a lot on cultivating my personal style through my home and my design work instead. 

How would you define your style?

My personal style tends to reflect the same values that LOCAL does — simple, sustainable, thoughtfully made. I have a strong preference for natural materials, neutral colours, and minimal silhouettes. 

What role does clothing play in your life?

For a long time, it was mainly a source of frustration, but I’m aiming to change that! I’ve wanted to learn to sew for years and just recently decided to take the plunge and make it a goal for myself. I currently have a hyper-minimal wardrobe, partly because I’ve worked from home for many years and therefore just don’t need to own that many clothes, but mainly due to the struggles I mentioned already. I would love to be able to make myself something new when I want it instead of spending weeks trying to hunt a particular piece down and almost invariably not be able to find it. There are so many wonderful people making beautiful, size-inclusive sewing patterns. I’m really excited to explore that world more.

Do you have any outfits or other rituals you turn to when you need a boost of confidence?

On top of not having a particularly extensive wardrobe, I also have a pretty minimal hair & makeup routine. So when I need a boost or I want to do something a bit different, I like to put a bit more effort into those. I almost never wear lipstick, so putting that on always feels like I really did something haha. Also hats! I always feel so put together when I wear a hat, even if I haven’t put much effort in. I have a preference for wide-brimmed boater hats, which just feel so classy and timeless.

What rituals or routines do you have for staying grounded?

I spend a lot of time outdoors. Toronto has the most incredible ravine system — the city is full of creeks and rivers and the banks are all protected land criss-crossed with all sorts of trails. Whenever I’m feeling overwhelmed or off-kilter, I go out for a walk by myself. My favourite thing to do is to try to find a spot in the city I’ve never been to. I’ve lived here for almost 10 years and I’m still discovering new little slices of urban wilderness. It’s just lovely.

What values & principles guide your life?

Thoughtfulness and connection are so important to me. I try to be very mindful about how I care for both my community and myself.

What does balance mean to you? How do you find it?

I struggled with it for a long time until a really smart, wonderful person told me to design a project around it, which they knew is something I love and am generally very motivated to work at. I figured out that when I feel in balance, it means I’m giving adequate care and attention to different categories that make up my overall well-being (for me these are: emotional, physical, intellectual/creative, social, financial, environmental, and spiritual). So now I have an app I set up to track each of those things and every day, I fill up the bars when I do something like go for a walk (emotional, physical, environmental, spiritual), clean my house (emotional & environmental), or even listen to a podcast (intellectual/creative). It really helps me to have that visual representation because it’s immediately apparent when my life is out of balance and what categories need more attention. 

What are some of the challenges you’ve faced (in business, life or both)? How did you move through them?

Balancing my work and my personal life was a really big one, actually! I started freelancing pretty much straight out of design school, but it took a very long time before I set any kind of limits around my work. When you’re self-employed, especially in the beginning when your income can be really sporadic and unstable, it’s so easy for work to just kind of bleed into the rest of your life. Then a little while ago, I worked with a really incredible life coach who helped me work through it and get to a place where I feel more comfortable setting healthy boundaries (although I still struggle with this at times! It’s a life-long process) and trusting my intuition when it comes to finding that balance.

What impact do you hope to make in this world?

That’s honestly not something I’ve given much thought to! I’m not an inherently very ambitious person. I aspire to a fairly quiet life, but I’d like for the people I connect with, personally or through my work, to feel seen and cared for. I’d like to leave things better than I found them.

If you could say anything to your younger self, what would it be?

Be the garden, not the flower.

Is there anything else you’d like to share?

Thank you for having me! :)