Armed, 1024 Dundas St. W.
Intimidation factor: Zero. Armed jewelry store is tiny, a petite bijou.
Number of salespeople on floor: Two, owner Desiree Girlato and her intern.
Response time: Immediate. Girlato greets us as if we’re guests to her party, which in fact we become. Random shoppers are like new BFF’s.
Vibe: Miley Cyrus’s jewelry box meets antique curio shop.
Price range: From $25 for earrings to $500 for a solid brass body chain with a chandelier crystal.
Rating: Four raven-feathered bib necklaces out of four.
I had spotted Armed while on the streetcar, attracted by the name — let alone the big revolver painted on the yellow brick at the side of the building.
Say what?
So I am not completely surprised that the designer/owner Desiree Girlato is a ballsy rock chick.
She is the coolest kid in the class, rocking a pair of overalls top-loaded with multiples of necklaces and bracelets which she can totally pull off despite her tiny frame. She is effusive and warm without being bubbly. I want to adopt her on the spot.
Girlato has been in the Trinity-Bellwoods location for three years. “There are a lot of bad-ass chicks owning stores here,” she says. “And Queen St. has hellish rent.”
Girlato works exclusively with brass. “I hate plated and I love black and gold.”
She is armed with goodies and dangerous to the wallet. I love the necklace with heavy lock on it but it feels too short. She disappears upstairs and returns with a longer version. Perfect!
And how cool is the double brass chain necklace with two pieces of brass plumbing ($195)?
She sources found material all over the world and is not above going to Value Village to pick up old jewelry and deconstruct it. There is a shrine to fearless fashion navigator Tilda Swinton, featuring the first piece Girlato ever made, a necklace repurposed from gems from the jewelry box of her grandmother, her style icon.
Her decor is vintage and eclectic: a Georgia O’Keeffe skull she got in Texas displaying a bauble from Value Village; her grandmother’s vintage gilt phone; her grandfather’s boxing trophies spray-painted white; an old typewriter; a faded Oriental rug on the floor; vintage mink stoles (for sale for $150); and stacked pieces of antique luggage.
There is exotica like a tooth/fossil from a megalodon shark, an extinct prehistoric species, which she bought in Arizona for $1,200. She has solid-brass cuffs with shark teeth, tusks, hunks of amethyst and quartz that aren’t hippy-dippy but kick-butt vibe.
A bib of silver coins references the red-hot boho trend, as does the black silk fringe necklace on a double strand of heavy chain. A smaller chain with a revolver on it ($65) subversively opens up into a penknife but don’t be wearing it through airport security.
She stocks inventive eyewear like a pair of sunnies inscribed with “Cross My Heart, Hope To Die, Stick A Needle In My Eye.” Just add hip hop artist and stir.
But you don’t have to be Gwen Stefani to be Armed. There are delicate pieces like necklaces with antique pins that the Duchess of Windsor would covet and ones with dainty acrylic flowers and neon Swarovski pearls at the centre which Girlato calls her “Berkeley collection” because Berkeley was synonymous with “flower power” in the ‘70s.
She picks up a $150 vintage head piece with a chain at the back from a chandelier. It looks like something one of the denizens of Downton Abbey might wear.
“Next time I go to brunch, I’ll wear this,” she vows.
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