When Penny Light and her partner Joris Van den Daele signed the lease agreement for their new clothing store downtown three weeks ago, cities around the province were already going into lockdown.
But they planned to open a clothing store in Downtown Guelph in February and refused to let COVID-19 halt those plans. For Light, it's a journey filled with willingness to support local businesses, supporting female entrepreneurs, a reignited passion for fashion and a clear shift in customer mindset.
“I was pretty determined,” said Light, co-owner of Grit & Grace which opened its doors this week on 24 Wilson St. selling mid-to-high end fashion with cozy winter sweaters, denim and sundresses for women 30 and over. Van den Daele owns The Patch In Downtown Guelph which sells second-hand vintage clothing.
Light says some days she fears that she opened a store during the pandemic while other days, she’s reassured of her decision when customers come in just for the sake of supporting small businesses.
“I think with this wave, we’re a lot more prepared with online shopping, with curbside pickup, you know we can book time for people to come in and shop on their own to provide more comfort and sense of security and safety,” said Light.
“We also understand the pandemic more. And the feeling I get from customers is there's a shift in mindset in the right direction.”
For Light, opening a Grit & Grace was the perfect opportunity to tie in her long lost dream of fashion and her impacted travel company business.
Light ran her travel business, Live Life Light Adventure Retreats, for seven years in Costa Rica where the weather was warm and she wore sundresses and flip flops all the time.
“I didn't have any clothes. So I went shopping in Canada and I was so disappointed in the retail landscape for women my age. It was like Talbots or Aritzia which seemed too young for me,” said Light.
“I needed to find something in between so I created it,” she said, a decision which brought back her love for fashion over a decade ago.
Light had an idea to open a clothing store at the end of last year and so she moved back to Canada earlier this year and went to LA with her partner to buy clothing with flight tickets to go to Bali and Indonesia after.
“The original concept was that I would tie my traveling with sourcing cooperative female entrepreneurs and designers from all over the world and bringing them to Canada and featuring them in the store,” said Light.
When they reached LA, they brought the products but had to cancel all their other plans because the pandemic was declared.
“We got back to Canada and we looked at each other like what are we going to do with all this inventory? Of course, The Patch shut down, they have three stores and they all shut down,” said Light whose travel business shut down within 24 hours after the pandemic was declared.
When things began to open after the first lockdown, Light and Van den Daele put their inventory to use by opening up a new store of The Patch in front of Sauble Beach in July.
With the decent success of the first store, they decided to go forward and open Grit & Grace.
“The summer was amazing. And I think many people want to support small now. I think they want to support small local businesses over big corporations,” said Light.
She said the decision to come to Guelph was in response to a demand from loyal customers and was meant to be a pop up store, but because of the positive response, they stayed.
“The location was amazing, the landlords were super sweet and we walked out and said should we do this full time? Are we crazy? Like are we nuts?,” said Light.
“The feedback I seem to get is there isn't anything really like this right now so that's great feedback,” said Light who is currently working to kick off her online store.
She said the Grit & Grace isn't just about selling clothing, it's also a community space for women to meet and chat. She designed the store in a way that allows women to congregate in a living room setting within the store.
“We had events in Sauble Beach and I hope to have them here when we’re allowed to. You know wine and yoga nights and workshops for female entrepreneurs,” said Light.
The name Grit & Grace comes from the idea that so many women are full of grit and grace to be where they are today regardless of their story.
“We all have our stories and I hope to create a space where we can share them as well”
“My dream is to feature designers all over the world and work with cooperatives, she said there are many women in developing countries around the world doing really great things,” said Light.
“I want to bring that into the big world for them as well. As soon as I can get on a plane.”