Katherine Webb is a Graphic Designer, Illustrator and Great Wolf Lodge fan (tee hee!) based in Toronto ON. See some of her illustration inspiration as well as her own body of work here.
I’ve walked past it a hundred times, always too nervous to go in.
Never really sure what it was since there are no windows and an ominous dark entrance.
I mean, it’s called The Leather Store but that didn’t really prepare me for what was inside.
It takes up 2 floors of a large building in the Fashion District of downtown Toronto. High end boutiques and restaurants are popping up all around it so I wanted to go in and check it out while I still could. The front 1/4 of the store is filled with finished leather goods but once you get past the biker pants and silver cropped jackets the back of the store is absolutely filled from floor to ceiling with leather pieces in all sizes, textures and colours.
One wrong move and you’d be at the bottom of a pile of alligator skins.
In a neighbourhood filled with minimal storefronts with each product carefully displayed and individually lit, it was pretty refreshing to go somewhere that just puts it all out there and let’s you discover the hidden gems yourself. You never know where inspiration might strike. Next time you’re in the neighbourhood, take a walk in The Leather Store or one of the discount fabric stores on Queen St. and do some digging.
