Chaotic Closet is a vintage clothing store that has opened up in downtown London. The store offers the community affordable fashionable clothing and fashion students the opportunity to gain experience in working in the fashion industry. Owner Ray Shil is a 19 year old economics student at Western University who noticed the need for fashion culture in the London area. He is looking to serve the community with affordable fashion. He says the store is a “vintage second hand Y2K clothing store” where you can buy, sell, or trade in clothing. Being completely student owned and operated, he describes the difficulties of running the store as well as being a first year student.
“Being a business owner, even if you got employees, you gotta put in more work and effort, you gotta keep on grinding. So I’ll say its hard to balance both of them together, but I did find the sweet spot”
Shil finds the time to study as well as running the shop since all of his classes are online. He also provides Western students with jobs so they get first hand fashion industry experience. Currently all 8 employees are first year students at Western with one of them being a graduate in the fashion program. Since the pandemic held back opening day for a few months, Shil was still optimistic. He is looking to open a few stores in the London area as he wants to bring more of a fashion district in London.
Chaotic Closet is located on Dundas and Richmond St, across from the Tim Horton’s. Opened from 12pm-6pm Monday through Friday.
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