Donna Saslove And Simon Lugassy - JO LEE Magazine

JL
Crinolines and poufy gowns on the second floor. Photography by Zoe Badley.
thinking we were organized
and safe, we’d stored cash
from the store at home.
Much of the money we
were to open with in New
York was gone. We felt we
had no choice but to come
back to Toronto.
Simon’s sister was getting
married and offered her
apartment – we could stay
there until we restarted our
life.
SL: The next thing we
knew – we were opening
a store on Toronto’s Yonge
Street near Wellesley Street
– that was our first, in July
1989. And then, yes, yes,
we opened many stores – I
think 11 locations?
JL: And you have powerbuilt
an extraordinary
reputation! Was it a huge
struggle getting to the top
of your game?
DS: Yes, and I’ll tell you
how it went.
As I was saying, the first
Toronto F/X boutique
was on Yonge Street.
Then we opened F/X on
Queen West in 1991.
We kept moving to
the next “happening”
area, sometimes closing
locations when it made
sense.
Queen Street was so
hot, we opened a second
boutique right next to
the other one. The first
Queen F/X store was
one-of-a-kind dresses. The
other was everything else.
Respectively, we opened on
Yonge north of Eglinton
Street and then the shop in
Yorkville.
After that came Spadina
Avenue – a huge, 10,000
square-foot space where we
had a candy bar, ice cream
parlor, photo booth and
great gifts. We did nail
polish – I had 250 colors.
And the best? We sold
fudge. Salespeople and
customers rollerbladed;
it was like a department
store that was continually
changing.
SL: The location was
amazing for a lot of things.
Seriously, anyone who was
anyone more than likely
shopped there. We had
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