I found my favourite costume for Halloween ever here Four…read morelobster mascot costumes with sequins and claws! Made for an amazing bar hop!!!

VIBE Tucked behind the Value Village on a side street…read morecalled Busy street (ironically, it's not THAT busy) is Thunder Thighs costume shop. I've lived in the area for YEARS and had no idea about this shop. Anyways, it's amazing. Run, don't walk. There's no website but come here, it's pretty incredible. THE GOODS There's over 7 million pieces here to choose from. The specialties here are uniforms - police, old nurse uniforms, cheerleader, etc. Lots of amazing stuff for women resides on the top floor too. OBLIGATORY CATCHY REMARK Thunder Thighs was a nickname that the owner got when she was working in the industry (or high school. I forget). What a perfect name for a costume store. A great alternative to the monstrous line ups of Malabar during Halloween.

Fresh Collective is the store I've been looking for in Toronto: an independent boutique offering…read morefashion made by local designers, with reasonable prices and real world array of sizes. With friendly, helpful sales staff and a great selection of accessories, I'll certainly keep coming back. Okay, so let me be a bit more specific: By reasonable prices, I mean reasonable by non-sweatshop standards. These are not cheap clothes (prices seem to run in the $70 to $200 range), but consider that people are actually making a living designing and making them right here in the city, and then get out your wallet and pay what well made, unique clothes are actually worth. Or if you have to, wait until August and February and hit the sales. By real-world array of sizes, I mean there are plenty of Extra Smalls on the racks, but there are also Extra Larges and even one or two XXLs. The owner told me that she tries very hard to have something for everyone. Now, I'm a size 14/16ish, right between regular and plus size. Most stores (whether regular or plus size) have a depressing lack of selection for me, but I've been able to find lots of pieces to choose from at Fresh Collective. Most of the sales staff are the designers and artists who make the clothes and jewelery. These are the people I want to support so they can make more beautiful things for me to choose from.

So I haven't been here in a while, mostly because I no longer live downtown, but for a while I was…read morepretty much buying up the whole store. They have super cute vintage dresses that I was particular taken with and still love to look at (even though during covid my preferred outfit is sweats). I got so many compliments on dresses I bought from that store, whether I wore their stuff socially or at work. Actually it kind of made me feel like I was one of those glamorous women in Mad Men. I'll always have a soft spot for this place - highly recommend if you're into vintage, pretty dresses. Most of that part of Queen Street has great vintage finds.

Rude staff, not much selection. They had almost no plus size clothing and the employee that I spoke…read moreto was rude when I asked for more sizes. If you're larger than a Large, don't bother.

This place was everything I dreamed some similar stores in other cities would be (but weren't)…read more Really big selection - casual and super fancy dresses, coats, pants, corsets, cinchers, seasonal stuff like shorts - including a wide variety of shoes (TUK, Demonia, etc) and bags, decent sized clearance selection, all the goth/alt brands you expect and more. Yes, they are pricey (but in my humble American experience there is quite a mark up on *all* clothes in Canada vs the States - like a cheap tank top at H&M will be $5 more automatically in Canada - the exchange rate right now more than makes up for it) but a lot of the items aren't much - if any - cheaper online. I also just love supporting places like this, since there are so few left, and since a lot of "goth" brands run small I prefer to try a lot of the stuff on in person. The girl working and I had a good chat about the history/future of Lip Service in particular and some other stuff. She was super helpful and friendly which was also a change from a lot of alt shops, where the employees seem to spend their time perfecting that "I'm way too fucking cool to talk to you" vibe that makes me eye roll. I wanted *all* the things but settled on two LS dresses, one of which was shiny PVC and fulfilled all of 15 year old me's dreams. Definitely a spot to check out for a pricier but quality "statement piece" or to comb the shoe and clothing sales racks. I'd also like to add they had a surprising amount of men's clothes and not just band t-shirts and jeans either.

Logan & Finley has moved to a new location further west and a couple of blocks off Queen Street…read more It's in a small enclave of artist studios. It's about 8 minutes away from the original location and comes with hassle free parking. I went there today for the first time since they moved and boy was it worth it! The studio/shop is lovely and shopping was fun and hassle free and unpressured. I had a better sense of how stylish the clothes are. I had a mandate in mind. I'm doing a lot of travelling and I wanted to put together a wardrobe that was easily interchangeable and fun to wear and that would easily fit into a carry on suitcase. I'm thrilled with what I bought. The value and quality was great. I look forward to my next visit. Thank you Julie. I love your vision.

Logan & Finley is a clothing store for men & women. They carry Miik Clothing, Fig Clothing, & some…read moreother brands. They also carry some skincare brands in the store. I came to find Miik clothing & bought two of their Emily Cardigans & a dress. Julie is the store owner & she was there the day I came in. She was so helpful & I loved her positive & friendly attitude. The decor of the store is nice too. There are natural wood logs acting as posts for the clothing racks. It's a nice, light, airy feeling in the store. There are two change rooms at the back & a mirror nearby so you can check out how things fit on you. Will definitely be back in the store in the future!

Oh man, I could have spent some serious cash here. Neon Clothing was near my Airbnb during a recent…read morevisit so I had to come inside and check it out and I was definitely glad that I did. The staff was great. The group of guys who worked that day were all friendly and engaging. They were pushy and very helpful. The store is kind of enormous with tons and tons of stuff, mostly clothing (men's and women's) with other cool accessories, bags, shoes, etc. They had a lot of cool Toronto t-shirts there perfect for the tourist like me and the local who wants to rep their city. Prices were reasonable to slightly high depending on how you gauge things. I could have definitely bought more here but I was trying to watch my budget- I couldn't blow all of my money on my first shopping trip. This is the perfect place to pick up a gift for someone, whether that someone is you is to be determined. And if I'm in that part of town when I'm back in Toronto, I'll be back for sure.

Neon is back, and better than ever! They were gone for six years and now re-opened near where they…read moreused to be on the south side of Queen St. W. near Spadina. There is still one picture posted of the old tiny store. This new showroom is bigger and packed with new items. They now sell all kinds of products and hardware like their display tables and all kinds of nick knacks. It was always the brands that got me hooked on Neon -- Vans, Converse, Doc Martens and now Kodiak boots along with clothes from Element. Their latest signature line is from Fjällräven Kånken in Sweden where everything they make is a hit, all killer and no filler sort of thing. Expensive, but worth it for anyone who is active. Some of their products are more technical in nature but the colours and styles are outstanding and tasteful. They winter coats and jackets make sense for our climate and eschews the down overkill of what you normally see on the streets of To. Neon, glad to have you back!

I frequent Hot Topic pretty often. Staff are always nice and helpful. There's always some kind of…read moresale and discount event happening all every month. The store is small so you may not always find what you want. There's an online site but shipping is pretty expensive. You can do returns in store for online purchases.

This Hot Topic location is inside the Square One Mall. It's…read morevery tiny, so very cramped... If you're clusterphobic, I do not recommend coming. If you're into goth, punk/rock, or just simple an anime fan, this place is perfect for you. They also sell plushies and pops. The staff are very nice too.

We came here to check out the board game selection for Christmas. No go on the board games but I…read moredid come away with stuff for myself! There were discounts in pretty much all sections and a clearance wall in the back. They have a Crayola section which is very reasonably priced. I got a pack of 3 crazy scissors for only $4. They have stuffed animal selections from all the best brands like Squishmallow, Jellycat, and Palm Pals! The coolest part of the store was their "Pretend Play" area. They had toy versions of a DeLonghi coffee machine, Dyson vacuums, and the ooni pizza oven. They do helium balloons here. I asked if you can bring your own but they only fill the ones that you purchase in store.

Great non-harassment style customer service! A simple hello upon entrance and a follow up "if…read morethere's anything I can do" about 10 minutes later. Lots of selection of great educational toys and books (fun ones too). Nice that they had a Thomas table set up with a significant number of trains for the little one to play with while mom did a quick once around. The only non-English books they had were in French (which is fine), but it was nice to see that they had a good selection of Lego and also that there was a bathroom. Quick and friendly service upon checkout and also a great deal on Ravensburger Puzzles - buy 1 get the next 50% off. Will be back.

We were on our way to the PetSmart when we saw this peeking out from the side. There are a couple…read moreof Conspiracy Comics throughout the GTA area. This one was well organized and had areas separated by merch type like shirts, figurines, plushies, graphic novels, and comics. Within each category, things were usually grouped by "brands" (characters from the same anime, comic, etc). When I say well organized, all the plushies were sitting up, the figures were lined up all facing the right way...it was really impressive! There was one Gojo Satoru figure that I was really keen on. It came in a pretty decent sized box that was a little smaller than a Funko. The figure in it was actually teeny tiny though! It was $28 for something that could have possibly come out of a gacha lol. Expensive!

One of the many comic book shops in Oakville. Great welcoming atmosphere when I went, being located…read morein Oakville Place, you don't get the "awkward ambience" that comes with some comic book shops. Large selection of comic books but also a great selection of collectables, toys and funko pops! The store also displays funko pops that have been VAULTED and explains what vaulted pops are. Overall, a great experience!