Meet the owner

Vanessa Stein’s penchant for fashion can be traced back to her childhood. “I remember being really little and walking around Holt Renfrew, staring up at all the clothes and touching pieces from Dolce&Gabbana and stuff like that,” says Vanessa, owner of HazelLily Designer Consignment. “Going to the art gallery and appreciating art and fashion, those are memories I have.”

After going on to become an assistant manager at a high-end retail store, Vanessa realized her pay wasn’t allowing her to shop the high-end designer brands she loved. She started to shop consignment but when she had trouble finding the designer brands she wanted, she came up with the idea to open her own shop.

“They had the top of the line like Chanel, and they had the bottom of the line like Joe Fresh and Banana Republic, but nothing trendy and in the middle so that’s kind of what I wanted to do here,” Vanessa says. “I wanted girls my age or older who loved great fashion to be able to find those trendy brands like Vince and Theory at affordable prices.”

Since opening HazelLily Designer Consignment on Yonge Street north of Lawrence Avenue in 2012, Vanessa’s client base has grown mainly through word of mouth ― whether it’s a young woman who is excited to find several affordable designer items to wear to a new job or a consigner who is thrilled to receive a cheque in the mail for clothes she no longer wears.

"It's been really great," she says. "I've been fostering a really great group of women who shop here and spread the word to their friends."