On a magical leap year day in 2012, just months after Fashion Buyer, Vava Valentina, and Fashion Designer, Angela Phung, had met through Vava’s cousin who lived in Angela’s condo building. Aside from their first names, the two did not know anything about each other. These two strangers decided to meet up for their first lunch date.



Angela woke up with an empowering feeling and tweeted “…feeling magical today!”. During lunch, the girls briefly got to know one another and both talked about not feeling at home in Toronto, since there wasn't anything in the city exciting enough to ground them. Both being in the fashion industry, they talked about how fun it would be to do something together.



Before the two met, Vava had owned a store and sold it, traveled, then moved to Toronto in Feb 2011. She had spent almost a year actively searching for the storefront on Queen Street to call her own, but had not been successful. The space was either is too large or the rent was too high.



Angela had recently moved to Toronto in October of 2011 to take a year off after dedicating several years launching her restaurant businesses in cities West of Ontario. She planned to enjoy her time off while familiarizing herself with the area to be able to launch another business venture after her year off...2 months after her move, she was already bored and needed something to do.



After lunch, Angela offered Vava a ride home and on their way down Queen Street, Vava saw a 3 x 5-inch hand-written sign on a store window that read: “For Rent”. She abruptly said, “Oh my god! Stop the car!” They immediately made a U-turn and pulled over in front of the store. Vava looked at Angela and said "it's probably for the apartments upstairs". Angela said call anyways. Valentina called the number spoke to the landlord and it turned out to be a commercial lease. After she got off the phone, for some unexplainable reason, she shared all the information with Angela...and before she could finish, Angela said, "Let's do it!"....



Not even knowing each other's last names, these girls signed their lives away 7 days later... Today, The Store On Queen (TSOQ) is one of the leading Fashion retailers on Queen street West.