Shop Talk with Eugene of Testé and Street Night Live
Inside Montreal’s latest community space
A few weeks ago I had the pleasure of sitting down and getting to chat with my friend Eugene. Many of you may know Eugene from his Substack fashion newsletter Street Night Live (which was actually one of my main inspirations for bringing Designed to Last to Substack).
Eugene and I have worked on a few projects together in the past, so I had been bugging him to do a Designed to Last interview for a while. Now that Eugene has opened his new space Testé in Montreal, we figured it was the perfect time to link up.
Nick: What’s the music in the background?
Eugene: There's this church that plays their music on Saturdays next door. I completely forgot about it. This is a commercial building, so anything goes in this place. There’s also no sound proofing, which kind of sucks, but during the week it's pretty quiet.
So you're in the Testé space right now? Actually, first of all, is that how you pronounce it?
Yeah, well it’s pronounced like Testé, because it has to be. Tested is the English name and Testé is the French version of it, because in Montreal you legally have to have a French name for businesses.
Nice, tell me a bit about the space. Are you using it for both Testé and for Street Night Live?
Yeah, so it's kind of like a multi-faceted space in a way. Basically it got to the point where I just had so much stuff in my house, that I literally couldn’t live in it. I've always enjoyed archiving and thought it would be nice to organize my stuff. I found this space on Marketplace, and got lucky with a really good deal.
I also use this space for SNL. I do all my photos and work here, so I’m able to separate my work life from my living situation. This way I’m more organized.
I've been trying to open it up as a store. People can come in just to see what I collect. I’m also building out a library here - so you can just come in and go through stuff with the scanner.
It's mostly for the community to come chill though. It’s nice for people to experience so many new brands they’ve maybe never seen before, all together under one roof.
So you’re selling stuff now at Testé, or are you trying to build up the archive first and then just doing rentals?
Right now, it’s just me and my friend, and we’re mostly selling stuff from our own closets that we don't wear anymore. We’re both different sizes, so it works out. I'm not even trying to be super pushy in terms of sales. That’s not my priority. It's more about discovery.
I’m fortunate enough to have a lot of friends who work in various industries, so sometimes I help with some styling. Then, the clothes are multi-purposed, because they aren’t just sitting here. We’ll put them to use. It's really fun for me.
My end goal down the line, 5-10 years from now, is to have an insanely massive archive. Then I can hopefully work with bigger brands who would use it for research or references for their own collections. It would also be cool to become a small multi-brand retailer where we carry some of our favorite brands down the line as well.
Can you see yourself doing that in the future? Like actually going out and approaching brands and trying to turn Testé into a proper multibrand store?
Yeah, I think so. But what’s funny is that this space actually started off as a joke. I was at a friend's house for dinner, and then we started to talk about how the shopping in Montreal could be so much better.
Yeah it's bad. There's nothing. I think SSENSE just killed everything.
No, exactly. I want to have a boutique where we could go and shop. You know what I mean? And for me I nerd out about the clothes in person.
I wanted to curate a space that’s very friendly and very open. You don't even have to buy anything. It's also a lot of fun to connect with people and to see them discover new brands. It’s like an extension of SNL in that way.
How have you been curating everything in the space? Are you mostly just on Marketplace hunting things down?
Yeah. I’m religiously on Marketplace. I'm on there like 24/7. I love nice furniture, but it’s very expensive, so I’ve been trying to find good deals there.
I’ve never set out a goal in terms of the way the space looks. Even in my own home, the way I furnish and design is that I go piece by piece.
Yeah that’s exactly what I do too. I think it’s so lame when people purposely go after a certain ‘aesthetic’, and then buy everything all at the same time. It’s like you’re just buying a moodboard then, instead of what you actually like.
No, exactly. I'll usually find a piece that I really like and then I think about how I can integrate it into the space.
When I first got this spot, I painted the floor. It wasn’t this color at all before and it was totally unfinished, so I wanted to give it this light vibe.
I also didn’t love the ceiling situation at first. I actually hated it - but then it kind of gave off Severance vibes and I’ve started really enjoying it. And then I love wood and I love metal, so I just wanted to put both into play.
What are some of your favorite pieces in the space?
So for example, I found these metal units on Facebook Marketplace. You can hang them on the wall, but I like to stack them to break apart the room.
Then there's stuff like this chair that I also got on Marketplace. It's made from leather and looks pretty medieval.
The couch is a ‘Marsala’ Loveseat. I’m so bad with names, but it’s from the same guy that designed the Togo couch.
Yeah, Michael Ducaroy?
Yeah, exactly. I like the space age look, and it’s very comfortable. The couch is from the same guy that sold me the leather chair and my filing cabinet. So it’s also a Marketplace find.
I also spotted a print from Vince Tsang up there.
Yeah, his stuff is great, I also have one of his pieces at my apartment. I also got this print from one of the first Supreme employees as a gift. He drew this Citron car. It's very cool.
Nice, and what’s behind the curtain? That’s the change room, right?
Yeah, inside there’s just a little stool that my friend made, and a mirror. How I built it though, is actually a funny story.
I had to drill into concrete for the base, so I went to Home Depot to get the materials. When I started building it I realized that I didn’t have the proper drill bits and whatnot. I had made friends with the construction guys that work in the building, who’re all Russian. We bonded a bit, so I asked them to help me out with the drill equipment. They hooked it up and then I built it out.
Then I went to Ikea to get the drapes, but they were way too long. In the building there's a seamstress, so I went downstairs and had them steam and hem the drapes for me.
That’s so cool that you didn’t even have to leave the building.
Yeah exactly.
And it’s important, because I really want people to feel comfortable when they try stuff on. I feel like in a lot of other shops people feel weird trying things on, you know what I mean? And I don't want that. I want the complete opposite.
Just seeing an item in hand is one thing, but actually trying it on and seeing how it fits, is a completely different story.
What's it like being in Montreal? I've only been there a few times and never for that long… From my perspective, the retail scene isn’t great, but the food and wine scene is incredible.
The city is great once you have your community. Because what happens is that we all just chill outside all the time. You can kind of party and drink outside in the parks until whenever, which is really fun, but also could be punishing at the same time.
But yeah, a lot of great restaurants and wine bars. It's funny because it's a huge skate city, right? A lot of homies that are adjacent to the skate scene here actually end up becoming chefs and then they open up their own restaurants.
I think the cool part about Montreal though is that it's so small, so everything feels condensed in a way. I mostly hangout around the Plateau and Little Italy area, there’s so much to do here you never really have to leave this zone, which is really fun.
It's one of those cities where you can walk around and you'll stumble upon friends on the street and then you'll make plans right away. You can go to any bar by yourself and you'll run into like 10 people you know, and you'll have the best night of your life.
As always, thank you for reading and supporting Designed to Last. If you haven’t already, make sure to follow us on Instagram @designed.to.last and @nicholasroethel.
The Testé website is teste.clothing and the Instagram is @testé.mtl. The Street Night Live newsletter is here and the Instagram is @streetnightlive.
Photos by @raidenchills.