Support Local and Help the Environment by Shopping at Violet’s Nook

An up-and-coming trend is emerging in the fashion world – thrifting. Not only is this type of shopping fun, but you’re also helping the environment and supporting local businesses while doing it. Many new thrift clothing stores are popping up but on a new medium – Instagram.

Madison Dixon is the owner and creator of one of these new curated and thrifted clothing stores called Violet’s Nook

On her Instagram page you’ll find anything from clothing, shoes, jewellery, kids clothing, knickknacks and even the odd home décor item, all at affordable prices. The items that Madison sells on her page she either thrifts herself, has donated by friends of family members or finds it on the side of the road. This allows her to have more choice is the prices of the items, so that anyone can buy them.

The items don’t always come ready to be posted on her site. She often reworks her pieces to give them her own flare and style. A coat of paint or polish makes the item look brand new.

Madison photographs her clothing and décor to be placed on the page. Her goal for the future is to have a diverse group of people to model for the site.

“I want to try to have people of different genders, some non-binary people that I know, people of colour and kids, everyone. I want it to be very inclusive.”

Madison wants all of her customers to be satisfied with their purchase, so she goes through a process to make sure of it. She packages the items together and writes a handwritten note to the customer thanking them for supporting her small business. She even goes as far as hand delivering the item directly to the customer.

While Violet’s Nook is a small business, Madison is using her platform to support other small businesses as well. Each month she highlights a different local artist so that her followers can support their work as well. Last month, she featured Amber Solomon who is a local beadwork artist. This month, Madison is featuring Jordan Johnson, a local visual artist.

Her love for thrifting started when she would receive hand-me-downs from friends and family members or when her aunt would take her thrift shopping. Through high school and university her love for thrifting continued to grow. In her university years, she realized the impact she was making by thrift shopping.

“Not only is it fun and cool but it’s also really good for the environment. A lot of times I would be turned away from donating items because other thrift stores or shelters had too many items already. Unfortunately, even though people think that you can just donate all the time a lot of it does end up in the land fill.”

During university, Madison would go thrift shopping for her friends because they thought it was really hard to find cool things, but they still wanted to help the environment.

“I find that the people who run these thrift stores are so great at picking out these individual items,” Rhys Dixon, Madison’s sister and Violets Nook customer, commented on her sister’s eye for thrifting.

“They fix them up, really show you how to style them, or use them for décor. I think that having that talent is a great thing and helps people find stuff that they would never usually find on their own,” she added.

All of these factors helped her make the decision to start Violet’s Nook. Make sure to check out her Instagram page, @violetsnook, for new items dropping this holiday season so that you can support her local business