We link up with fashion archive mogul and content creator, Alex Maxamenko, to talk through his love for Margiela and skating culture, as well as rise in the vintage scene.
Alex (left) and Christian (right).
If you’re in Toronto, be sure to visit 20 Maud St. Opened earlier this year by Alex Maxamenko and his business partner Christian, the store is a blend of vintage and contemporary fashion, offering unique treasures and a showcase of cultural fashion excellence.
From an extensive collection of Maison Margiela to a dedicated Raf Simons section, 20 Maud St. caters to all tastes. As the largest archive fashion stockist in Canada, we had to catch up with Alex to discuss his journey—from selling thrifted items out of his high school locker at age 11 to spontaneously acquiring a Margiela glove vest on a trip to Japan.
Read the interview…
Hey Alex! How did you get your start?
Christian [the other owner of the store and of Archive Threads] and I were around 12 and 11 when we first met each other. We were both reselling clothes already with a minimal amount of success. When we started working on more online sales, we were growing from just like drifting things in. Christian was reselling Supreme drops, and I was thrifting… just finding stuff in second-hand stores and looking to flip it out of a high school locker.
And how long have you been doing this for?
It’s been nine years now.
What were your very first pieces you and Christian picked up as 20 Maud St?
There was this new store opening called Believe… kind of like a better Value Village or a charity shop. On their opening day, we ended up finding two Dior saddlebags beside each other in a display case for a hundred dollars each. We freaked out. Both of us sold so low too. We got like $300 for each and we were so happy, but we were just young, and we didn’t know. That money at that point to us… that felt amazing.
Alex and Christian’s first ever store event at 15 and 16.
Does that rush keep you going now?
Yeah, I forget what the scientific term is… but your levels of dopamine wear off over time when you get it from a certain facility. And you need larger and larger doses to reach that same level of satisfaction.
So, the allure of collecting clothes has worn off in the way that we had some childlike wonder to it before. But there’s still certain pieces and certain things that get us rattled. And there’s still that passion with some pieces that we can get and work towards. And not even necessarily as pieces now, but just things we can achieve with the store.
What would you say is your favourite item that you’ve had in the store?
I really love that we have the Margiela glove vest. We were looking for it in Japan and I’m super stoked we bought that piece. There are so many things that we’re looking for that we have on a broad list – because you can never tick all of your boxes and you just kind of have to see things as they come. But we would never have expected to get our hands on that piece and something we thought about for probably like a decade now.
And then we had it get offered to us in Japan and we just had to purchase it. But there’s only two of those in the world to my existence or to my knowledge otherwise, but are like available in non-private collections, like ready to purchase. And one is in a museum.
Talk us through the decision to open a new space.
It wasn’t too brash a decision for us considering that we were upstairs in our bedroom beforehand. We [Christian and I] live with a bunch of our roommates and when we first moved, it was one of our requirements that him and I would have two bedrooms, and we’d have a second bedroom as storage space for all of our clothes.
So, when we first moved to Toronto, that was a really big tipping point because neither of us had jobs or expected to have jobs coming here. We were looking to come here and sell clothes full time.
I was working well doing online, and we were taking appointments in-person. And then it got to the point where we really couldn’t move clothes in that room anymore. Everything was piling on the floor because we had so much stuff. We had some instances of taller people – like NBA players – that would bonk their head off our roof because it was so tiny in there. And we realised that we had to make our customer experience better.
@alexmaxamenko
Whereabouts are you and Christian from?
We both grew up in Barrie which is a small town. Christian grew up more on the outskirts but yeah, really small town.
It wasn’t ideal for nurturing the type of stuff we were into. But I think, because of that, Christian and I got super headstrong because there wasn’t really an outlet for it. And we became each other’s outlet for it. And we just got obsessed.
Why Toronto? Were you thinking of moving abroad or was Toronto always the aim?
After this year of travelling and realising how beautiful the rest of the world is, I’m a lot less glued to the idea of being in Toronto forever. Whereas I was before. But, yeah, we definitely have room to expand. I’d love to see the store get franchised but where I still have a decent amount of involvement with it so that it’s not watered down… and to grow it out to multiple locations.
What would be your dream location for a store?
Japan would be amazing. Just because we could have a place where we could stay and source new stuff and then come back. I would love it if we could make that happen.
Lineup during the 20 Maud St. store opening.
How do you feel about the Toronto streetwear scene?
I think our community is real small, but there’s a lot of people that really care. And, because they see the rarity in how hard it is to find people that are authentically a part of this community, that small percentile is very appreciative and supports each other immensely.
What brands are you and Christian fans of?
I’m a really big Margiela-head at the moment. And Christian’s gone super heavy into Raf Simons. But I think, both of us agree, that they’re probably two of the most significant historical menswear designers that we carry in the shop. So it would be really good for us to expand on that.
@alexmaxamenko Spring Summer 2007 Maison Margiela Artisinal Leather Jacket. Asking $1500 USD shipping included #margiela #maisonmargiela ♬ walmart from childhood memories – corn wave
Are there any up-and-coming designers and brands that you’re a fan of at the moment?
We honestly don’t watch a lot of new ones to be honest. Like, I’m excited to see what Haider Ackermann what Tom Ford does at Tom Ford because he kind of went all over the place. So, I’m intrigued.
What kind of decision-making goes into the buying process?
When we first started, it used to be so much more about like, price evaluation and comparison on Grailed or cross referencing to see their pricing. Obviously, we still maintain along those lines but now, I feel a lot more confident in just looking at something and being like, “I like that. I think it’s worth it.”
What do you hope for, for your future?
We would really like to franchise outwards. I really would like to be able to step away more. Christian and I have given an incredible amount of time of our young lives towards this thing. And I’m not saying that we’re not grateful for all that’s come of it, but I think that both of us missed out on so much because we’ve dedicated ourselves solely to this. And I really want to take the time to do things that I’ve always wanted to do and utilise our time and (hopefully) our wealth to the best of our ability.
What do you hope to spend your time towards?
I skate a lot and I honestly don’t find I really skate enough. I love surfing too, but we don’t really live somewhere, where you can do that. But taking the time to step away a bit more is nice. And that’s probably our biggest conclusion from our Europe trip too, because we don’t stop working.
Whereabouts in Europe did you go? What did you get up to?
We were in 9 countries in 23 days. It was pretty hectic. We started in Portugal and ended in Vienna, but we were bouncing around a decent bit. Paris and Antwerp were probably our favourites for sourcing.
We messed around a lot. I was skating at basically every single city that we went to because I love to meet people through skateboarding and just skate street. It’s just… it’s an amazing culture.
Visit Alex’s store, the Archive Threads website here and follow Alex on TikTok and Instagram.
Alex and Christian running a store event on Queen West.
