You Need that Kind of Experimentation

Juno sitting in front of a track sewing machine, next to a clothing rack with a few articles of clothing, in interview format.

Juno: I think there’s something to be said about, like, creating a space where everything is free, where you can just come in and take stuff and there’s, you know, mountains and piles of clothes and some of them are very, very nice and it’s really liberating to come in and just learn like, “Hey I can shop and take stuff and I’m not required to pay anything.” Like, it’s really just a sharing um and exchange space. So I really like making that space. I think it’s like a really powerful lesson as to what we have as a community and what we can share with each other. It’s been a very, like, queer space too, which is really sweet. Like, a lot of trans people from town and the surrounding areas come.

I know that’s a thing, you know, for trans kids or people who are like earlier in transition to, like, have access to those spaces, to even just like try out new things, try clothes that they might not necessarily feel comfortable going to buy on their own.

I know when I transitioned, I was taking a lot of clothes from friends and acquaintances and swaps and really just, like, wherever I could get my hands on things, just to try- just to try different stuff. Like, not all of it has really like stuck with me, but you need that kind of experimentation and you need a place to like get those clothes. So, yeah, I love providing that space, I love doing the clothes swaps.