GENES - #3 - Sheena Botelho (@sheenabootleg)
Issue #3 in a series that explores the stories behind peoples favorite clothing featuring Sheena Botelho (aka the founder of "Slice of Life Vancouver").
Sheena Botelho is a local legend who owns and operates Slice of Life, a gift shop, gallery artist studio, and co-working space located in “east vancouver”.
I met Sheena and her partner early on in the process of taking photos for SoEV on Commercial Drive. The first time I met her, she was quite hesitant to have her portrait taken, hiding behind a coffee cup on a cold December day. Over the last few years things have definitely come around for us though, I’ve since taken countless photos of Sheena on my rounds of the neighborhood and nowadays she even jumps out of the giftshop to stop me!
I was given an opportunity to write about Slice of Life a few years ago on the CBC and I covered what they offer to the arts and greater east van community, so this introduction section and following story will mainly address my relationship with the legend herself and the clothing she chose for this interview.
An Introduction
Sheena is what, I believe, most would consider a “go-getter”. Full of energy, you can always expect Sheena to push the boundaries of your understanding about the community, the art scene, business, politics, culture, and yourself. I’ve always admired the “spicy” attitude she brings to our interactions.
With Portuguese lineage and transplanting from Toronto, she brings a “ball-busting” approach to our conversations and has always pushed me to do more, and do better, with regards to my craft. Her work-life started in Toronto, employed by a big sports company in the city, which I will cover a bit later. Eventually, sick of the corporate world, she moved to Vancouver to make a career of her own and opened Slice of Life. Bringing the business skills from Toronto and applying it to a space and industry that is constantly shifting and has almost none of the same structures as the corporate world is a feat unimaginable to me, but she seems to take on every challenge head on and with a controlled chaos that allows Slice to be one of the most unique spaces in the city.
In my experience with her, I’ve found that she always extends and shares her knowledge with those who she works with. Early on in my SoEV project, she was the one who encouraged me to start selling merchandise, giving me the confidence in my project and my abilities and embraced me as a fellow “artist” and even, “entrepreneur”. Since then, we’ve collaborated many times and continue to learn from one another. She challenges my assumptions, brings a candid honesty and respect to all of our conversations and I thank her for that. Now onto the clothes…
Adopting a bit of a uniform over the past few years, her style matches her day-to-day; lively, hard working, comfortable, utilitarian and very local. What I eventually came to find out, it wasn’t always this way, but she’s very glad she’s made it here.
You can always find Sheena rocking a pair of work pants or jeans with a paint covered t-shirt and jacket, complimented by a wild accessory. (Funny thing is; I wrote this a couple of weeks before meeting with Sheena and she nailed my proposed “uniform” the day I walked in to do this interview).
She, of course, greeted me with unbridled enthusiasm on the day of this interview.
I had originally emailed everyone to pick “one or two favorite items” when proposing this project, but in true Sheena fashion, she met me with her favorite outfit, all pieces being sentimental in some way, along with a collection of hats, and a desire to tell stories, so we jumped right in.
The Jeans
I walked into the gallery on a rainy Saturday afternoon, sat down with my notebook and barely had time to hit record on my phone when she started:
“When you said it was called GENES, I was like, oh, I actually have super sentimental jeans. These were the jeans I thought we were going to bury my brother in. I know. Heavy. “
Sheena went on to describe the week or so after her brothers death. People were “showering me with gifts when they heard” and Pet Shop Vintage had found her these jeans. As they were preparing arrangements for the funeral she “…realized that burring him in secondhand clothes would have been a bad decision, so I kept then. It’s good they are with me and not him… I now have these men's jeans that I thought weren't going to look good on me. I chopped 10 inches off the bottom of them.”
The jeans definitely scream vintage, faded black lines worn into the fabric, some maybe from the previous owner, but likely, most from Sheena hauling something (cases of Pabst?, wooden display boxes?, silk screens? cans of paint?) around the studio, or stretching to repaint a top corner of the gallery.
I’ll tell you the brand, but honestly, it doesn’t matter, these jeans have been worked, customized, used and abused, these they have a life (and definitely a unique story) of their own.
They are hers and hers alone.
The jeans carry lots of weight since her brother “always wore baggy Wranglers” and had many pairs in perfect condition in his possession when he passed, a couple of which she was able to keep. These exact ones though, although the same brand and similar cut, were serendipitously gifted after his passing and were slightly used when she got them and because of the coincidence, she was intending to preserve them in some way. She admitted though, much like myself…
“I destroy all clothes so quickly. Everything gets covered in ink, instantly ruined. You can’t wear most of [my stuff] to a nice dinner…”
She continued on, as she jumped up and spun a one-eighty;
“I’ve blown the ass out of all my jeans. Solid proof studios here repaired these for me. She agreed that these are the only pants she’ll repair for me, the rest are always purposefully destroyed, I’ve tried to keep these ones, but their just so utility and industrial, and very comfortable, so I always end up going back to these jeans. Ripping through the ass of pants is just a problem I have. I’m always down low. I’m a smaller person. I use my hips a lot to move. If you skate, bike, do sporting activities, we blow through pants, we all do it.”
Like most things in her art studio, and her personality, the jeans display a philosophy of DIY, a determined-artists mindset, and a “circular economy” sense of being. With an understanding of having to retire these pants eventually, she also wants to repair and wear them for as long as she can, even trying to upcycle the scraps from the original customization.
“I have the cuts [from the legs] somewhere because I was like, I want to make a little purse out of these or something, but I couldn't find them, I looked for you, but they’re just in creative chaos somewhere…in my denim scrap pile because all my pants are so short. I cut all of my jeans, I have a pile of them that I’m always determined to upcycle for whatever weird reason.”
We talked at length about the jeans, with themes from this pair of pants weaving into all of the other pieces that paired with them. Her shirt for example; reading “BUSY”, was an idea planted by her older brother telling her that “busy” actually means “Burdened Under Satan’s Yolk”. “When he said this, I was like that would make a sick T-Shirt”. So she quickly drew it up and made the t-shirts shortly after. “My family’s all got such an anti-establishment, anti-conformity thing, my style gives me that freedom, when I worked in “those establishments", it was conformity, control”.
We then shifted to talking about how her style has changed since moving from Toronto, working in the cooperate world, to now, living in “vancouver” running an artist studio. “what we’re doing, where we are working, that dictates so much of how we look”. She reflected on the past days wearing power suits and skirts, heading out for high priced meals downtown Toronto after big meetings and fitting in with the “business men”. She felt that she never really thought about it at the time, she just dressed to play the part. Now, “to get dressed, it’s fun. It’s fun to find pieces, especially pieces that have a story. And express the sentiments.”
The inspiration for her clothing comes from many different avenues, be it people who frequent the shop, folks in the neighborhood, artists in the gallery, and, probably most importantly, her friends and co-entrepreneurs who work in the vintage clothing space.
Trades, customs, and one offs definitely describe many of Sheena’s favorite items she brought that day, especially her hat collection.
The Hats
We headed into the back patio area of the gallery to take some photos and the conversation of the hats started with explaining the hustle in which she obtained a few of them. In her previous business endeavor, Sheena made Yorkshire inspired donuts (which may be making a comeback!) under the name Glazed and Confused. She would sell these donuts at local flea markets and from time to time would be given opportunities to trade donuts for some gear from other hungover vendors on early weekend mornings as they were getting set up.
A few of these hats, and the boots that will follow, had similar roots. Traded, or found, her hats all had a unique story and she rattled off so many fond memories just by holding them in her hands as if they held the stories in their fabric.
The “Physio Ginasio” hat was one that stood out the most. I’ve definitely taken photos of Sheena rocking this cap. “It’s a conversation starter, for whatever reason. I never thought it would be, I paid a euro for it…I thought, that’s a nice cap I think I like the fit”. She found it years ago when thrifting in Ponta Delgada, the place where both of her parents immigrated from (even though they met in Toronto). The shop on the island is only open a few days a week with sporadic hours and is the only thrift shop. It was in a small house and Sheena walked by every day waiting to get her opportunity to take a look through the piles of clothes. Luckily she finally made it in to peruse the collection of clothing and old furniture while the two elderly shop keepers looked at her confusingly, likely not having too many tourists come through at the time.
People always stop her to ask what Physio Ginasio is, where she got it, among other things. We did a quick Google, but got distracted talking about something else and still to this day we are both unsure, but it doesn’t matter, the hat continues to build a personality independent of the label it displays.
Although she originally intended to try and preserve it, as you can see its definitely seen better days but she loves it none-the-less.
The second hat we chatted quickly about was her (now deadstock) “Stoned in Vancouver” Studio A-OK hat. It is of course sentimental as we all miss the the Chinatown highly curated “Hippie Headshop”, but also because of the customization from a good friend and old studio mate Chiggi, capturing her spirit in a tiny little detail stitched into the back of the hat.
Every hat had a story and every hat gets it’s time in the sun.
“I always want to wear just black and white', but colour always finds its way in”.
The hats being of course the easiest way to add the flair.
The Boots
If the hats represent the brilliant, creative, and energetic mind of Sheena, than the boots definitely represent her grit and hard working attitude.
For those who pay attention, we all see lots of Doc Martens these days. The chunky sole with the yellow stitch has made its triumphant return to the main stream (for the second time in my lifetime) over the past couple of years and it’s safe to say they are probably “peaking” in the public eye again. One of my favorite things to see though, is when you know someone has integrated a shoe silhouette/style so deep into their wardrobe and they’re just along for the ride for the second return of the “in-style”.
“I’ve always worn a pair of these, I’ve worn them my whole life. I’ve split pairs, broke seals” she explained. She even had a pair that she traded for some donuts back in the day that were “old school, originals, probably from a film set” and lasted her for years.
These boots barely look like all the Doc’s you currently see out and about, still shiny and barely broken in. Hers have the wear and tear of someone who is constantly having to think on her feet and put the work in to get things done.
Personally, this is the style I’d rather see, busted and used, in my mind, shoes and boots are made to be worn, walked in, dirty, repaired, and worn again. The spirit of the wearer is mirrored through their shoes.
The Conclusion
We likely could have talked all afternoon and I am anticipating this will likely be one of the longer GENEs interviews, but Sheena being the owner of a place that is always requiring attention, care, fixing, and adjusting, our time was cut short and we moved on to the rest of our days.
The funniest part about this story is the fact that the original piece Sheena brought to discuss to compliment the story of her jeans (her jacket pictured above) hasn’t even been mentioned. Maybe a follow-up for another time, or maybe you can ask her yourself next time you’re visiting the gift-shop.
As a final note, I’ve been asking my interviewees for two suggestions (one local and one “reach”) that they’d like to see featured on this series.
Sheena’s chose only one. Chiggi! (whom I’ve contacted.) So stay tuned.
I hope you enjoyed GENEs #3.
I have recently completed two more interviews and will be starting on putting those together shortly. Early next week I will have a quick reflection on the book making progress/process this year as well as some insights on two of my recent photos.
If you are new to this substack, I hope you can consider subscribing to stay up to date as these get released.
If you liked what you read, I hope you can consider hitting like, sharing, or commenting, as, I’m sure you know, it will help get this to more eyeballs!
Thanks,
md