Everything about Jojo’s General Store near the top of Ecclesall Road is vintage with the exception of one key aspect, its owner.
Jojo Elgarice is just 24 but is a dealer in fashion from bygone eras. After selling his Rag Parade collection for three years from the first floor of retro clothing retailer Syd & Mallory’s on Devonshire Street, Jojo moved to 553 Ecclesall Road earlier this year and opened his store in early April.
In Sheffield it is no rare thing to find a young person kitting themselves out in vintage clothing but for Jojo the relationship with the fashion niche is something that goes beyond the recent rise in demand for tweed, retro barber and the like.
“I grew up around a lot of old gear and a lot of old antiques and furniture and old phones, nothing was modern in the house.”
Once you step into Jojo’s General Store you are instantly surrounded by military clothing and wooden tables displaying hard leather wallets and uniquely designed trinkets. It’s almost impossible to imagine these items placed anywhere else, their age should see them unfit for use but here they fit in just right, adding to the character of the shop – their use is well justified.
Perhaps it is Jojo’s surroundings at home while growing up that influenced his choice of fashion that dates back over a century and unconventional interior design for the shop.
“As a kid you don’t really appreciate it, you think ‘why haven’t I got a microwave like next door? Why haven’t I got any of these [modern] things?’ but as you get older you start to realise ‘oh this is actually much better made or look at the join on that table or look at the construction on that chandelier compared to something at your mate’s house that might have been an Ikea wardrobe that was falling over. Everything was a lot more rugged and solid at our house and I don’t think it was until I got to 16, 17 that I actually started realising it. I think you take it for granted as a kid.”
Jojo’s path to where he is now is in great contrast to most people in their early 20s. He moved to Sheffield from his home in Matlock, Derbyshire aged 17 and lived in a shared house with strangers before moving in with friends. He also worked as a chef before making the move into fashion.
“I used to have a rail in The Forum and I used to sell band t-shirts and bits of bric-a-brac and odds bits of antique and then I got really into clothing and jackets and it just went from there really.”
With his interest in all things old being prevalent throughout his life Jojo accepts that his age is perhaps a deception. When I suggest his particular choices in stock could place him as a man 30 or 40 years older he does not deny it but his maturity has perhaps also helped him to advance his growth as a staple of Sheffield’s vintage scene.
“There’s always been [vintage] shops here but I don’t think anyone’s ever done it specialist like I have and hand-picked stuff so I think there was probably no market for what I was doing at that time but I’ve probably created one.”
Certainly Jojo Elgarice’s carefully chosen items show boldness but the buying process takes time and precision.
“We get asked it like hundreds of times a day like ‘where do you get your stuff mate?’ and there’s not a secret warehouse full of really good gear. When you’re getting stuff that dates from the Victorian era that’s rare up to like the 1980s, 90s that’s also rare you can’t just get it from one place, you’ve got to know a lot of people and a lot of contacts and you’ve got to travel a lot and you’ve got to really put the hours in to try and find it because it doesn’t just turn up.”
“A lot of vintage shops buy it all in weight and probably pay X amount for a tonne of gear and pick a few good bits out. It’s the exact opposite of the ethos I want to work off.”
Much of Jojo’s collection has a military theme that appears indicative of the world war periods – including a P.O.W jacket – but he insists all his items are fit for casual wear.
“I always pick stuff that is wearable because we do buy unusual stuff as well that’s more like [for] display or maybe for a museum or that kind of standard. We also have lots of customers from Japan that resale this kind of stuff so a lot of customers in Tokyo, Osaka and places like that.”
As for the decision to move to Ecclesall Road, one walk down Devonshire Street would suggest Jojo was mad to move nearly two miles from a prime location for sellers of vintage goods.
“It was a bit of a brave move, it could have not worked but I took a bit of a risk but I’d done my research and I think it’s just a different area and there’s nothing else like this so it kind of sets me apart from everyone else because everyone else is doing something slightly different to me and I’m doing my own thing so I think it was nice to give me a break away from everybody else. Not that I don’t want to be associated with anyone else but I’m trying to do my own thing that’s completely different so I think it was nice to move to a different spot and it’s paid off; it’s been really busy so it’s worked out well.”
Jojo says a 40 ft long shipping container filled with potential future – albeit vintage – stock currently sits on land of a friend’s so there’s plenty more to look forward to.
But what of the fashion of the future? Do modern jackets and coats of today have a place in the vintage collections of the decades to come?
“If you look at anything, everything is copied from an old design.”
“Everything is an idea from the past but I think the things that are going to become collectible are stuff like Stone Island, designed by Massimo Osti from late 1980s all the way through the 1990s. That stuff is going to become collectible and [is] something that was iconic and a bit different, that was quite cutting edge. He was designing his own fabrics, manufacturing them in his own factory. He was doing stuff that was unusual and way ahead of his time.”
“Something run of the mill like a pair of Levi Jeans from the 1990s or a Gucci shirt, I don’t think they’ll have any value or significance because they don’t really mean anything whereas something like [from] a designer like Nigel Cabourn or a really strong collection might have a strong reference in the future that people might look back on in 30, 40 years and take ideas from.”
Jojo’s General Store opened at the beginning of April and Jojo says so far business is good, with one of the nation’s favourite adventurers, Ben Fogle, being counted among his customer base.
While it may not have been his original plan to do so, Jojo seems to have started something special with his take on the vintage trend in this new store in suburban Sheffield.
Long live the old.
Jojo’s General Store // 553 Ecclesall Road // S11 8PR
Naked Sheffield 
Amazing shop, fabulous items, special.
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Are you already where the discerning minority will move on to after they have finishing shopping at Jo Jo’s.
Are you ready with something else. I’m sure you are. Punk didn’t last too long but it opening doors for creatives like you so good luck my friend.
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