The story of the Yaad.
A Jamaican-Chinese kitchen in Scarborough, a snapback shop in Eglinton West, and what it means to be from here.
My grandparents ran a Chinese restaurant on Eglinton West in the early seventies. My mother grew up between the kitchen and the patty bakery two doors down. That corner — the smell of black-bean chicken from one storefront and ackee from the next — is what the word "yaad" has always meant to me. Home is where the two collide.
The Yaad started because there was no clothing brand that looked the way that corner felt. There's a lot of Caribbean wear out there. There's a lot of Toronto wear. There's almost nothing that takes the specificity of being Jamaican-Chinese in the GTA — Scarborough roti, Kensington reggae, a Lunar New Year afterparty that turns into Soca — and puts it on a tee.
Every piece we drop is shot in a place we actually go. The Trini Girls tee was photographed at Caribana. The West Indies tee at a stadium pickup match. The Caribbean Cutie set at a Cabbagetown patio. These aren't lifestyle shots; they're receipts.
We're a small operation. We do our own pickups in the GTA, we ship across Canada through eShipper, and we read every email at info@theyaad.ca personally. If you've got a corner of the diaspora we should be photographing, write us. We probably already know the spot.
Until then — keep reppin' yaad, wherever yours is.
— The Yaad