Toronto, ON

Miss E (or Madame Absinthe) describes herself as a collector of stories and broken and forgotten things. She and her partner Brodie share a love for oddities and eccentric décor, but the spirit of Madame Absinthe’s Place of Peculiarities runs much deeper than that. They collect and rescue treasures that are often seen as unwanted by other people – things like broken mannequins, balding or neglected taxidermy, mismatched furniture and décor – giving them a new home and a new life.

The apartment’s vibe is similar to an old Victorian museum of long-forgotten items and oddities that are both creepy and beautiful at the same time. Every nook and cranny is filled with old, rusty medical tools, poorly executed taxidermy, chipped religious statues, broken mannequins wearing outrageous one-of-a-kind outfits, a casket, and even an embalming table! Miss E feels that it’s her duty to preserve items from the past that someone once spent a lot of time crafting and meant to last. If these things end up in Madame Absinthe’s Place of Peculiarities, they cannot be lost to time.

Miss E and Brodie both believe that coming home should feel like breathing in darkness as a sigh of relief. It’s YOUR space where no one is judging you and it should make you entirely happy. It makes Miss E happy to see all of her fashions showcased on mannequins that would have ended up in the landfill otherwise, nestled among gorgeous items from the past. She says there is a lot of beauty in the darkness – if only you know where to look for it.

Miss E spends her days sewing what she calls ‘industrial goth rockstar couture.’ She uses the mannequins in her apartment to model some of these outrageous fashions when she is not wearing them. The outfits are often made from unusual materials – from rusty metal out of scrap yards to old fabrics found in abandoned houses. She showcases her one-of-a-kind fashion on her Instagram account. And her YouTube channel is home to two series, one called “Weird Stuff That I Own” which showcases her vast collection of oddities, and another called “Weird Stuff That I Made” which shows things made from salvaged, vintage and antique materials.

The Weird Homes Tour’s self-driving and virtual home tours showcase unique and interesting homes in cities all across the world.  They are highly Instagram and social media worthy and family-friendly events where photos are welcome.