Two local photographers have a new idea about how to keep business flowing this summer and it depends on tourism.
The Flying Dress Ottawa initiative offers seven Ukrainian-made “flowing” dresses for women to wear in photoshoots in locations such as Parliament Hill and Dow’s Lake. The dresses are silk and come in various sizes and colours. All have a long train that “flies” in the wind, creating an eye-catching visual.
Flying dress photoshoots are not new; they’re available from companies in international locations such as Zanzibar and Greece. In fact, it was a trip to Istanbul that inspired Ottawa’s Della Thomson-Vaslet and Roxy Parejas, who co-run In Spades Photography and also have their own photoshoot businesses.
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“We planned ahead, knowing that, ‘Okay, things are getting tough,’” Thomson-Vaslet, CEO of In Spades, told OBJ. “What else can we do, where we still do our passion but we go on a different avenue as opposed to just in the studio?”
Parejas and Thomson-Vaslet chat regularly about how to expand the business. With Flying Dress, the entrepreneurs believe it’s an example of how a photography business can partner with other local businesses. Parejas and Thomson-Vaslet said they are chatting with hotels and other hospitality services to advertise to visitors and they hope word of mouth spreads to local residents as well.
They acknowledge the tourism market may be in flux in 2025, given the current trade war between Canada and the U.S. Ottawa Tourism reported in 2024 that most tourists to the city came from the U.S., but there is also demand from Europe, fuelled by direct flights to the national capital.
“Travel doesn’t stop,” Thomson-Vaslet said, adding that she anticipates demand will be strong this summer regardless of U.S.-Canada relations.
“People from all over the world … are travelling in and they want to get this done as their souvenir,” she said. “So the hope is even if we’re going through some economic troubles at that same time, the travellers coming in won’t be.”
For Nita Tandon, her search for safe food storage containers began 10 years ago and put her on a wild economic ride – one that remains bumpy as tariffs emerge.
Tandon’s company, Dalcini Stainless, sources high-grade stainless steel from India to create lunchboxes, water bottles and durable containers. She battled the usual cash flow issues of a small startup, but came through to land big retailers like Simons as customers. Then the pandemic emerged in 2020, which sparked a multi-year pivot to reach customers online.
Five years later, with a tariff situation changing by the moment, Tandon said the supply chain challenges of the pandemic taught her how to work through such fluctuations.
“These past five years have been so up and down,” Tandon told OBJ. While the Ottawa entrepreneur frames survival as progress – she employs two people as well as herself – the strategy has always been to lean on relationships with other businesses. This includes customers from south of the border.
“Many of our customers actually feel for Canada,” Tandon explained of her U.S. clients. “They say that we didn’t bring this on and they would like to support as much as they can. So our online strategy is to keep doing what we’re doing.”
Tandon says she is working to differentiate herself in a crowded market by highlighting the fact that the stainless steel from her Indian supplier is graded by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
As an entrepreneur with a background in India, Tandon said stainless steel is even more popular in that country than Canada; tiffin, which is a light lunch, often comes in portable stainless steel containers. For her, going to India was a natural choice as a supplier – and in some cases a manufacturer – of Dalcini’s food and drink containers.
