VICTORIA "VIKI" MANSELL

July 28, 1951 – July 20, 2025 Brilliant, irreverent, elegant, gracious, deeply loyal, and outrageously chic, Viki Mansell was a force - equal parts creativity, determination, and razor-sharp discernment. Born in London, England, and raised in Canada from the age of five, Viki shed her accent but never her British sensibility or dry sense of humor. Her style and substance were shaped early by her mother, Dodie Mansell, who immersed her in a world where art, design, and culture mattered. Together, they scoured antique fairs and estate sales, encouraging the development of Viki's unerring eye and her legendary bargaining skill. At 38, she opened Absolutely Inc. in Toronto's Summerhill neighborhood - the first store of its kind, and the anchor of a burgeoning design district. The shop bore the full stamp of Viki's vision: a curated space where elegance met whimsy, old met new, and every item had a story and a place. She transformed interiors with her astute eye and bold sense of scale, elevating the overlooked, celebrating the classic, and rejecting the overwrought. Her design philosophy was famously distilled in her trademark one-liners: "Well, in a word… no," "I don't want to be amused by décor," "Not everything has to be a statement," "Frankly, it's a dog's breakfast." Internationally sought after, Viki's work had lasting influence. A Viki Mansell space was instantly recognizable – impeccable, thoroughly modern, always elegant, perfectly proportioned. She built a thriving interior design business. Her personal uniform was as iconic as her interiors: crisp white shirt, black pencil pants, Tod's Gommino loafers, tortoiseshell glasses, and a statement necklace. Viki believed in using the good china, opening the best bottle of wine, and never saving the silver for a "special occasion." At the same time, she loved a "bargoon," hated to overpay, and delighted in tipping off friends to the Frette outlet sale. You could not have said of Viki that she was an early adopter. The last among her friends to buy a microwave oven, she hid it in a cupboard. Tupperware? An abomination. At the shop, price tags and invoices were always handwritten in her lovely, angular script. Everything Viki put her mind to was transformed effortlessly and with beauty. She created a magical English country garden on the inhospitable soil of Muskoka. She entertained with casual perfection. She was also deeply curious about world affairs, never missing Fareed Zakaria's Sunday morning geopolitical roundup, Maureen Dowd's column, or Tina Brown's Substack. She had little patience for pretension but plenty of room for joy. She travelled with curiosity and panache from Africa to Malta, to Dublin and beyond, retaining a soft spot for Paris, where she studied at the Beaux Arts as a young woman. Viki was married to her high school sweetheart, Kevin Keeley, for 39 years. They were a magnetic pair who drew a group of outrageously interesting and funny people into their orbit. The parties, whether at Lake of Bays or Wolfrey Avenue, were legendary affairs, fuelled by wit and laughter, and almost always followed by dancing. In time, children and then grandchildren arrived and were equally welcomed into the circle, creating a web of friendship and indelible memories that continue to this day. They suffered the unimaginable when their beloved son, Griffin, died at 17. Later, Viki would lose Kevin as well. Heartbroken but never defeated, she carried their memory forward with grace, grit, and zero self-pity - modelling resilience without sentimentality. All the while, quietly and in private, Viki devoted herself to the wellbeing of her sister, Jane, while remaining the most caring daughter to her adored mother, Dodie. Her daughter, Whitney Keeley, became her true north - a relationship marked by profound closeness, mutual respect, and a creative synergy that will ensure the continuation of Viki's legacy, Absolutely Inc. In the last years of her life, Viki was overjoyed when Whitney married James Stellick and gave birth to Griffin. Viki was at once welcomed into the large and boisterous Stellick clan and embraced as one of their own. These were some of her happiest times. She taught us all how to live beautifully and love fiercely. She never looked back, only forward, with no regrets. If you wish, donations to the Taylor Statten Camping Bursary Fund could be made in Viki's memory. (https://tscbf.com/index.html). A private celebration will be held at the Gardiner Museum in the fall. Her wish was that it be a party-full of friends and laughter.