Going to my parent’s house has become more like a shopping trip than a family visit. On Sunday my husband and I went over there for dinner, and we ended up leaving with a pair of motorcycle boots (for my husband), a vintage Salvatore Ferragamo clutch, a few tacky but cool 80s cotton sweaters, a belt, some mohair scarves, and an old Celine bag. Plus, the piece de resistance, which was my sister’s 1992 Roots jacket.

You would need to be Canadian to understand how this ultra-tacky baseball jacket could possibly be an exciting acquisition compared to a Salvatore Ferragamo clutch and a Celine bag. These jackets were very fashionable when I was in my teens, and anything from your teens is either horrifically embarrassing, “totally awesome”, or a mixture of both. It makes me feel very old, discovering fashion items that were super-desirable to me in my teens which are now (in my eyes) cool again.

It says 1992 on the sleeve!

Here’s a few photos of the jacket. I’m not sure how I will wear it yet, the fit is terrible. The body is quite big, and the sleeves are too short. And its hideous, but in a good way (I think.)

Here are the new versions, available at Roots now. It’s obvious that the only way this jacket can be fashionable is if you are wearing a very old one, sort of like the Club Monaco sweatshirts I talked about a few weeks ago.

The old one is definitely cooler.

Roots is a very Canadian brand, and, like most Canadian fashion, has enourmous potential but fails to deliver. OK, the clothing and branded merchandise sucks, but the leather goods are super good quality and extremely durable. I have this wallet, from Roots, and I got tons of compliments on it. Its nicer and rougher than the Comme des Garcons wallets, and much more durable. So why can’t they make a decent handbag?

I’d love to give Roots’ leather products a makeover, in fact, I am offering my services to them. The leather is great, the product is very high quality, and its extremely durable. But they need to improve their designs, and what better time to do it. People are sick of paying $2000 for a handbag, let’s make some great ones for $300. Plus, I like the fact that they don’t blatantly brand their bags (like Coach…ugh.) Here are some designer brands that they should take inspiration from… Roots people: call me.

All Roots images from their website, all designer bag images from and available on Net A Porter.

Before I talk a little about my Vancouver dislikes, I need to say that when people say it is one of the best cities in the world to live in, trust them, because its true. Cheap sushi, nearby beach and mountain, and an excellent standard of living are only some of the reasons. People are nice, genuinely nice. You can drink tap water. The views are phenomenal. Education and public services are great. You can buy Chanel and Louis Vuitton, but in two hours by car you can be in the middle of nowhere. So generally, Vancouver=good. But there are a lot of crappy things about this town, and one of them is the way its residents perceive it.

Some people say you’re as old as you feel. How about, you’re as cool as you feel. So many people here say “Vancouver is casual” or “Vancouver is laid back” or “we just wear casual clothes here, we don’t care about fashion”. Well, Vancouver, if you keep thinking like that you will perpetually be the town “where people are healthy and dress badly.”

I moved here and I want it to become more hip and interesting, so we can have the best of both worlds. This ridiculous “The World Needs More Canada” display at Chapters book store doesn’t help us one bit. In preparation for the Olympics, we are promoting ourselves and Canada as a great place. People know that Canada is a great place, but they might change their mind when they see idiotic displays like this one.

It basically sums up every Vancouver stereotype I hate, all nicely put together in a dsiplay in a store on our busiest shopping street.

1. Hockey. I have no problem with hockey or sports, but I have a problem with this cities obsession with hockey. I lived in Engand for 10 years, and aside from during the World Cup and Euro Cup tournaments, I could always escape football (soccer) beacuse the Brits understood that not everyone wants to watch a match or a game when they are eating or drinking. But not in Vancouver. Here, every single restaurant and bar has a hockey match playing on a TV.I was in a greek restaurant, watching a belly dancing performance, and they still had the hockey on.



2. Umbrellas. Yup, it rains here, non stop, so I guess the tourists will want to be buying these umbrellas for their stay here, or maybe take them back to their home country as a souvenir of the town that always rained. (Brits, you think england rains? It doenst rain half as much as rains here.)



3. Reusable water bottles. This is for use during exercise and yoga, and that is important because that is how we spend 90 percent of our free time here in Vancouver (the other spare time is spent watching sport, ie. Hockey). I am against disposable waterbottles because I hate the idea of all the waste, but I can’t bring myself to buy one of these reusable ones because A-it means I have officially moved back to Vancouver, and I’m not ready to admit that, and B- I won’t get the thrill of having everyone in my bikram yoga class give me dirty looks because I’m using a disposable water bottle, instead of a reusable one.



4. Reusable shopping bag: Vancouverites like to think they are super environmental, and I am very pleased that I use cotton bags when I grocery shop. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves, this is a town where people buy gas guzzling SUVs to drive from their middle class neighbourhoods, 20 blocks east to the mall and then home. Oh yeah, they also drive 15 minutes to get to an area where they are going to go running for an hour. And the best part is, everyone is coming from the same neighbourhood, driving to the same running path, running together, and driving back again. In seperate cars. I am not exactly the most environmentally conscious person in the world, so I won’t criticize that sort of behaviour, but please don’t tell me you are environmental Vancouver, because you aren’t.

Ok, I am being critical, but what’s the solution. Well, if I was going to make a little display of things I love about Vancouver, here is what I would put in there. This is what the Vancouver area means to me.

1. Some aboriginal clothing, like these amazing moccasin boots, which I spotted on one of my students. They are made from local moose leather and rabbit fur, and cost less than $200!!!!
   
2. Smoked salmon: yum. It is bloody good here. Get it in a nicely painted box too. Image source.



3. BC bud: There is no denying that this is what Vancouver is famous for, even Tommy Lee was talking about it on stage Sunday night at GM Place. Of course I don’t endorse this sort of thing, but I have HEARD its really good. Here’s a picture of the Olympic torch, which is said to resemble a joint. Was that an accident, or a reflection of the culture here in Vancouver? Image source.



4. California rolls: Vancouver’s local dish is sushi. Ask anyone. And we do it super well. Tojo’s has been named the best Japanese restaurant in the world, outside of Japan. In the world!



5. A Douglas Coupland Book. We are proud of him!



6. Some local artwork. Something totally unappreciated by Vancouverites, so get it while it isn’t too expensive. Here are two of my favourites, Roselina Hung (top) and Dougal Graham (bottom.)



7. A tree. Can you sell small ones? I guess tourists can’t bring it home on the plane, so experience a tree. See a really big one on the way to Tofino, sit on a log on English bay beach, hike through them in Squamish, or burn some in a campfire on long beach. Be sure to bring a dog along.



8. Vintage clothes. The secret is, everyone here is two years behind the rest of the world when it comes to fashion, so they vintage stores are full of good stuff because the Vancouver people haven’t figured out its cool yet. Image of True Value Vintage, source.

A subject I have been meaning to tackle for some time is the Globe and Mail. You will hear more about my newspaper preferences later this week, but The Globe and Mail is THE national Canadian newspaper, therefore very important, and considered to be a respectable publication. I read it online and sometimes hardcopy, and there is no doubt in my mind that the Globe and Mail is a trustworthy publication with a lot of high quality content.

However (and there’s always a “however”) I do not understand why they haven’t managed to figure out how to deliver a decent looking email newsletter. Its not that difficult, when you are a major publication like the Globe and Mail, to create some sort of template, so that all your email newsletter subscribers have a good-looking page to arriving in their inbox. And I am not just talking about their newspaper headlines, they have a daily email called Style Counsel, which is possibly the most unstylish newsletter I have ever seen in my life. Bloggers with zero budget manage better than this.

The images can do the talking. And if Globe and Mail would like me to recommend some graphic designers that can help them to sort out this ugly newsletter template, I’d be happy to help.

This is a Style Counsel newsletter from the Globe and Mail. Apprently its about eco lingerie, but the whole thing is overshadowed by advertising, and there is no product image. How can you talk about lingerie without a product image? Plus the choice of font is ultra-boring.

This is what Fashion Magazine's email newsletter looks like. Lots of visuals, and nicely designed.

This is Refinery 29's newsletter. Also looks good.

This is what Vitamin Daily's newsletter looks like when it arrives into my inbox. They are probably, sort of considered to be competition to Globe and Mail's Style Counsel. It's obvious which one looks better.

Another poorly designer Style Counsel newsletter.

Just to get my point across, I am also going to show you what Globe and Mail’s headlines newsletter looks like, compared to some other publications.

The Guardian's daily headlines newsletter.

The Financial Times daily headlines newsletter.

and the Globe and Mails' headlines newsletter. No design, no thought about the fonts, no imagery, no formatting.

Maybe I’m being harsh but in this day and age, where many people are consuming news and information through their inbox, it is just as important to have a good looking website as it is to have a good looking newsletter. Especially if you are a major, national publication.

Anyone wanting to have a better look at the blogs mentioned above can see them here: Refinery 29, Vitamin Daily, Fashion Magazine, Guardian Online, and Financial Times.

This week I dragged Jason out shopping again, as I still haven’t managed to see all the important Vancouver shops. Lyndi came with us, she does PR for Style Republic Magazine, and another one of Jason’s friends, who is Canadian but speaks Turkish and Mandarin. Her linguistic skills were probably the most exciting discovery of the evening, which doesn’t say much about shopping in downtown Vancouver.

I started alone in American Apparel, and I managed to get out without spending over 100 dollars. American Apparel is great, it is the brand that is not a brand, you can wear it in so many different ways, so practical , so simple, and so easy. While I was waiting for my shopping partners, I wandered into Adidas on Granville Street. Adidas is a fantastic brand, the clothes, shoes, and visual merchandising all look great. I am not very into sportswear, but since I became a contributor to View2 magazine a few years ago (which is a trend forecasting magazine for the sportswear and casual wear sectors) I developed an interest in some of these brands.

Look at the amazing running shoes in the Adidas store, I want the ones with the wings.

I'm trying to think of an outfit where I could wear these without looking clumpy.

Also very cool.

So many pretty colours and textures!

So our shopping destination was Leone, which is a high end store in Sinclair Centre that used to focus on Italian brands, but sells quite a few European brands as well. They carry brands like Versace, Roberto Cavalli, Prada, D&G, Jimmy Choo, Dior, and John Galliano. For those of you who don’t know it, this is one of the high end shopping destinations in Vancouver, probably second only to Holt Renfrew, our luxury department store.

There is definitely some nice stock in there, lots of it desirable and expensive but not ridiculously expensive. The problem was, like most Vancouver stores, the visual merchansiding. First of all, the brands weren’t grouped together, and luxury brands each deserve to have their own space (unless you are merchandising them like a boutique.) The sales people didn’t know what season the clothes were from. And the signage… oh my god the signage.

Can you imagine using a generic neon sign and tacky red sales tickets in a luxury store?

These signs were taped on several of the walls, all over the store. First of all, can't they get professional, classy signs made? Second, print them on expensive paper, not regular photocopier paper. And third, find a nice way to attach them to the wall, not globs of gluey stuff. Even H&M wouldn't use signage like this.

This is a shoe rack with Jimmy Choo, Miu Miu, Dior and other fabulous luxury shoes. They are displayed the same way you would display $29.99 stripper shoes. I bought a pair in London once, and they were displayed exactly like this. Can you imagine there must be at least 20,000 dollars worth of shoes on those cheap shelves...

Come on Leone! You can do better than this…

This week, like next week, is the time for a lot of socialising and meeting friends. Vancouver seems to have a lot of good restaurants, many of which I have yet to explore.

I met my friend Hannah on Tuesday at the Secret Garden tea shop in Kerrisdale. The concept is interesting, tea and cakes and lunch in a cutesy tea room environment. The location is perfect, as there are a lot of people around Kerrisdale that can probably afford to take long lunches (let’s just say the typical Kerrisdale lady is probably pretty time-rich as well as cash-rich.) We met at 3pm and it was almost full, so they must be doing quite well. When I sat down I saw this lovely tea cup with sugar cubes on the table, and looked at the menu, which had an amazing selection of teas.

The decor had a lot of potential. personally I would have bought old chairs and tables, so that none of them match, but the counter area had a lot of charm.

The tea and cakes was lovely, but I have to say I was really disappointed by their tea pots and cups. Why go through all the trouble with the decor and the pretty tea cup sugar holders on every table, when you are going to serve the drinks in these generic, boring tea cups.

Another slightly disappointing drinks situation was last night when I went to Uva with Debra, Valdimir, Tin, and the husband. Great company, beautiful venue, fantastic decor, great wine list, but very disappointing service. In fact, I am regretting the 10% tip I left, they deserved less. But at least everything looked good.

Love the light fixtures!

These wall patterns look great, definitely something to consider for a wall in our living room.

Speaking of looking good, today I used my Oonagh O’Hagan bag for the first time. Oonagh is an old friend, we studied together at St Martins and we have stayed close ever since. She is the author of a fantastic book, called I Lick My Cheese and Other Real Notes From The Roommate Frontlines. It is a book filled with notes that people have left for their roommates. I supposed I could say I was the author of one or two of the notes in there, but I won’t tell you which ones, as they weren’t very nice.

She did a limited edition run of bags early this year, which were only available at Browns, a beautiful little department store on South Molton Street in London. in London. Her design took after the famous Anya Hindmarch “I’m not a plactic bag”, which sold like crazy a few years ago but was criticized because it wasn’t ethically friendly and it was made in China.

Marisa V’s version was also very funny, I never got around to buying one, but I defintiely wish I had.

Anyway, here is Oonagh’s bag, I don’t think you can get it anywhere anymore, but you can definitely enjoy my picture!

Its a cotton bag with a photo of a Louis Vuitton bag printed on it.

SO cool!

Perfect size for my MacBook.

Dear Holts,

I went to your perfume counter yesterday. As expected, the service was spectacular, the guy who served me was super nice and helpful. But I have to say, I am not very impressed about how you displayed your perfumes.

Luxury perfumes are expensive (not inaccessible, but I still think $100 for a 50ml bottle is not exactly a bargain) yet you display the perfumes like they would in a dollar store. Your perfume counter had at least a hundred and fifty perfume bottles on it, and I don’t think that is a very good way to merchandise luxury perfumes. You want to feel special when you are buying something from a luxury brand, and I didn’t feel special when I picked out one bottle from a bin of 50 and handed over my credit card.

Come on Holts!

At an average of 80 dollars a bottle, this bin holds over $3500 dollars of perfume. hmmm...

You can't even properly appreciate the bottle design when they are all shoved in there!

It's just too much!

Dear Holts,

I had some very pleasant surprises yesterday when I came in, as well as a few disappointments. I was in a bad mood after work so didn’t want to enter in the shoe department, in fear I could leave potentially feeling worse. I could see some fabulous shoes that were out of my price range, which would not help to feel any better, or, worse, I could see no fabulous shoes at all. In fear of the latter, I went to your lingerie department.

Well Holts, judging by your lingerie department, your customer’s average age must be 65. You should call it your bathrobe department, because that is really what it is, with a few bras and panties and tights. The brand selection was pretty dull, including La Perla, Elle MacPherson, D&G, Lejaby, Donna Karan, and Chantelle (I have the BEST Chantelle lingerie story ever, see the end of the blog.) DKNY tights took up a full wall of prime space, wool tights shouldn’t exactly be the focus of a luxury lingerie department. And there was robes and nighties, robes and nighties, and robes and nighties.

Bathrobe department at Holts, with a bit of predictable D&G leopard print.

You also had another Canadian favourite, a selection of a basic piece in every colour of the rainbow (see Field Trip to Metrotown, Old Navy) this time things by Hanky Panky.

Hanky Panky thongs in every colour of the rainbow. Not so sure about the yellow...

I’ll admit there were a few nice pieces, the lacey Spanx were much better than the crotchless bicycle shorts the brand is usually known for (another great story to tell there…another day), a few nice Donna Karan bras reasonably priced at 89 dollars, and some a few bits of Stella McCartney and D&G (but why is it always the leopard print D&G? There are things in the D&G collection that ARENT leopard print you know…)

Crotchless bicycle shorts by Spanx

So really all you need is a few bits from some fantastic brands so that people like me can go in and treat myself tom something nice. Here is what I suggest, a bit of Princesse Tam Tam, Kiki de Montparnasse, Chantal Thomass, and Wondervoll.

This brand is so underrated.

Kiki de Montparnasse, sounds French but they are actually American.

Beautiful and totally affordable.

Possibly the only cool German lingerie brand.

I could suggest a few more, but I think you would need to start paying me for that…

And by the way, your staff were fantastic. That is one thing you can count on Canada is good customer service. (In case any readers are retailers in the UK, this word may be unfamiliar for you, so the definition of customer service is “the provision of SERVICE to customers before, during and after a purchase” Wikipedia)

As I was leaving I noticed that you were selling Peachoo + Krejberg. Well done Holts! What a fantastic brand, very edgy, but beautiful, and not mainstream at all! That was a very pleasant surprise. I will have a proper look around the womenswear after I’ve hit shoes, sometime very soon, and now you’ve given me something to look forward to!

Peachoo + Krejberg, a very mysterious brand...they don't even have a website.

——–

OK, the Chantelle Lingerie story…This happened when I was teaching at Central Saint Martins over the summer. I had a student from a Middle Eastern country, I won’t say which one, but it wasn’t one of the ones known for its giant luxury malls, nor one in full conflict. I’ll try and re-create the conversation as best I can.

Here is the situation, each student has been assigned a catwalk show, and they need to present a short report on it. My student was given Burberry.

Student: I am sorry, I am not familiar with this brand, Burberry?
Me: Uhhh, sorry?!?!?!?!?!?!
Student: We don’t have this brand in my country.
Me: You MUST have this brand in your country, this brand is in every country.
Student: No, we don’t have many brands, we only have one mall.
Me: Yes, but you should know Burberry, or at least you would have seen Burberry if you had read a fashion magazine. ANY FASHION MAGAZINE.
Student: No, no, never seen it.
Me: You must have. Ok, do you have Chanel, because if you have Chanel you probably have Burberry. And EVERYONE has Chanel.
Student: Yes, we have Chanel, but only the bras.
Me: They don’t make bras…
Student: Oh, sorry, I meant Chantelle. We have Chantelle, not Chanel.
Me: Please don’t tell me you have just confused Chanel and Chantelle.
I then needed to take a breather.

Dear Holts,

You are the only luxury department store we have in this country, so we need you. I went to visit you for the first time in 6 months yesterday, and I was very disappointed. I couldn’t bring myself to venture beyond your handbag department, but that was enough. All I saw was Top 40 handbags, most of them ones we have seen one hundred times before. The Balenciaga Lariat, the Chloe Paddington (does this still exist?), the Salvatore Ferragamo bags with those horseshoe hardware things (I have one of those, fell apart after 6 months and had to go to war with the shop to get it repaired for free), Dior Lady Dior Bag, Gucci Indy Bag (I wanted one of those…three years ago!), D&G Leopard Print bags (boring!), WAY too much Michael by Michael Kors, Burberry bags (in check, no amazing leather bags, just the horrible horrible check), Bottega Veneta weaved bags, and the Louis Vuitton section still had that multi-coloured monogram (I can’t believe they are still selling that!) And Coach, endless amounts of Coach bags.

Clockwise from centre top: Bottega Veneta weave bag, Burberry bag, Chloe Paddington bag, Salvatore Ferragamo Vitello bag, Gucci Indy bag, Louis Vuitton bag, Marc Jacobs bag, Balenciaga Lariat bag, Lady Dior bag.

Holts, when I visit you, I want to feel inspired to shop, but instead I saw a sea of boring bags I have seen one hundred times before, ones that I can buy on several online discount luxury sites. Plus, the decor is boring, all white, Coach bags presented the same way as Marc Jacobs, Cole Haan displayed the same as Balenciaga. That is just wrong.

Vancouver, why the obsession with Coach bags?

I understand the Canadian customer is not very fashion forward or risk-taking, so I can accept the sea of Top 40 bags. But where are the little gems, the ones that us fashion-lovers can visit, caress, and maybe even buy. Those fabulous pieces that we dream about, ones that won’t be recognized by every person on the street, but we don’t care because we know what we have and we treasure it. No Coach or Louis Vuitton monogram bag is going to do that for me.

Plus, your Christmas windows are very boring, are you sure you are owned by the same family that owns Selfridges?

Dear Holts, I will be visiting your shoe department next week, please don’t disappoint me.

—EDIT—

Monday November 23rd

Just saw these images of Bloomingdales Christmas Windows on The Cut. Now even more depressed, they get Christmas trees made out of stilettos!