Ready, set, vintage! @ Community Thrift & Vintage

The day before I even attended Myriam Laroche’s Eco Fashion Week seminar on How and Why to Re-use in Fashion, I was already walking my talk.

My sister held a clothing swap party for her birthday in the summer, and was left with an IKEA bag-full of clothes, which we donated to Vancouver’s latest addition to the vintage shopping world: Community Thrift & Vintage.

Located in Gastown, Community Thrift & Vintage is just steps away from some of Vancouver’s most hip boutiques. However, unlike some of the vintage shops I’ve been to, it won’t cost you $50 per item – stuff here ranges from $5 for shoes and up. I think the average price was $15 per item. It makes SO much sense that the prices are reasonable, because 100% of proceeds go to the Women’s Centre downtown. So the more you shop, the more you are helping people! You just  can’t go wrong with that.

Having bought some new scarves just the day before, I wasn’t shopping for myself – but was able to pick up two super cute items for my one-year old niece.

Animal print denim dress – $5; Cowichan sweater – $16

Cowichan sweater – back

Christmas shopping done.

Community Thrift and Vintage
41 West Cordova St. (& Carrall) Vancouver BC V6C 3N8
To donate clothing, email jennidorothylee@gmail.com
communitythriftandvintage.ca
Twitter @CommunityThrft
Facebook.com/CommunityThriftandVintage

Hours:

Monday – Closed
T-W – 10am-6pm
Th-Sat – 11am-7pm
Sunday – 12-5pm

View Larger Map

How & why to reuse in fashion – EFW03 Seminar

It came and it went. October 5-7 marked the 3rd installment of Eco Fashion Week in Vancouver. I didn’t get media access this year, and with a busy work and VIFF schedule, I knew that going to all the shows I wanted to see would prove too difficult and costly. However, there are some changes with EFW this time around, which definitely made it worth checking out.

First, the venue. EFW was held at Storyeum, which I don’t even know is really called Storyeum anymore, because the Water St. space was completely evacuated. But where was once drywall was a well-lit, spacious hub conducive to vendor booths, private lounge and bar areas, and then a sweet runway space out back. Second, they added “The Window” – which invited the public to see and buy from eco-friendly vendors – both local and international. That was my one criticism from the previous events, which were great productions but never really invited the public to interact with eco-friendly artisans. When I went to the trade show last year, the designers kept asking me if I was a buyer. But I would have bought some stuff there right on the spot if I was able to!

With just a reservation, I was able to attend Friday afternoon’s seminar with President Myriam Laroche, who needed only 45 minutes to get her point across.

Myriam Laroche

She started off by meeting the dozen or so folks of us to get a feel for whether we were industry folk or not and to make the whole presentation more interactive. I wasn’t really coming as a blogger, just someone who wanted to learn – straight from the horse’s mouth - what we, as general consumers, could do to better the earth with our fashion choices.

Myriam’s story is really interesting. She’s been in the fashion biz for 17 years, and converted to being a vintage shopper after learning some of the alarming stats:

- Each year in the US alone, 20 billion ibs. of textiles are thrown into landfills
- Textiles take up more space than any other type of waste.
- The average person tosses 68 ibs. of clothes a year.
- It takes 256 gallons of water to make one t-shirt, and 987 gallons of water for one pair of jeans (very similar to the amount needed to make 1 ib. of beef)
- Cotton growing accounts for 25% of pesticide use for farming
- 99% of clothes are compost-able (we just need the systems to be able to compost them).
- Dyes are also harmful to our water system.

Continue reading…

LAKSHMI splurge & luck on ILIA lipstick

I tend to win things. I figure I have good karma, because I tell grocery clerks that I’m buying the more expensive organic fruit when they punch in the regular fruit code during checkout.  One high-end and eco-friendly lipstick that came out recently is ILIA Pure Lip Care, created by Sasha Plasvic, a graphic artist and former luxury rebranding agent who I had the pleasure of speaking to at one of LYNNsteven’s sales.

Our lips are the closest organ to our mouths. They say we eat 13 pounds of lipstick in our lifetime. And it’s a fact that so many cosmetics are filled with junk and toxins. So why not put only the best natural stuff on our puckers? This is why I headed to Misch after work to buy a shade of Nobody’s Baby before store closing. I made it, but all of the lipsticks in stock were damaged during transport. So although I had to wait 6 days to pick it up, I was given the item for free! That’s the best customer service ever!

There are six different shades of ILIA, all of which are toxin-free (believe me, I checked) and are super smooth on application. They are available across Canada, the USA, and UK, but you can pick them up at LYNNsteven, Misch, and Homewerx if not online. Check out ILIAbeauty.com for more info.

***Update: I found the original ILIA card I received at LYNNsteven, and it’s so awesome I wanted to share it with you:

LAKSHMI splurge

Continue reading…