Pop-Up Holiday Miracles in Gastown!

With just 11 more days until Christmas, I know everyone’s feeling the pressure. Me? I’ve got only two presents to go so I’m on the home stretch. If you’ve been keeping up with this blog, you’ll know that I only shop locally. So when I stopped by the Local-E pop-up shop in Gastown to see what they had in store, I discovered within the same block that there was The Found and the Freed. So now I get to blog twice! It’s a holiday miracle!

Local-E features ONLY local designers, which is so awesome. There’s lots to see, but I’d say it’s heavier on the women’s side of things. Lots of accessories, apparel, and jewellery. If I was Santa, picks for myself might include the following:

Shibang Textiles Clutch – $70
More colours and sizes available!
Does anyone else think of William Hung from American Idol when you see this name? 

Bianca Barr Design Earrings $58

Bianca Barr Designs Necklace – $88

Baby Hoodie by Superfly Lullabies – $38

Local Grain wooden ornaments – $5

Little Houses coat – $90 (also available in purple, grey, brown, and grey)

Little Houses is an amazing designer line I’d never heard of. This photo doesn’t do the brand justice, so you’ll just have to check them out online or go to Local-E yourself.

Amanda of Mara Gottler showed me a few of the pieces in the collection, a few of which she was sporting herself in-store:

Triple-Pleated top (Black wool gauze) $125
Harem Pant (Black vintage silk crepe) – $175

Two panelled top (Knit jersey with black wool gauze) – $75
Harem Pant (Black vintage silk crepe) – $175

Mara Gottler shirt $125
Bianca Barr Designs necklace $58

Show-stopper outfits! There is much much more to see including show favourites like Jola V. Designs recycled leather bags, and Daub & Design. So check out Local-E before they close doors on Sunday December 18!

The Found and the Freed‘s third pop-up shop in Gastown is on until December 17, 11am-7pm daily. The shop specializes in found vintage objects and antiques similar to what you’d see at Stepback in Kits. Definitely not the items you want to grab and go for that Secret Santa gift you forgot about; more for the wise collector. Some of the cool items I liked:

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local-E Vancouver Designer Pop-Up

The holidays are turning out to be good this year. In addition to all the craft fairs going on around town, the brainchild behind Daub & Design, Lexi Soukoreff, has built an army of local designers and is putting on local-E, a pop-up retail space starting tomorrow until the 18th. According to the website, the designers will be offering jewellery, apparel and leatherwork. I’ll be checking it out and seeing what catches my eye, so I’ll post that later. local-E is yet another reason to avoid the crazy malls this year!

local-E
December 2-18, 11am-7pm
235B Cambie St. & Cordova (Gastown), Vancouver BC
http://localevancouver.wordpress.com
vancouverlocale@gmail.com
Click here for the Facebook Page
Twitter.com/local_E

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And the shopping begins: Festive Collective

It’s that time of year again. Soon as the Halloween candy is eaten and the pumpkins are left out to rot, we begin preparing for the holiday season.

Luckily (for me, at least), after my one-year fashion challenge, I’ve staved off shopping at malls for good. This includes gifts for others, as much as possible. So where can we buy gifts except at the mall, you ask? Design and craft shows, my friend. THE SHOWS.

You probably already know about the monthly show Portobello West, which is held every last Sunday of the month at the Creekside Community Centre. Oh, you don’t know about this one? Well, then. (Click on the link! You’ve only got one PW show left till the end of December!)

And there are more to come… Circle Craft, Make it! Vancouver, the West Coast Christmas Show, One of a Kind, and Shiny Fuzzy Muddy. But the first to hit Vancouver is right here in my own East Van hood at the Rize pop-up retail space: Festive Collective.

I was invited to the opening party and got to check out the stock, all by local designers. But FC is on until the 27th, so unlike the shows mentioned above where you have to mark them in your calendars, you can relax and know that this one is on for a few more weeks – but remember selection is limited so go as soon as you can if you want to grab what’s there now.

Daub & Design undies

I’ve blogged about Daub & Design before, but it was great to see Lexi’s undies and scarves this time around. A nice change from all the greys, browns and blacks that you usually see everyone sporting right about now. I’m all about the colourful scarves this season too.

Lotus Designs

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