Your shop carries a range of goods from fashion to home. Can you describe the LBV lifestyle?
LBV is about living beautifully, luxury goods with a fabulous esthetic. Attention to detail, fashion and design forward. The LBV client appreciates beautiful things and understands the investment. Buy less, choose well. We also don’t want to exclude anyone and so we focus on having a price range that ensures everyone can shop in the boutique.
Tell us about your brands. What makes them special?
We only sell what we love. We are concerned with the quality and integrity of our brands. We are invested in selling products we feel are special, and we present them in a unique setting. Making sure each brand is represented and beautifully merchandised is very important to us. Being a designer makes me approach retail differently and how we present our products comes from that perspective – we just don’t stock products to sell – they have to relate to and fit into the story we are trying to tell.
When you decided to expand into Vancouver, what made you choose Gastown?
We really loved the energy of Gastown, we had a friend say if Brooklyn and Soho had a baby it would be Gastown – that is the perfect analogy. We love all the independent boutiques, coffee shops and restaurants – it is a creative meeting of the minds. We are so pleased to be part of the neighbourhood.
Do you have a favourite product or label?
We are candle whores and we adore Lumira Atelier candles from Australia. They burn beautifully and the scents are fabulous. We are also a little obsessed with our denim line from LA – Schoen By Yu. This is the most kick ass luxury denim we have ever sold. It is so comfortable, never bags out and is being worn by Victoria Beckham – need we say more?
We see a lot of black & white (which we love). Is it about minimalism, modernism, both?
Black and white is classic, timeless and versatile. It’s how I designed and decorated my own home, it’s the esthetic I am most drawn too and so it felt only natural to design the shop with what is authentic to my style. I think if you do what is genuine and natural, it translates to your clients.
Tell us about your tag line – ‘If anyone can have it, I don’t want it’.
We are focused on bringing in product that cannot be found everywhere. We want products that other shops don’t stock. We work hard to source products not carried in other stores and are often the first to import lines into Canada. Currently we have three candle lines from Australia, an edible beauty line from Australia, denim from LA, jewellery line from LA, handbag line from Australia and a cushion line from Lake Como, Italy that we are the first retailers in Canada to stock. It’s refreshing and important to bring something new and original to the market, we are not interested in having what everyone else has, if anyone can have it…. we will move on and find something else.
You can find LBV Lifestyle at 206 Carrall Street and online here.
