Tagged: friends

hot on the heels of the ultra-successful inaugural johnson street festival comes another reason to love the end of summer: RIFFLANDIA 3!!!

the best $65 you can spend in september (back to school textbooks puhleeease) will get you an all access wristband to the 157 artists performing at the third annual rifflandia festival in victoria. still life boutique is proud to once again sponsor one of the only victoria music festivals with any staying power, and this year looks to be the best yet. the rifflandia crew covers all their bases by offering a stunning rifflandia festival guide (available for free at still life!), a once-a-year rifflandabrau from phillips brewery, their wristband connect program (that gets you killer discounts at all participating stores, including still life!) and most of all, the music!

we're happy to help make this event happen for the third year in a row, we can already feel the excitement building as artists start to pop into victoria to check out their venues and plan their concert circuit. last year we had hot hot heat, jets overhead, k-os, tegan & sara and heaps of other local musicians stop through the shop to say hi, so don't be a stranger come the third week of september when downtown transforms itself into rifflandia, bc.

we've got a huge event for victoria coming up this saturday! for the first time ever, the 500 & 600 blocks of johnson street will be closed off to vehicles creating a giant community block party: the first ever johnson st fest!

join us all day as we move our sale to the street and our community offers tons of fun events ranging from dunk tanks and skate ramps to b-boy contests, fitness bootcamps and heaps of food vendors! the zone 91.3 will be here as well as lucky bar and our favorite dj touchbass. this is going to be lots of fun, bring the whole family, we'll be set to have a wicked day at johnson st fest!

follow the event & read more info at the johnson st fest facebook page.

jordan grew up with his good friend nic vandergugten in and around victoria, bc. as they worked together and graduated together they went through it all (including broken ankles, tables & hearts and a burger joint mass exodus) through it all was nic's dedication to his creativity and more specifically his arts.

this weekend at still life we are proud to have on display one of nic vandergugten's most recent works. his labour of love this summer was a series of linocuts capturing the structure, beauty & resonance of the johnson street bridge (visable from the front steps of still life). already having been featured around town at the fort street cafe, buon amici and bean around the world, we're happy to have one of the beautiful limited edition prints behind the counter at still life.

while you're downtown over the holiday weekend, stop by and see what nic's produced and have a fantastic bc day long weekend!

you can see more of nic's work here and contact him at nicvandergugten@hotmail.com

almost every night in the summer cruise ships unleash thousands of tourists onto victoria streets for a late afternoon checkpoint ontheir way to/from alaska/san francisco. with sleepy garden city shops closing at 6pm most nights, these visiting fashion hounds end up only able to peek through closed store windows before heading back to their boats and sailing home.

thankfully we've all come together as one and we'll be keeping the lower johnson, yates & pandora shops open until 8pm on both thursday and friday nights through the rest of the summer - and the best way to let all our local friends & family know about this is to have another fashion's night out block party!

kick-starting our summer evening hours will be a block party june 17th to welcome you and yours to our shops for beverages, snacks, special promotions and a great cause. each of the 25+ stores involved will be offering special promotions all evening with your dontation to the mustard seed food bank.

visit the fashion's night out blog for a full list of participating shops and be sure to mark your calendars for fashion's night out!

remind yourself on facebook.
and follow still life on facebook too.

rain, wind or snow, a day at still life rarely begins without a quick jaunt through market square to habit coffee & culture (552 pandora ave).

habit was founded on the idea that coffee can be better – not just in terms of a drinkable product, but in terms of every step that coffee takes – from seed to cup. before building a location, or making a menu, habit founder shane devreaux worked to find partners that shared his vision of ethical, responsible, and community-based business practices with a focus on quality in every detail. the habit crew works closely with their roasters at hines public market coffee to source the best beans from all over the world. shane devreaux has regularly made trips “to the source”, to visit the communities and regions that produce their beans and even welcomed a half dozen african baristas to the shop last summer for a special weekend meet & greet.

habit coffee & culture believes that coffee isn’t simply about getting a buzz, or enjoying a flavor, they believe it’s about a culture of optimism, exploration, and communication, and we at still life very much enjoy the fruit of their collective effort. with a second habit coffee set to open this summer at the corner of pandora & blanshard we're excited to watch the family grow and see what habit does next in developing the local coffee culture.

the lab is a community-focused salon just a few doors down johnson street from still life, offering a full range of hair services from the city's most creative stylists. everyone at still life gets their hair done by the amazing stylists at the lab (541 johnson street) and, admittedly, we're all quite concerned about our hair - so it says a lot that we all allow the fingers, hands and scissors of the lab family to run wild in our precious manes.

walking in to matty conrad's victoria salon, you'll most often be greeted by belle the english bulldog and one of the many friendly lab stylists at the front desk. offering direct trade habit coffee, a huge variety of books & magazines for inspiration and big comfortable leather couches, a trip to the lab is always a friendly, uniquely modern and relaxing experience not found at every salon in victoria.

if you're not already getting your hair done by one of our friends at the lab, check out their stylists profiles and get familiar with what they're doing over at their blog. the lab is always growing and evolving with international workshops and in-lab consultations for their stylists, and we couldn't think of a better pairing for a new still life outfit than an incredible new head of hair.

the lab loves you
& at still life, we love the lab

the capital city scooter club is a classic scooter club dedicated to the preservation, restoration and enjoyment of classic european styled scooters such as vespa, lambretta, triumph, bella , or clones like pgo, bajaj, sears, puch, sil or serveta. every may they hold their annual garden city scooter run and spend three solid days seeing the sights of lower vancouver island on scooters.

participants range from local victoria scooter riders, to western canadian friends, and visitors from washington and oregon state. lower vancouver island is such an ideal area for scooters, with beautiful natural sites, beautiful old english architecture and plenty of pubs, cafes & parks to stop off at and hang out with your crew. still life is happy once again to help the ccsc enjoy their may long weekend in style with gifts from us and fred perry including an assortment of limited run polos and a gorgeous throw back leather fred perry bag. if you've got a scooter and are looking to join up at any time, check out their website - they'll be stopping at heaps of our favorite victoria locations like peacock billiards, scooter underground, vancouver island brewery and smiths pub during the three day rally.

still life congratulates the capital city scooter club and all it's visiting friends on their 26th annual run and look forward to seeing you all this weekend - ride safe.

with temperatures expected to soar up to 21°C over the weekend, we have a hard time finding any reason to leave the southern island for the mainland (ferry line-ups, bus rides, blaaah). but if you simply must visit the mainland and end up in vancouver's mt pleasant neighbourhood we must insist you stop by mr. lee's general store & haberdashery for a shop visit unlike any you've ever experienced.

the general store is a loving collaboration developed by our good friends dustin fishbook, meghan paterson and jeff petry. a faithful extension of the authentic belmont barber shop located below, mr. lee's has provided an experience as well as quality crafted goods to the gentlemen of vancouver since this past january. mr. lee’s has a curated selection of accessories, clothing and accompaniments that we feel are noteworthy, rare and purposeful, and above all else special. in addition they carry a template of product that was sold by general stores of the 1930’s &40’s: specialty foods, hard goods, apothecary, magazines, fine paper products, flowers and notions. a one-stop shop to heal all your hankerings and make life a little sweeter.

there is no place like mr. lee's in victoria, vancouver or even the rest of british columbia! they've become a must-visit destination for all of us at still life whenever we're in vancouver, not just for the incredible variety of products available but for the experience and fine local eating, drinking & shopping recomendations they offer to visitors of their fair city. so if you're in vancouver this weekend pop by mr. lee's general store & haberdashery for some quality goods for the great outdoors, get yourself a hot shave & a trim from the belmont barbershop downstairs and get out in the sun! still life loves mr. lee's.

megadestroyer's original logo was created by the one and only ryan smith in his grade seven math class. years later good friends paul higgins and jeff brown created the brand megadestroyer using this logo to brainwash the young and twisted youth of today. heathens like paul higgins, acrow, steve moore, andre pinces, sean coggins, ken diamond, and justin bartlett make for hell on wheels, or at least jersey and leather.... "so fucking metal"

we blew through the megadestroyer tees last summer, and scared young children throughout the fall with that collection, and the spring 2010 series promises the same misfortune for the youth. we've got a handful of new graphics, and the return of two of our absolute favorites. grab the ghost/zombie/witch woman tee by legendary (and now island-based) canadian tattoo artist steve moore and the ride till death biker tee before all of us (and our still life friends & family) snatch them all up.

just two blocks up johnson street from still life lives ditch records & cds. everyone at victoria's favorite independent new & used record store is fantastic, and our friend kellen took kimmy for a tour yesterday and she came back with an armful of vinyl for the store. over the years our record player/vinyl collection at still life has managed to garner almost as much attention as the clothes, and for us there's no better way to listen to our favorite albums at work than on vinyl.

thanks to ditch's huge selection and kellen's uncanny ability to fulfill the modern audiophile's needs, kimmy ended up with a great selection of new albums for still life:

• vampire weekend contra
• midlake the courage of others
• big star #1 record
• hot chip one life stand
• beach house teen dream
• yeah yeah yeah's it's blitz
• lcd soundsystem sounds of silver
• four tet there is love in you
• rem murmur
• julian casablancas phrazes for the young
• camera obscura let's get out of this country