Tagged: store news

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.

it's sale season at still life boutique! in preperation for the arrival of autumn/winter 2010 collections in coming weeks we've marked down the entirety of our spring 2010 pieces remaining in store from 40-70%!

this sale includes all of our ladies premium denim from joe's jeans and genetic denim! some of our most beloved styles of women's denim are now available for 50% off the original price. with prices set to clear, sizes & styles will go quickly as we get ready for new arrivals.

pop down this weekend and get some great new jeans to go into fall with and stop by our new friends at rook & rose just a few doors up on johnson street. owner and lead designer erica smolders has opened up victoria's best new floral design shop just this morning and is ready to attend to all your floral needs. congratulations erica, we're excited to have fresh cut flowers return to still life!

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.

this weekend is the us memorial day long weekend which means... sasquatch music festival 2010!

none of the still life staff will be able to make it to the gorge this year to ensure all our friends & family are outfitted appropriately for the unruly sasquatch weather. they're expecting some muggy rainy days which means dirty, messy, grubby music fans going bananas for lcd soundsystem, pavement, patrick watson, the national, vampire weekend, the xx, camera obscura, dr dog, band of horses and the insane amount of other incredible acts.

in honour of the return of the sasquatch music festival, still life will be offering 15% off all regular priced items and 25% off all mens & womens outerwear with your sasquatch ticket from now until 8pm friday night!

we're thinking sasquatch essentials include: fjallraven kanken bags, tretorn skerry boots, native shoes, ray-ban sunglasses, dunderdon hoodies & spiewak coats. we're excited to kit you all out in style for the festival, so come down and let us know who you're excited to see and grab some new pieces.

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

it's tough hanging around beautiful clothing, impeccable woodwork and smiling faces all afternoon without thinking about another one of miriam's favourite things... kittens.

she thinks still life boutique needs a store cat, why?

because what's softer than a james perse tee? a kitten. what's cuter than fjallraven's arctic fox logo? a kitten. what's else can you call fred perry? a kitten (or two kittens, fred and perry!!). kittens could model our ray-bans or stick their little (adorable) heads outta our george, gina & lucy handbags.

plus how obviously high fashion are kittens? like really? with their well groomed/image conscience fur and fierce attitudes. plus, he or she would always be 'nudie'.

oh, stop by still life boutique and convince matt and kim into having a store kitten! think of all the name possibilities, lily or jae? joe? ben sherman?!

this sunshine - seriously! can you believe it!? 18°C in the victoria inner harbour in the middle of may. absolutely perfect!

our post this morning gave any victorians visiting the mainland this beautiful weekend a destination to visit and items to seek out, but what about all you CRD faithful staying in the garden city catching all the sun this weekend? we've got ideas! this weekend will definitely be dominated by visits to the beachfronts and parks in and around the capital region, and a certain swap meet that you will most definitely find mr matt and mr jordan of still life scouring in the early hours of sunday morning.

we wanted to outline some of the essential summer pieces we've got in store right now that will ensure a weekend getaway/hideout in style. for our girls we've got a great batch of bensimon sneakers to dress with your summer dresses or cropped summer jeans. our lily & jae spring collection is looking incredible with some of the new pieces jude delivered last week, and topped off with a cute brixton summer hat her denim dresses are adorable. our still life men have their pick of the litter with the amazing pieces we've got available moving into the warmer months. a full selection of ray-ban sunglasses to keep your eyes hidden behind their dark shades while you're at the beach, and fjällräven backpacks that can fit beachwear, beers, and all your other secret stuffs while you're riding around town on your bike wearing your official new summer shoe from native.

we'll be spinning our favorite new records over the weekend from jonsi (go), broken social scene (forgiveness rock record), lcd soundsystem (this is happening) and sharon jones & the dap kings (i learned the hard way) so come down and say hi if you're staying local this weekend!

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.