The barrage of posts we’ve recently published on the interior design of retail spaces has us thinking: Vancouver is a wide-open, largely untapped market for retailers looking to set up innovative and conceptually driven shops. With the exception of Dutil on Cordova Street, few have utilized creative or thematic merchandizing as a means of cultural brand extension. When compared to other global fashion/art/design hubs, Vancouver’s trendy boutiques seem bland. The current status quo is stark minimalism and everyone is playing the same hand of cards: white walls, concrete floors, little to no artwork, and brick accents. It’s becoming all too common.
If someone were to introduce a shop in Vancouver with an interior aesthetic as interesting as the new Lomography Camera store in Paris, it would generate a huge buzz. The cameras are displayed in suitcases that are stacked or mounted on walls as shelves. Random knickknacks, clocks reading the hour of various time zones, and a signature Lomo wall (a cleverly assembled collage of Lomo photos) complete the creative look. This is perfect example of what can be accomplished when one is willing to jump off the bandwagon and step out of traditional confines.
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Yep totally, Vancouver retail space and many of the shops for that matter are exactly like you say, bland, boring dull,…..you forgot way overpriced. Minimalism for trendy boutiques is the easy and safe way, ultimatly it creates a boring consumer experience. Like that Richard Kid shop for example, what a joke. Not to mention Alife, Goodfoot, Livestock, and all the other streetwear shops lack creativity and are watered down too. Just unfriendly service with big ego’s relying on peeps to purchase ridiculous looking shit and overpriced kicks. I recently saw a blog post on one of the consumer sites featuring a goodfoot shirt that sported a logo saying “giving you bad customer service since” or something to that degree. Not only bad service, but how about shitty merchandise, a boring interior and gear for white kids that embrace the flamboyant homo side of street/thug culture. Next on list AA (American Apparel) and everything up on Granville street. All there is there are played out skate shops, big box retailers and androgynous hipsters trying to be the next friggin picasso. I didn’t know that guys who rock skin tight purple pants, with a yellow shirt (working retail) and beat sneakers get to be considered artists without producing anything. Boring! Snooze! Come to think of it….I just realized hipsters are even worse than the streetwear kids.