Vancouver's clothing spots, a considered compendium
I’m Isaac, I’ve wandered around the city of Vancouver a lot in search of cool clothing shops, and I think if you’re interested in stopping by, these are the places to hit. All of these spots will have their website linked in their heading.
Alterior/A Living Taste (Commercial Drive)
Well-curated nu-streetwear, menswear, and homewares store that I'd recommend for fans of Brain Dead, as it has that similar lineup of ideas from both "high" and "low cultures" ranging from handcrafted raw denim to extremely elevated graphic tees. The store also acts as the factory for their in-house brand, so you get a true intimate sense of who the staff are, their passions for fashion practices, and what their vision is going forward. Other recent additions have included an artfully curated library, a rock climbing program focussed on accessibility, and a very well selected vintage garms lineup.
Notable brands: Alterior, Better Gift Shop, All Caps Studio, CCP, Chillbies
Roden Gray (Gastown, Richmond Center)
Menswear store dedicated to various facets of contemporary designer fashion. Effective jack-of-all-trades type of store where you’re bound to find an effective curated selection that represents the best in streetwear, techwear, and avant-garde.
Notable brands: A-COLD-WALL*, Aime Leon Dore, Canada Goose, Comme des Garcons (Shirt and Homme Plus), Craig Green, Dries Van Noten, ERL, Fear of God, Fumito Ganryu, Gentle Monster, Homme Plisse Issey Miyake, Jil Sander, John Elliott, Marni, Martine Rose, Readymade, Sacai, Saint Michael, Song for the Mute
Neighbour (Gastown)
Tons of Scandi and Scandi-inspired minimalism and elevated basics brands. If you’re looking for like, well-made earth tone colourways that make you look like a rich author, you go here. Three different locations across Gastown, with the largest dealing with menswear in particular and the other two tackling womenswear and homewear.
Notable brands: Bode, Acne Studios, Our Legacy, Needles, Orslow, Camiel Fortgens, Evan Kinori, Engineered Garments, Auralee
Wallace Mercantile (Main Street)
Kinda interesting because it’s like the same thing as Neighbour but with different brands. If I had to make a mention of anything that particular makes them stick out, it is their focus on diversity of semi-formal and hiking footwear.
Notable brands: Schnayderman’s, Andersson Bell, Knickerbocker, Solovair, Merrell, Hoka, Kleman
HAVEN (Railtown)
This is the store I think of when it comes to Vancouver’s primary tastes in fashion. A blend of high-end gorpier garms with a mixing in of pretty iconic Japanese brands. Olives, browns, greys, and blacks abound.
Notable brands: ACRONYM, Stone Island, Needles, Kapital, Cav Empt, Human Made, Visvim, Undercover, New Balance, Nike, HAVEN’s own in-house brand
Feuille Luxury (Downtown)
Menswear store that offers brands that show off the weirder side of contemporary streetwear. Many pieces are flashy, branded, or from extremely hyped brands. If you’re a person who doesn’t mind seeing Rick styled with Off-White, you may find a piece or two to add to the collection.
Notable brands: Ambush, Billionaire Boys Club, C2H4, Canada Goose, Casablanca, Chrome Hearts, Heron Preston, Juun.J, Kenzo, KidSuper, Moschino, Off-White, Palm Angels, Rhude, Rick Owens (Mainline and DRKSHDW)
/017 Shop (Downtown)
A few doors down from Feuille is /017 Shop, which is maybe the wildest selection in terms of clothing in the city. Many brands are uniquely sold by /017 in the city and often utilize flashy graphics or extremely unconventional silhouettes to demonstrate the forefront of exciting maximalist European and Asian fashion.
Notable brands: 99% IS, C2H4, Charles Jeffrey Loverboy, Doublet, Études, Feng Chen Wang, Heliot Emil, Helmut Lang, Hyein Seo, KIDILL, Maison Mihara Yasuhiro, MISBHV, Post Archive Faction, Y/Project
Leisure Center (Yaletown)
If you want fashion to feel like an exercise in either artistic presentation or being part of an exclusive club, Leisure Center is the place to go. This place does not fuck around with their presentation, making everything pristine, clean, and labyrinthine to maintain the essence of the store as an artistic space. I definitely recommend namedropping brand knowledge if you feel you’re getting judged. A blend of high-profile designer pieces as well as truly avant-garde brands you won’t find anywhere else in the city.
Notable brands: Ambush, Amiri, Ann Demeulemeester, Balenciaga, Balmain, Devoa, Elena Dawson, ERL, Gentle Monster, Guidi, Geoffrey B. Small, Lemaire, Loewe, m.a+, Maison Margiela (mainline and MM6), Marc Le Bihan, Marine Serre, mastermind (JAPAN and WORLD), Palm Angels, Song for the Mute, Uma Wang, Yohji Yamamoto, Ziggy Chen
KOKKO Luxury Boutique (Aberdeen Center)
Acts as an outlet for Leisure Center, essentially has very discounted prices on out-of-season pieces initially sold by LC.
Notable brands: See above.
Plus (Pacific Centre), Stay Fresh (Richmond Centre, Metrotown), 8PM Shop (Aberdeen Center), Heat Vault/NFS (Gastown), From Another (Gastown)
Jordans, Dunks, Supreme, Yeezys. Has it been hyped in the past 5 years? It’s there. Is it in your size? Of course not. Is it priced fair? What even is fair in the current resale market?! If you are looking to get anything that a true blue hypebeast desires, go to any of these stores and you’ll be satisfied. I will give a special shoutout mention to 8PM Shop though, for generally having a wider array of desirable items, like a pretty decent selection of Supreme goods, XVessel sneakers, and managing to be the only place I’ve seen in Vancouver with the mythical Red Octobers at one point. NFS has also surprised me with items like Evisu jackets and rare collab pieces. From Another is more in-line with the “Space Jam”/streetwear vintage shops.
Notable brands: Nike, Jordan Brand, Yeezy, Supreme, Fear of God Essentials
Blim (Chinatown)
Do you like popular culture and anime? Of course you do, you are between 13 and 30 years old and reading this post! A store dedicated to custom screenprints and buttons to really tap into that contemporary version of scene/goth stuff. Their dedication to this flashy aesthetic makes them an ascended Hot Topic in the best possible way. In addition, the owners have started sourcing vintage pieces from Japan, making them technically a vintage store like no other in the city.
Private and Co. (Chinatown)
I find this store really interesting and fun. A blend of raw denim enthusiast-core, with streetwear-oriented vintage resale, then a sneaker/video game resale section at the back. It’s like all of the interests a man can have in fashion in this city if we didn’t have hiking as our local pastime.
Notable brands: Momotaro, Japan Blue, Left Field
The Shop (Chinatown)
If you want the rawest denim and leathers you can find in Vancouver, come here. Extremely high pricepoints for extremely well-made garments that will be sure to get you some fire reacts in MFAD. Opening and closing times are weird though, I think I’ve only seen this store open once when walking past it.
Notable brands: Iron Heart, Schott, TCB, Wesco, Y-2 Leather
Gravitypope (Gastown (footwear only), Kitsilano)
One in every Canadian city, elevated basics and footwear boutique.
Notable brands: Beams Plus, Arc’teryx, Acne Studios, Church’s, Camper, Ami, A.P.C., Nike, New Balance, Adidas, Blue Blue Japan,
Livestock (Chinatown)
Author’s favourite “sneaker boutique” in the city due to carrying some neat brands.
Notable brands: Brain Dead, Parra, Carhartt WIP, Nike, Adidas, New Balance, Yeezy, ASICS, CDG Homme, Awake NY, Salomon, Dr. Martens, Hoka, And Wander
Size? (Robson Street)
Sneaker boutique.
Notable brands: Nike, Jordan Brand, Adidas, Yeezy, New Balance, ASICS, Salomon, Gramicci, Fred Perry, Carhartt WIP, HUF, MARKET, The North Face, Pleasures
Corner Store Vancouver (Main Street)
Sneaker boutique. Extension of Complex Clothing in Victoria.
Notable brands: Nike, Jordan Brand, Adidas, New Balance, Stussy, Pleasures
Dipt City Kicks (Downtown)
Sneaker boutique. Lotsa Grizzlies merch and Vancouver-inspired apparel, as well as a decent number of sneaker books.
Notable brands: Nike, Jordan Brand, New Balance
CNTRBND (Gastown)
High fashion/sneaker boutique that is slowly trickling in product from their more established Toronto location. Across the street from Neighbour Men and Roden Gray.
Notable brands (currently): Nike, Jordan Brand, Suicoke, Just Don, 424, Advisory Board Crystals, Raf Simons, Ami, Emotionally Unavailable, Jacquemus
The Block (Gastown)
Another elevated basics place but with some kooky womenswear thrown in for some zest.
Notable brands: A.P.C., Filippa K, Henrik Vibskov, Universal Works
Bacci’s (Granville)
Womenswear and homeware store which feels like an effective counterpart to Roden Gray.
Notable brands: Dries van Noten, J.W. Anderson, Jacquemus, Marni, Simone Rocha, Yohji Yamamoto (Y’s and Y-3)
Granville Island Hat Shop (Granville Island)
It’s a hat store! It’s got hats! Real nice ones! I don’t know much about hats!
Notable brands: Goorin Bros., Kangol (probably more on the website, but I really really don’t know about hats like that)
Dutil (Gastown)
Raw denim place that’s great for entry-level denimheads. Lots of Naked and Famous and Nudie and apparently they do some repairs there too?
Notable brands: Naked and Famous, Nudie Jeans, Iron Heart, Tiger of Sweden, Pure Blue Japan
Hills of Kerrisdale (Kerrisdale, Kitsilano)
Very strong store that has been around for a long long time. That is, if you’re interested in a lot of #menswear type of stuff from the early 2010s. This is not my bag but I appreciate what they do from afar.
Notable brands: Filson, Gitman Bros. Vintage, Patagonia, Naked and Famous, Nudie Jeans, Tiger of Sweden, Birkenstock, Clarks
Out and About (Gastown)
Japanese homewares store with some neat womenswear and accessories to boot. Very nice, very vibey.
Notable brands: Blue Blue Japan, Rototo, Danton, 7115 by Szeki
Vintage Shops:
Distinguishing between vintage stores in terms of what they generally offer is kind of a hard thing to tackle. So what I’ll do is have a legend for if I find them to be more general (1), streetwear-oriented (2) or designer resale-based (3).
KAMUY (Gastown) 1-3 (Amazingly curated Americana and workwear-oriented shop run by a true enthusiast of the form, highly recommended)
tthhaannkkss (Gastown) 1-3 (If you like Y2K and some of the more wacky futuristic sides of contemporary streetwear, give this spot a look)
Kool Thing Vintage (Chinatown) 1
Ollies (Commercial Drive) 2 (Oriented towards skater styles, has cool vintage sneakers you won’t find anywhere else in the city)
Woo Vintage Clothing (Main Street) 1
Little Miss Vintage (Commercial Drive) 1
Mintage Mall (Main Street, Commercial Drive, and Robson Street) 1
F as in Frank/Rag Machine (Main Street, Gastown) 1-2
Stoxx Vintage (Kingsgate Mall, Metrotown) 2
Rewind Resale (Main Street, White Rock) 1-3
Turnabout Resale (Main Street, Commercial Drive, Kitsilano) 1-3
Front & Company (Main Street) 1
Gore St. Vintage (Chinatown) 2
Burcu’s Angels (Fraser Street) 1
Bohemia Gallery (Main Street) 1
The Value Village by Richmond Centre (Richmond) 1
Lines Vintage (Main Street) 1
Forestera Vintage (East Hastings) 1
Erin Templeton (Chinatown) 1 (Has tons of leather goods and blankets to choose from)
Vancouver Vintage Market (Commercial Drive) (only open on weekends) 1-2
Orange Crush Velvet Vintage and Books (New Westminster) 1 (Solid curation and book selection, owner is local upcycler Shawna McLellan who makes a good jacket or two!)
The Only Vintage (Commercial Drive) 1
Leo’s Clothing Supply (Granville Strip) 1 (Took the space of an old camera store on the Granville Strip, newly opened with lots of room, potential to have more go on in the space)
Community Thrift and Vintage (Gastown) 1
Happy shopping!