Vancouver Fashion

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nouvelle nouvelle: a fresh brew

August 16th, 2010 | Published in Boutiques

Words by Serena Mason. Photos by Maria.

Talking with Amy York, owner of the hip lifestyle boutique nouvelle nouvelle is so easy and natural that we giggle our way through half an hour seemingly in the blink of an eye. Similarly, the tone that York has set for her store is one of ease and no worries. Her adorable, somewhat lumpy bulldog, Lily, trundles around the light and airy shop, greeting customers with a sweetly frumpy wink. We settle in to talk about nouvelle nouvelle’s on-a-whim beginnings and the popular blog that keeps readers coming back again and again to peer into the world of this little shop.

nouvelle nouvelle opened in the heart of historic Gastown in September 2007. York and her business partner/boyfriend Noah Heath first bandied about the idea of having a boutique as an excuse to travel.

“We travel a lot together and we’d always see so many amazing small, independent lines that you couldn’t get here,” York explains.

If they had a boutique, they would get to travel on business, sourcing new lines and visiting trade shows. One late night of talking turned into a real idea and now the shop is nearly three years old. Of course, this was not York’s first foray into business; she also owns the aesthete’s paradise that is Prado Café on Commercial Drive. With her background in food service rather than fashion retail, York worried at first that her new venture wouldn’t work out; however, it is her offbeat approach that lends nouvelle nouvelle its freshness.

When choosing what lines to carry, York took cues from her own love of fashion, incorporating independent designers she encountered on her travels along with some local lines and rounding it all out with vintage pieces that she finds all over the world. What sets nouvelle nouvelle apart from some of the other boutiques in the increasingly trendy Gastown neighbourhood is the price points. A priority of York’s was to keep the store affordable yet still fashion forward, quirky, and approachable.

Adding to nouvelle nouvelle’s approachable charm is its lighthearted blog, which York updates weekly with photos of new arrivals as well as things that are inspiring to her and just the general goings-on in the store. Using employees from Prado and nouvelle nouvelle as well as obliging and photogenic friends as models, York’s simple photo shoots show that the clothing she sells in her shop can look great on a variety of body types. And with the growing popularity of the blog has come a demand for a dedicated online shop.

“We have readers from New York and Los Angeles who see things they like on the blog and who email us saying, ‘Send me that!’ and we do ship it out to them.”

York is hoping to launch the online store sometime next year but in the meantime there is always something new happening at the shop. Starting this Fall, nouvelle nouvelle will be fifty-fifty men’s and women’s clothing with exciting new lines from around the world, including Warriors of Radness from LA and One Teaspoon from Australia.

Striding out of nouvelle nouvelle after a farewell ear-scratch for the obliging and loveable Lily, I find myself grinning and practically bouncing down the cobblestone street. York’s Prado Café may be selling an exquisite caffeine buzz, but nouvelle nouvelle has its own intoxicating effect: a feeling of fun, newness and possibility.

Visit nouvelle nouvelle at 209 Abbott Street, Vancouver, BC.

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