Portobello West Fashion & Art Festival

The sun decided to stay for another day! Lucky for us, another small break from the rain as The Weather Network did claim that the rain will resume on Wednesday night.

This afternoon, Cassie and I headed over to the Portobello West Fashion & Art Festival at the Rocky Mountaineer Station. This is a new building because I have never been to or seen this station and it's located right behind Home Depot on 1st Avenue in Vancouver. This festival is a local fashion and art market, artists and designers from the lower mainland (and BC) were there to display and sell their unique works of art, fashion, jewellery and photographs. Although it is not a huge market, about 30 tables or so, 2 hours was def. not enough time to stop and talk to everyone who had a display / table. I will be heading back there again next month (this market is open every last Sunday of the month 11-5 and free admission!) because I found so many awesome, unique jewellery stands but today I was focused, knew what I wanted and went looking for it straight away. I spent most of my time browsing through the fashion (i.e. clothing / accessories) because I was looking for a jersey knit (or that sort of material) dress. My new obsessions (besides handbags and shoes!) are dresses! I love them, so easy to wear and a great way to express yourself. With so many designers and so little time, we were watching the clock because Cassie had to leave around 3.00pm for her very first dinner party at her new apartment, I was busy skimming all the displays and tables. With only 2 hours, I managed to look at every table in the market and make second / third stops at the places were I spotted some pretty dresses. There were three places that caught my attention:

Blushing Designs
Schaart Clothing
First table at the front door, me bad, forgot to pick up their business card!

At the first table, none of her dresses caught my eye but she did have some really cute Asian inspired kimono tops but sadly, nothing in my size. Blushing Designs had some really girlie girl dresses and I love them all but focused on 2 dresses only. A white one for the upcoming summer and a velvet red one for next winter, the white one was too small, next size up wasn't available except in black (I already own a dozen black dresses so no!) and the red one just didn't look right on me although the dress itself is so pretty! While waiting for the changing corner, I overheard the designer tell another customer about her grand opening (she's opening up a store in the downtown area) and how she started to get all this buzz when one of her dresses was featured in LouLou magazine. From there on, people from all over were requesting her designs which led to opening up her own store to accommodate all her clients. I had a quick chance to speak to her and she passed on a 10% discount card for her grand opening while mentioning that all her designs at the boutique will be new Spring items and all sizes would be available. I can't wait to see her Spring line, her dresses are so fun and so girlie, love it! Crossing my fingers in hope that I will find a cute white summer dress. After Blushing Designs, I headed over to Schaart Clothing, she is a West Vancouver designer, I managed to get a cute pink jacket (for the future white dress) and a pretty brown jersey type dress. Paying cash, I received a discount and no taxes! It was a tough choice between the brown and the black with red bits but I had already decided I have way too many black dresses (but I may end up buying the black one next time cuz I realized it will look great with my new baby janes!) After purchasing the dress, Cheryl (Schaart Clothing Designer) threw in a purse for free!! Wow, what a bonus! I was pretty much cashed out with these purchases so I headed over to find Cassie and found her at UFO Designs, some really cool urban fused original designs, and I ended up buying two very cool unique looking hair clips! She purchased a necklace from UFO and at another designer (forgot to grab a business card!). Lovely pieces, it was such a lovely time and the most fun in shopping I have had in months!! I love hitting local designers and shops, so much to see and so unique! I had so much fun and can't wait to come back!

Oh yes before I forget to mention, one of the main reasons I found out about this market is because I was looking for BYOB, a couple of Vancouver designers designs some really cool and reusable shopping bags. I am on their mailing list and they sent me a coupon for $5 off on a purchase of one of their bags if I went to the market. Now $35 to buy a really pretty, strong and reusable shopping bag is worth it because I hate using plastic bags but with a coupon, even better! But I managed to get one for $15 because it wasn't so perfect! What? $15 that's an awesome price! Plus the coupon is only valid with a purchase on one of their regular bags but they did not have the one I wanted but the $15 is pretty close, I don't care if it's not perfect, it's still pretty :)

On our way out, Cassie was still thinking about an artwork piece by Ron Sombilon, an artist who sells framed artwork, very cool. See photo below. She is still debating on purchasing it and I think she will probably end up with it the next time she is in this market! She couldn't stop thinking about the piece even as we left. I managed to get a photo of the artist and his little (very cute) girl and the art piece she is thinking about buying.