LIZ: What was your inspiration to start a store like LIV that creates a fusion of fashion and home décor?
JOANNA: A lot of ideas come to us in our travels; from places like Europe and cities like New York. Something we had seen for years of combining not just home décor but accessories. I think it’s a natural evolution that a multi product store would get popular. It’s often called a lifestyle store, and I think its time has come; it’s really more than beyond just one stop shopping. Essentially the goal is that you come in and it’s a feast for the eyes. Fashion and home influence each other, they always have. As long as I’ve been buying linens the colours that are hot always come from the fashion runways, so to me it was so logical that they would be intertwined and together in one space.
LIZ: How important is it to you to stock Canadian brands and lines, you mention on your site that you travel to Europe and the U.S a lot?
JOANNA: It is very important. We carry a lot of Canadian designers. Jewellery, clothing, Snowflake is a Toronto designer that I adore, Kirsch from Vancouver; we do a lot of Canadian. Home décor is a little tougher, because the look we carry is very European, typically they come from France, but we manufacture all of the linens in Montréal, so we bring in the fabric and then everything is made in Canada.
LIZ: What is the process of buying and stocking for your store, do you follow what is trendy at any given moment or do you get what you like and hope it sells?
JOANNA: When I am in Europe you see what’s new, they are showing, whether it’s a colour or a style of furniture or it’s the clothing they are showing what’s new. Similarly when I am in New York or Vegas at a clothing show they are also showing what’s new, so I’m really calling from the newest trends and then I really do go by what I love, I have to, because when you are buying this many different departments, I have to be able to hone in, and for as long as my mom and I have been buying for the linen store we have a policy that we both have to love it, agree we love it, go... oh my god, and I really use that even for the clothing now. If I just can’t stand it but it’s super hot, which has happened, I have had to forego it, and typically when I don’t it doesn’t really work, because for the most part clients are very like minded, you know I am the client in a lot of ways I am the demographic. So if it’s just something I would never put on in a million years, even though it’s hot, I’ve got to leave that to the other stores.
Stay tuned for part 2 tomorrow...