There are few things that I love more in this world than travel, my own country of Canada, or vintage, so when I get chance to combine these three passions, I am one extremely happy lass.
Just such an opportunity arose earlier this year when Naomi, the wonderful founder and editor, or the relatively newly launched Australian vintage history and lifestyle magazine Lila Jean Vintage contacted me to ask if I'd like to write a piece for them on some of the best and most beloved vintage shops in Canada.
I said yes faster than the speed of light and then set to work pondering just which five - as per the article's guidelines - would be included here. Canada does not, by any stretch of the imagination, have scads of vintage shops and sadly we seem to lose more than we acquire with each passing year (case in point, it turns out that one in Ontario I had wanted to included in my article had closed its doors just a few months ago).
Canada is also a huge country (geographically, we're the second largest in the world) and as such I haven't yet had a chance to visit all those that do presently exist between its vast borders. I wanted to include some that I had (such as A Vintage Affair in Calgary and Mintage in Vancouver, respective) and others that my fellow Canadian vintage fans had praised to the moon and back.
{If you flip through issue number four of Lila Jean magazine, pictured above, you will find my piece on five of the best vintage clothing shops in Canada, as well as oodles of other engaging, delightful vintage travel, shopping, and lifestyle related content.}
The finished article spans two pages of Issue 4 of Lila Jean magazine, which is available for purchase from the magazine's website. As this issue's theme was all about travel and the global vintage community, you will also find similar guides to some of the best vintage shops in the US (penned by Emma from The Fiercest Lilliputian) and the UK (written by Fleur from Diary of a Vintage Girl).
In addition, this issue of Lila Jean includes an article with none other than Dita Von Teese herself, many wonderful vintage photographs and stories pertaining to yesteryear travel, and a smattering of other well written, enjoyable content
Though issue four is the first of Lila Jean's that I've had the pleasure of reading and holding in my hands, I can tell you based on that experience alone that it is a quality, one might even say artisanal publication with a great deal of heart.
It's focus - at least in this edition - is/was less on "just" fashion, fads, or trivial topics, and more of the soul of vintage and on the importance of keeping the past alive in today's ever changing, ever more technologically driven world.
Lila Jean is an elegant quarterly publication in which you're apt to see family names from the online vintage world, as well as hear stories and firsthand accounts from venerable older contributors who share their own beautiful memories of days gone by.
Each edition of Lila Jean Vintage magazine is like a little, fantastic book unto itself and I am absolutely honoured to have been able to contribute to the most recent edition of the excellent, valuable Australian contribution to the close-knit world of vintage lifestyle magazines.
