Studio Update-athon!

La la la, Thursdays in the studio and the ladies are gettin things done. Thank goodness it's cooler than yesterday or you'd be peeling us all of the floor at quittin' time.

The disembodied hands above belong to Nicole, who's churning out some Banff skirts (that pic reminds me of Thing from the Addams Family. Best butler ever award?).

Above is the lovely jo-jo-bean ready for snippin' and sewin' of a new sample top.

And this is Rose giving me a hand drying some of our lovely wool scarves (yummy yellow is a big winner for punches of colour this Fall and Winter).

Last I figured you'd all be stoked and ready for our super comfy fall dress: The Frontenac (advice for pronuciantion: imagine you are Jean Chretien).

Cute print of Canoes and Spotted Feather on the black is tres adorable. Also notice the booty? This dress is friends with bootylicious ladies.

And on the olive Frontenacs (more green than they appear in the pic above) are prints of the giant spotted feather. These dresses in stores everywhere tomorrow!

Studio Update!

In the studio we've been busy bees creating some new things for the cool weather that seems to already be creeping up on us once the sun goes down. For those cool nights or windy evenings, how about a nice new selection of our classic Cape of Good Hope?

These will be available in three new colours: camel, brown and black.

And for the fellas a new colour of men's tee, Forest Green!!

These new creations will be available in stores tomorrow!

Keep on rockin in the free world.

Vacation Station

Hey guys! Liz here, back from vacation and trying to figure out how to narrate a month of life on the road. Words that come to mind are coffee, coffee, more coffee, sunglasses, roadside treasures, friendly locals, engine humming, sitting on still lakes, beers with buds, ups and downs, hills and valleys, bill bryson on tape, dust, flora, fauna, big sky, red fox, incredible mountains, dirt under fingernails, dirt on everything (really), campfire smoke, BEARS BEARS BEARS, nuggets of gold, dinosaur bones, wide rivers, mars-like desert-scape, and terrifying speeding rigs barrelling down the highway behind us.

The van was awesome. It did tend to get cluttered up pretty fast,

but next time we take off we'll probably only pack half as much.

Sunny times outside Osoyoos where we watched the Canada Day fireworks from a hill overlooking the lake (the camera I was using for these pictures did not have sufficient capabitiles for capturing fireworks in the night sky, but they were crazy! The show went on for about 45 minutes!)

A little passenger ferry we took on our way from Nelson to Banff

And last for now, the truly amazing Rockies. One of the highlights of the trip was being able to explore this mountain range both on wheels and camping/hiking about.

Now these are only the first 3 or 4 days of the trip, once I figure how to get the pictures off the other memory card I'll do another post with more BISON and BEARS and FOXES oh my!

:)

Lily Inspiration: Homes away from Home

Today I will be venturing off into the wilderness (after we get out of Calgary I suppose) for a month long road trip with my best fella. We will be travelling all over BC, Alberta and the Yukon. Our general route incorporates visits to friends in big cities, family, and a pal currently tree planting up in Manning. Below a very rough map of our route, as we once we finish paying visits to those good aforementioned folk we will be going wherever the wind takes us.

During the trip our awesome 1994 Toyota Previa will be our home away from home, decked out with a leisurely bed in the back, a trunk full of supplies, mini cooler, poorly made curtains (by yours truly) as well as a bunch of books on tape, books in real life, backgammon, sketch pads, guitars and a harmonica.

(me sewing in some velcro around the windows for curtains)

I've been having a ton of fun polishing up the Thunderwagon into cozy home away from home and making up new and interesting ways of organizing and containing all the things for our trip. Seeing as we won't usually be near computers, my blogs will most likely be few in July, but expect some awesome shots and accounts of travel once I return.

Sayonara!!

Victoria Update: Our customers are so cool!

We just got an email from one of our customers--Susan, from Salt Spring Island--containing pictures of an art project she's working on inspired by our vintage wool blankets.

This blanket in particular was used to cover a dog crate, and the lovely little bugger decided to use it as a chew toy. Not to worry, though! Susan came up with the (awesome) idea to embroider around the holes and stains and make this beautiful pastel check blanket into something new and totally original.

This submarine (at least that's what my eyes see) totally reminds me of The Life Aquatic. I definitely approve.

Now I'm going to go pull all the damaged blankets out of my goodwill pile (why does this pile never actually get to goodwill...?) and get my art on. Thanks Susan!

Studio Update: Sneak Peak!

Hello information highway surfers. I've got a couple snaps of some new things we're working on in the studio today!! New fabrics, new designs, same awesome fun Lily things.

Above is some stuff we're going to get into the box going out to Vancouver today, come down to the Main Street shop tomorrow to try out the striped Simple Tee and the new Keith Skirt!

PLAID PLAID PLAID PLAID PLAID PLAID PLAID PLAID

I really love plaid.

Harmony turning that plaid fabric into drool-worthy dresses. One for me please!

Pirate Ships, Bikes and Bears, Oh my!

Freshly sewn, hot off the press!

New duvets!

Pirate Ships for the adventurous,

Raleigh bikes for the nostalgic vintage lover,

And BEARS. Because they're the best.

Goldilocks duvet anyone?

Update

Smoking Lily apparel is now available at Meese in St. Albert, Alberta!

This great boutique puts the focus on ethical labor and Canadian designers. Evan and Tressa (the founders of both the St. Albert location and Meese 124 in Edmonton) carry over 40 designers and 2 designed and produced in house, Meese for men and Sessa for women.

Above is a cute Sessa outfit.
Check them out here.
Happy Monday!

Studio Update!

Hello internet friends, just wanted to show you all some groovy things happening in Lilyland today.

Our bare printing/cutting tables (stripped for some brilliant things to come) are starting to look interesting again with some bright blue fun animal prints I was testing out the other day. The elephant is my favorite right now, sooooo hansome!

Here are 2 new Lucrezia Dresses not out at stores yet (coming soon).

And FINALLY this morning we got some more cardigans in!! (I can see the Vancouver ladies 'woo-hoo-ing'). We have the charcoal, heather gray and a new really cool plum.

(below are some of the printed ones, they will be in stores by tomorrow)

Lily Spotlight!

Today we're spotlighing on our awesome lily ladies at the studio in some beautiful new blockprinted dresses, skirts and tops that came in this morning. These lovely light spring/summer pieces came in from India via Mata Traders, whose mission it is to work with organizations that educate, employ and empower women (here here!).

This is everyones, "Hi Mom!" pose.

These garmets are in stores NOW! At Smoking Lily Vancouver and the Milkman's Daughter in Victoria.

David Suzuki Garb!

It's a beautiful spring day here in Victoria and I thought I'd share some new goodies we've sent out to stores this week. I'm sure all our blog followers know about the limited edition David Suzuki Dress we made last month in honour of the main man's 75th birthday. Well, in case you're a fella or just didn't get one of the dresses in time, we've made some limited edition David Suzuki Tees and Bamboo Cotton Scarves!! We will also be donating 25% of the proceeds from the sales of these items to the David Suzuki Foundation. Win-win.

The tees are an organic cotton in sizes S - XL and retail at $34 (+ tax)

The awesome scarves are on a beautiful tealy-blue bamboo/cotton blend (as I mentioned earlier) and retail at $28 (+ tax)

Here's a pic of me wearing one for vanity's sake.

And while I was at the Johnson Street shop I just noticed how lovely the window display looked. Forgive the tiny pictures, but seen above are the Japan Love Wallets, Upcycled Broaches and a very small run of some Bike Ascots we experimented with for the upcoming Tweed Ride in Victoria! Now get outside and enjoy the sun, everyone!

Johnson St. Store

It is a beautiful, sunny, warm, delicious day here in Victoria and I snapped some great, colourful pics of our tiny store on Johnson Street to share with everyone out in blogland!

Scarf Central: we have a variety of cotton and wool cut scarves, as well as some new bamboo/rayon pretties.

Our happy flower pots decorating the store exterior.

The top half of the wee store.

The Wonton Love in pink (and one of the one-of-a-kind Ivanhoe bags).

Some leather brooches and wool hand-warmers for those still-cool evenings.

A stack of the men's tees in our new colours: olive, light blue, grey and fuchsia! (This is the fuchsia Glenda was talking about in the last post.)

A fitted women's viscose tee with a Cicada.

And last but not least, a close-up of the viscose tee colours. Can you tell that we love pink this season? We're really subtle about it.