Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
SHOPPING
Once lined with tacky souvenir stores, Gastown has been increasingly
colonized by designer boutiques, making this area a downtown rival to
Main St in the indie shopping stakes. While Chinatown's multisensory,
ever-colorful streets used to be more for looking at than actually shop-
ping - how many live frogs do you usually buy? - more and more it's
home to its own cool indie stores, as well as the evocative night market,
which is a summer highlight.
SHOE FRENZY
If you're in Vancouver sometime in early April you may find you start to get itchy
feet. But rather than a sudden desire to hit the road and start traveling, your
tingling toes will be telling you the city's biggest sartorial event for feet is about to
36 W Cordova St, Gastown; 8)
department store's annual 12-day shoe sale kicks off,
there's always a long, excited queue of hundreds of locals ready to get in. Those
who've waited in line for hours have the chance to hit - usually at maximum velo-
city - the shiny pyramids of deeply discounted designer footwear from the likes
of Guess, Christian Dior and Jimmy Choo. Delighted shoppers stagger around
with armfuls of must-have shoes, while on-lookers hang in corners, wondering
how they can escape.
ERIN TEMPLETON
ACCESSORIES
(
www.erintempleton.com
;
511 Carrall St; 11am-6pm Tue-Sat; Stadium-Chinatown)
Known
for recycling leather into hip, supersupple bags, belts, hats and purses, this eponymous
store has a cult following. Erin herself is usually on hand and happy to chat about her
creations (she trained in shoemaking at a London college). They're the kind of must-
have, one-of-a-kind items that are hard to resist, no matter how many bags you already
have back home.