April Robb’s earliest fashion memory is when she moved to B.C. at nine years old and on her first day at a new school she wore an oversized, baby blue faux fur coat, a fabulous dress and a pink umbrella.
“I loved that coat and I was reminded beforehand that not everyone would,” recalls Robb, who grew up in Squamish. “This is where I learned the very important lesson in fashion: dress for no one but you.”
This spring, Robb and her Capilano University classmate Zofia Rodriguez co-founded a mobile fashion boutique called Double the Love.
The company’s mantra partly aligns with Robb’s formative fashion belief and also inspires women to walk their own path: “Fashion and style are for no one other than the person wearing it. Rules in fashion are boring and annoying, wear what you love.”
Robb has curated a variety of brands for Double the Love, pulled from different fashion shows out of L.A. and New York City. The style for the store is “feminine, elegant, sexy – but always wearable,” she describes.
“I focus on the garment’s material; fabrics are extremely important,” says Robb. “The weight of the fabric, the way it clings to the body, the quality, the cut – all of this is extremely important to many women. I think about where our customer – who is she, will she wear it, how she can wear it. It’s never about what up-and-coming Instagram model is wearing.”
The ladies have created a unique shopping experience on the Lonsdale Quay waterfront, inside an elongated trailer wrapped in pink and gold.
Emblazoned on the back of the trailer is a quote from the friends’ favourite movie, Legally Blonde: “Whoever said orange was the new pink was seriously disturbed.’’
Inside, the back wall is covered in light, faded green flowers with hints of blush and yellow, the side walls have faux grey brick brought in from the U.K. and the flooring is light grey with hints of sand and speckles of charcoal.
Colourful clothing hangs airily on racks which are gold and white.
“The trailer was designed to feel luxury dream closet, like Barbie’s dream house came alive but was much more elegant, more chic,” says Robb. “When you come in, we want you to feel relaxed and browse through the items like you just walked into your favourite Pinterest page.”
The mobile fashion boutique idea was borne out of breezy discussions during the friends’ trip to Spain and France – and a bottle of wine.
Robb was working on a project for her e-commerce class at CapU, to build an online clothing store. So Rodriguez hitched onto the venture.
“I realized this is what we should do, fashion,” says Rodriguez, who grew up in West Vancouver.
The fashion friends figured Lonsdale Quay was a good spot to park the trailer.
“The Lonsdale Quay Market just made sense in terms of a pop-up location as we love the Quay ourselves and we felt we’d find our people there,” says Robb.
Double the Love will be parked outside Bean Around the World, Tuesdays through Fridays and on Sundays.
More info: doublethelove.ca.
