Gastown’s Neighbour Woman Has a New, Erm, Neighbour

And we want to live among the store's wheat-beer shampoos, Japanese-made stationery and bougie bouquet-shaped candles.

And we want to live among the store’s wheat-beer shampoos, Japanese-made stationery and bougie bouquet-shaped candles.

Neighbour and Neighbour Woman, the locally founded Gastown boutiques popular for their minimalist aesthetic and impeccably curated lineup of contemporary mens- and womenswear, have a new addition to the family: Neigbour Objects (51 Powell St.), an, erm, object-focused space that’s at once bookstore, apothecary and swoon-worthy homewares shop.Situated a couple of doors down from Neighbour Woman, the store doubles down on Neighbour’s fondness of well-made, offbeat curios, many of which you’d be hard-pressed to find anywhere else in Vancouver: made-in-Oaxaca candles by New York designer Randi Mates that take the shape of tall, luscious bouquets; candy-coloured tumblers, each individually hand blown, from the Nagano-based Studio Prepa; and wheat-beer shampoos and Franconian-sausage hand soaps (yes, really) by Germany’s Tradition. There’s love for the local, too, with scallop-edged porcelain plates by designer Nathalee Paolinelli, and for the vintage, with one-off burl-wood storage boxes and curvy ’70s-era match strikers.They’re all arranged beautifully in Objects’ open loft-like space, nestled among pared-down love seats, tables and moss-hued bamboo chairs—all also available for sale—from Green River Project LLC. (One-half of the New York–based duo hails from Victoria.) “The edict is ‘Something we would want to have in our own homes,’ ” Karyna Schultz, who co-runs the Neighbour shops with her husband, Saager Dilawri, says of the stock. “These are objects we’d want to keep ourselves.”Objects is also home to seasonal pop-ups that spotlight established and emerging designers who are near and dear to the Neighbour DNA. Until the end of December, shoppers will find men’s patterned button-downs, T-shirts and quilted coats—many of them handcrafted from antique fabrics—by American designer and recent CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund runner-up Emily Adams Bode. February will see an installation with Swedish fashion house Acne Studios; the Vancouver-based Kinda Sleepwear will set up shop in March.“We’re interested in featuring the designers who we already carry,” explains Schultz, “and being able to go a little more in-depth with them or, if something exciting is happening , then we can showcase that in a different way.”Schultz wants the Objects space to play host to special launches, events and shows, too—helping it to become a permanent fixture in the neighbourhood. “It’s not strictly designer pop-ups,” she says. “We’re looking to do a multitude of things.”