Neighbour

Staff on July 14, 2011

Meet Neighbour, a new men’s shop that opened this April in Vancouver. They carry handpicked clothes and accessories from various brands, all displayed in minimalist glory in their lovely new store (and thankfully, available online, too). I talked with owner Saager Dilawri over email, and he told me a bit more about Neighbour and how it got started.

How did you go about opening the shop? Was there any kind of online shop or other project that led to the physical store?

There was no previous shop or project that led to this; it had been something I wanted to do since early high school and I planned my schooling and work experience based on this one goal. Opening the shop was fun. There were definitely some hurdles but it was a good experience and I was lucky to be around supportive and talented people during that process. My friend Kyle Garner from Sit & Read in Brooklyn designed the space and came out a couple times during the renovation process and that was a big help.

Who chooses the products that you sell in Neighbour?

My friend Lee and I do the buying.

Please tell us a little bit about your SS11 collection and lookbook.

Kyle reached out to Jennilee Marigomen, a Vancouver-based photographer to shoot an editorial for his portfolio, and we figured we might as well turn a lookbook out of it. I had followed Jennilee’s Tumblr and had seen her work in Inventory Magazine so it was such a pleasure to work with her. She is extremely talented and probably one of the nicest people I have met. Her friend Redia, who is the editor at 01 Magazine, styled the shoot as well. We wanted to mainly showcase the store and added a few shots with a model in the space as well.

What are some sources of inspiration for the products that you choose / the design of the shop, etc?

The products are really just things that we like. The brand name doesn’t really matter. We try to differentiate ourselves that way by picking up some brands that other stores do not have. These brands are definitely more difficult to sell because people may not recognize the name on the label, but if you explain their story properly people catch on. We also want to grow with these brands, so hopefully people will start to become familiar with them over time.

The design of the shop was to try to do as little as possible. The space that we have came completely raw, concrete everywhere, huge walls and windows, a high ceiling and a mezzanine. We definitely got lucky with the space. We just wanted to keep it clean but maintain a bit of that rawness with the concrete walls, pillars and floors. We made a back staircase out of reclaimed timbers, put in a drop ceiling, added a washroom and changeroom, and that was the bulk of the project. Kyle also added in a nice mix of furniture.