by Louisa Cohen

Though still happily single in a Queen size bed, accompanied by puppy and occasional ‘houseguest’, I’ve got marriage on my mind. I have just paid off last Spring wedding season’s bills – and it’s already that time of year again. Being a single gal at the ball ain’t a bad gig. You find your place card, take your seat, raise a glass and look pretty.  

About the whole looking pretty part – my favorite thing about weddings is playing dress up. I may dress for the for the dog-park in real life, but at heart I love nothing more than getting fresh and so clean-clean, nails – done, hair – did, and slipping in to a brand new party dress.  

I LOVE buying dresses. Every time I set out for one, I feel like Vivian in Pretty Woman, scraped straight off of Hollywood Blvd. sent to shop on Rodeo Drive with Richard Gere’s crumpled up money.  

I think I just compared myself to a hooker, really, I’m just saying that with every new found dress, it feels like a total fairy-tale transformation.  

It may not be Hollywood Blvd. to Rodeo Drive, more like Main Street to South Granville. I set off Starby’s in hand to…ehem….a more civilized part of town: Where perfect pastries are displayed in window-shops, the famed ‘opera-man’ serenades the street, and your local country club is but a skip away – in my truest opinion, some of the finest women’s retails boutiques Vancouver has to offer line the road (between 13thand Broadway).  

My most recent score is a stunning Sachin & Babi number. Its navy blue and black – and that’s all I am sharing… that, and that I found it at Violet on South Granville’s, the newest of the boutique brigade. 
 
The store is remarkably lovely to walk into. The space is open and fresh as a bouquet of freshly cut flowers, and is as cool as visiting a stylish cousin’s pied-a-terre in the city… that is, a cousin with exceptional taste in woman’s fashion. 
 
Some lines you can expect to find at Violet Boutique are Sachin & Babi, Bella Jones 
Les Petites, Monoplaza, Reminiscence, Sita Murt, Cotelac, Jean-Jaques Rogers, Des Petits Hauts. Margit Brandt, Fiorentini & Baker, Rachel Comey, Rachel Comey Shoes, James Perse, MIH Jeans, Paul & Joe Sister, Dace, Shereen De Rousseau. 
 
Owner Genevieve Allen developed and grew her passion for art and fashion through enrolling in the Fine Arts program at Emily Carr; and in her words Violet has, “has married her passions of travel, art and 
fashion.”
 
As the invitations to weddings keep rolling in, I’ll be stepping out… to shop. So as an honorary member of the South Granville community – welcome to the neighborhood Violet.