Vancouver

paperroute, a fashion marketing company focusing on young talent, is collaborating with Little Mountain Shop, a new space in Vancouver that hosts curated pop-ups and events, for an End of Summer Market this weekend.

Being a barista for a big coffee chain like Starbucks must be a huge pain in the ass. The pay isn't great and the customers are ragingly impatient because they haven't gotten their non-fat half-caff horse placenta venti mochachino yet. On top of that, all the baby boomers that take up valuable seating for hours with empty cups keep asking you what this "hip new album" is.

Shopping online is great, but shopping from a truck—and a beautifully designed truck at that—is a little bit more magical. And that's what childhood friends and Ardillas United co-owners, Karolina Jasinski and Kora Pridy, have just done. Originally launching their online store of eclectic and fashionable clothing and home accessories in June 2014, now a year later they have branched out and opened a mobile boutique in a former Doritos truck that they loveably call 'Beastie.'

'CREATIVE DIFFERENCES Presented by Grolsch + ION Magazine' is a series of interactive art competitions where teams of artists compete against each other for 2 hours of live painting on large canvases. The guests determine the winner of the competition, and the prize is $1000 in cold-hard-cash. Creative Differences started in 2014, with parties in both Vancouver and Toronto.

Vancouver's Animal Omen suddenly debuted a few weeks ago with their first single, "Susan". Suddenly, there was "Susan". Suddenly: "Susan" one might say. Drafting behind the inroads they created with the song's warm reception, ION is premiering their second single "Dirty Air".

We have all found ourselves in this situation. You go on vacation and you think you have seen all that the city you visited has to offer. Your Instagram photos, Snapchats, and snapshots support what a great time you had. You meet up with your friends and can’t wait to tell them about all of the unique things you did on your vacation.

Ghana-based Osei-Duro, known for their traditional and sustainable approach to producing clothing, has teamed up with Vancouver active lifestyle brand, lululemon lab, to create their first collaborative capsule collection. Osei-Duro has designed two exclusive, beautiful hand-batiked prints for the lab that will be digitally printed onto premium technical active wear.

When you're as prolific as Peter Ricq, globetrotting with Humans, and your side project, Gang Signs, sometimes something has to give, and in this case, it's his side-SIDE project, Ladyfrnd, who, with Friday's release of the appropriately named "Farewell EP" have decided to pull the pin. Mixed by Vancouver's plucky producer du jour, Jason Corbett, the Farewell EP doesn't do much to twist the overall sound of the act before it exeunts, but it does build upon an enjoyable oeuvre before the final bow.

No strangers to ION, both photographer Mandy-Lyn Antoniou and singer Sophia Danai and have crossed the pages of our magazine; so of course when we were asked if we wanted to exclusively share the work they created together, we most certainly said yes. 

What if your love was illegal? That’s the question Lush is asking as they kick off their global #GayIsOk campaign. Starting tomorrow to July 4th, Lush will be selling a special gold soap scented with their signature Love fragrance to help raise funds to support grassroots LGBTQ equality groups all over the world. Customers are encouraged to post a selfie with the fundraising Love Soap telling the world why they think #GayIsOk.