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Home  >  Fashion Labels and Fashion Brands >  Fashion Label Category S Smoking Lily Smoking Lily was created by Trish and Julie in 1995. They were sharing a three-bedroom house in Victoria, BC and needed a third room-mate to cover the rent. Lily was invented and the spare room became a sewing and printing room. In the summer of 1995 they began selling printed silk scarves at an outdoor market. The prints of insects, flies, or antique chairs were a big hit and came to epitomize the Smoking Lily look--"when we first made stuff with the bug print" says Julie, "people would come up and say "Oh, that's gross'. Most would then take a closer look and be intrigued by the appeal of the image out of it's natural context. This repulsion/attraction aesthetic has become a recurring theme in our work. Trish and Julie decided they needed to rent a store on a miniscule budget. The store they found, and continue to occupy, measures only 44 square feet. On the production front, Lily had outgrown the spare room and was moved to a large studio in downtown Victoria, close enough to the tiny store to run new products there on demand. In 2002, Smoking Lily opened a second (slightly larger) store at 3634 Main Street in Vancouver. Thanks to the wonderful neighbours and to Glenda's management, Main and 21st is a great place to be. Trish and Julie's staff now includes Ellen and Angelica on the production front, Cara and Glenda helming the two Lily stores, and quite a few other brave and strong girls/women (featured all the time in the Weekly Updates) who contribute their energy and vision to Smoking Lily. Cutting, sewing, and silk screening are all done in-house. Julie and Trish are inspired by the loyalty of Smoking Lily customers and by the experience of running a successful business on an island. Added on: 08-6-2003 Hits: 1015