Festival Fashion Week! A Collaboration between Style Domination and YOW City Style – Store Feature: Neon Clothing

As a teenager, one of my favourite stores was Neon. It provided the best selection of all of the looks we coveted during the era of grunge, Nirvana and Deee-lite.  I remember rushing to the store when I turned 16 to treat myself to my first pair of Doc Martens, from Neon of course.

When Katie of YOW City Style and I got to Neon for our photoshoot, tons of memories came flooding back as I stared at their huge wall of Converse. In high school, we’d buy red Converse from Neon and draw all over them with markers to “customize our shoes”.  We’d also buy their oversized plaid shirts in an attempt to look as cool as Eddie Vedder.  Sigh…

The store is an unassuming sliver of a space at street level, but as soon as you cross their graffitied threshold, you are greeted by a huge space spanning two floors, packed with lots of my favourite brands such as Levi’s, Fjällräven and Element.  As per usual, in our downtime during the shoot, we grabbed clothes and shoes to try on for ourselves!  Can’t help it!  #shopaholics

It’s pretty clear that Neon’s buyers scour the streets of LA, NYC, Tokyo and London for the coolest up and coming brands to bring back to Ottawa to share with our locals.

In business since 1983, Neon is a cult favourite here in Ottawa.  Their George Street location is so cool – graffiti adorns the walls, latest tracks by various hip hop artists were on blast, and giant bean bags provided a place for customers to lounge around while shopping. What is particularly amazing about Neon, is that they seem to know whether or not a brand or trend is cool before you even know it…

Featuring the largest selection of Doc Marten’s in Ottawa, the store’s clientèle boasts hundreds of regulars seeking to replace their beloved Docs after a life well-worn.  The store and its staff are so popular that it is a destination for celebrities visiting Ottawa, such as Tyler the Creator and Ottawa celebrity Tom Green is a frequent shopper.

Tyler the Creator – his was possibly one of the weirdest/most awesome concerts I’ve ever seen

The upper level of Neon has a great selection of vintage clothing too, for those looking for something other that the cool, urban and skater/punk offerings on the main level.

The day of the shoot, we met with store manager, Jen – a dark-haired beauty covered in tattoos.  She gave us a quick run down on the store and showed us some of their bestsellers including limited edition Vans sneaks covered in cats and kittens, Levi’s cut-offs (proud owner) and Fjällräven backpacks.  She then introduced us to her sales associate, Kayla, who would be our model of the day.

I was struck by Kayla’s makeup!  This girl is an MUA in training!  Her strobing game was ON POINT – so much so that she will be the model for a follow-up post on latest makeup craze “strobing”.  She also managed to perfectly recreate Kylie Jenner’s famous pout without lip fillers or subjecting herself to the dreaded #kyliejennerchallenge.

The strobing force in Kayla is strong – Yoda

Well, on to the fashion! Read on to see Neon’s picks for the coolest festival fashion looks:

On Kayla – Outfit #1:

• Leaf Shirt, Vans
• Jeans, Levi’s
• “Clarissa” Sandals, Doc Marten

Outfit #2:

• Vintage Sunglasses, Ray Ban
• Floral Dress, Element (similar here)
• “GypsyLove” flipflops, Reef
• “Authentic Trucker” denim jacket, Levi’s

So, next time you are in the market for something cool and edgy, pay a visit to their Ottawa location at 60 George Street (613-789-4479) in the Byword Market.  My Canadian friends living in Montreal and Toronto will be pumped to know that Neon has locations in these cities too!

Be sure to check out Neon at www.neoncorp.ca and follow Neon on Facebook (www.facebook.com/NeonStores), Instagram (www.instagram.com/neonstores), and Twitter (www.twitter.com/neonstores) !

What is your favourite look?  What festival items are you after?  Let me know in the comments!

xo,