LIVØM: Canada’s New Slow-Living Lifestyle Brand
Transparency is essential for LIVØM, the recently launched Canadian slow-living brand producing sustainable homeware and clothing. Paule Lafrance, co-founder and director of creative and marketing, gets frustrated by companies that claim to be transparent without providing information. “I don’t want to be that type of brand,” she says. “I want people to shop consciously and be educated on every one of their choices.” LIVØM products have labels indicating environmentally responsible practices, such as natural, plant, or recycled fibres, locally crafted, or FSC to let customers know what they’re buying.
There is also a range of prices. “As much as we want to promote green living, we also want to remain affordable, accessible, and inclusive to everyone,” Lafrance explains. “I think a lot of people associate eco-friendly options with being more expensive, which is why we also offer options that are less eco-friendly, but we are transparent about it.”
The shop features a wide assortment of clothing in comfortable neutrals, minimalist decor items, and furniture items. A holiday shop has also launched. LIVØM is the latest venture from Groupe Marie-Claire, the Montreal-based company behind retailers including Marie Claire Boutiques, Dans un Jardin, Grenier, and more. Lafrance first began work on a family-run store a few years ago, when the pandemic created a renewed interest in health and wellness. “I remember speaking with my father, and after much brainstorming with him, we began to think about developing an eco-conscious lifestyle brand where you can [buy] furniture, decor, and clothing all in the same place,” she says. It was important to create a brand that, amidst the chaos of life, would “contribute to everyone’s daily well-being by offering a peaceful experience and space that would embrace the mentality of living in the present moment and taking care of yourself.”
The brand launched in September and has since opened several bricks-and-mortar shops in Quebec, with plans to expand to Ontario in the new year. “For now, we really try to focus on the present,” Lafrance says. “We have a lot of big ideas, but we also know we need to take it one step at a time.”
Photography by Mathieu Fortin and Juan Pablo Fernandez.
