My Sister’s Closet is not a typical secondhand clothing store, it is a social enterprise operated by Battered Women’s Support Services, or BWSS, with two storefronts in Vancouver at 1830 Commercial Drive and 3958 Main Street. Both locations sell a mix of new and gently used clothing, accessories, handbags, shoes, and locally made artisan goods for shoppers of all genders, including a dedicated menswear section called Brother’s Corner. Both stores are open seven days a week from 11 am to 6 pm, making them an easy stop for regulars along two of Vancouver’s most walkable retail strips, Commercial Drive’s Grandview-Woodland shops and the Main Street corridor near Riley Park.
The shop traces its roots to 2001, when it was founded as a retail arm of BWSS, an organization providing crisis intervention, counselling, and advocacy for women and children affected by intimate partner violence. Every dollar spent at My Sister’s Closet funds that work directly. Since March 2020 alone, BWSS reports responding to more than 100,000 requests for support, a scale that underscores how much weight a consignment and thrift storefront can carry when its proceeds are earmarked for frontline services rather than private profit.
That mission is what separates My Sister’s Closet from a conventional vintage or consignment boutique. Shoppers browsing racks of dresses, jackets, tops, and bottoms are also funding shelter referrals, safety planning, and violence prevention programming across the Lower Mainland. The stores describe themselves as advocates for zero waste, eco fashion, and the broader thrift movement, treating sustainable secondhand shopping and social impact as two sides of the same transaction rather than separate goals.
Both Vancouver locations accept donations of gently used clothing, and the organization actively welcomes volunteers to help sort, price, and merchandise incoming stock, which keeps the shopping floor stocked with fresh arrivals despite the store’s nonprofit structure. The Commercial Drive location sits inside one of Vancouver’s most eclectic shopping streets, known for its mix of independent boutiques, cafes, and long standing community institutions, while the Main Street store occupies a corridor increasingly known for its own cluster of vintage and consignment shops, giving My Sister’s Closet a foothold in two distinct but complementary neighbourhood retail scenes.
Because the inventory blends new arrivals with consigned and donated pieces, shoppers can find anything from barely worn designer items to handmade jewelry and accessories from local artisans, all under one roof and all priced accessibly. The organization operates on the unceded traditional territories of the Coast Salish peoples, a fact the stores note as part of their broader commitment to community accountability alongside their anti violence mandate.
For shoppers in Vancouver looking for affordable, sustainably sourced clothing with a direct social impact, My Sister’s Closet’s two storefronts on Commercial Drive and Main Street combine everyday secondhand and new fashion finds with proceeds that fund BWSS’s crisis support and violence prevention work for women and children across the region, making a simple clothing purchase double as a contribution to community safety.
