Houndstooth Second Hand Boutique occupies 4166 Main Street in Vancouver’s Mount Pleasant neighborhood, tucked between East 26th and King Edward Avenues along a stretch of Main Street known for its walkable mix of independent shops, and it is reachable by the 25 and 003 transit lines for shoppers coming from elsewhere in the city. The boutique sells a curated mix of secondhand clothing, accessories, and home goods, alongside consigned pieces from local artists and crafts made by students in the Vancouver Community College Fashion Program, giving the shop a rotating selection that leans more toward discovery than a typical thrift-store bin dig.
What sets Houndstooth apart from an ordinary secondhand shop is who stands behind it. The boutique operates under SideBySide Children’s Village Society, a registered Canadian charity dedicated to supporting vulnerable children and youth across British Columbia, and every dollar of profit is reinvested directly into that mission, funding housing, support services, and programs run through the organization’s Village. Shopping here is not just about finding a good deal on a jacket or a piece of furniture, it is a direct, tangible way to support youth who need stable housing and wraparound care, since the boutique explains plainly that proceeds go straight back into providing that support.
Houndstooth opened in 2023 as the newest addition to the organization’s broader thrift store family, and it was built with a specific visual identity in mind: visitors have described the space as having a clean, fun, and artistic layout and presentation, a deliberate departure from the cluttered, warehouse feel that characterizes a lot of secondhand retail. That intentional design work, paired with genuine consigned art and student fashion pieces on the racks, gives the store a boutique feel that rewards browsing rather than treating a visit as a quick transactional stop.
The connection to Vancouver Community College’s Fashion Program is one of the shop’s more distinctive features. Partnering with student designers channels scholarship funding to the next generation of local fashion talent while giving shoppers access to genuinely unique, small-batch pieces they will not find anywhere else in the city. Beyond that, the boutique provides job training opportunities for university students and youth through government-funded programs, meaning the shop itself doubles as a workplace-skills training ground even as it functions as a working retail business.
The store is open seven days a week, with hours running from 11:30 in the morning to 6:30 in the evening most days, and extended hours on Fridays that push closing back to 9:00 at night, making it accessible for both daytime browsers and after-work shoppers looking to catch the space on a longer evening visit. Its Mount Pleasant location puts it within easy reach of the neighborhood’s dense concentration of cafes, galleries, and other independent retailers, making a stop at Houndstooth an easy addition to a longer visit exploring the area.
Houndstooth Second Hand Boutique is, in short, a Mount Pleasant secondhand shop where curated clothing, home goods, and student-made fashion pieces are sold specifically to fund housing and support programs for vulnerable children and youth across British Columbia through SideBySide Children’s Village Society.
