Ivaan and Lana Lowon struck up a friendship in December 1994, when he was looking for a retail location on Queen Street West and Lana and her husband Jim Pope were in the market for a new headquarters for Lowon Pope, their custom dress shop. They decided to join forces and share a location at 692 Queen Street West. There was some great synergy involved: Lowon Pope specializes in one-of-a-kind wedding dresses and Ivaan makes rings. What's not to like?
A big part of the pleasure of sharing a store with Jim and Lana was Ivaan's instant connection with their seven-year-old son. Max and Ivaan were the best of friends and shared many things, including a love of playing and a love of snacking. Many scientific experiments were carried out by Max and Ivaan in the back room of the shop which, if they had known, would have been of serious concern to the Fire Department. If Ivaan and Max weren't busy burning something, it's because they were busy eating something.
Five years later, Jim and Lana needed more space and they moved Lowon Pope to a new shop directly across the street. I'm surprised the City didn't install a pedestrian crossing at that location, because the flow of traffic between the stores was pretty constant. Lana was a big fan of Ivaan's work from the start. She has a good eye for rings, and invariably chooses ones that are feminine but not dainty, with kind of a spare, muscular architecture to them. Recently, she lost her beloved thumb ring in a taxi and wanted to choose a replacement. She's totally fallen in love with her new ring, pictured above. It's been named the Lana Ring. Ivaan would completely approve of her choice.
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