Happy Holidays!
I just wanted to wish my readers and passerbys a Happy Holiday!
I am currently in Houston with my family for the next couple of weeks. Reporting on fashion here will be a little difficult considering that this city is the Disney World of chain stores.
Here’s one peculiar thing I noticed here: there is only ONE American Apparel store in Houston. In Montreal there is at least 4 American Apparel stores in the near downtown vicinity. But I can understand why this chain may not be very successful…Houston is considered one of the fattest cities in America. From my understanding, AA is a chain that caters to a certain demographic, and that seems to exclude the overweight.
My recent experience at Banana Republic had the store assistant literally dismantle a mannequin sporting this really nice slate gray cardigan because it was an XS - the only one left in the store.
BCBG is also carrying slightly tamer versions of their Hervé Léger bandage dresses oddly enough. Making real Hervé Léger dresses less special. Why would you want to pay $1000 on an Herve Leger dress when you can get something similar, owned by the SAME company, for a fraction of the price? A look at the online website doesn’t reveal this, you would have to shop at Dillard’s to see the knock off collection. Max Azria is shooting himself in the foot with this move.
Bakers, a Montreal equivalent to Aldo shoe stores, carried a trendy line of shoes, but made of the worst quality. The leather looked cheap and tattered on the edges and the soles stiffer than cardboard.
Speaking of Aldo, they’re also turning more and more like Nine West and Steve Madden by copying a pair of Michael Kors’ Berkley T-strap sandals, with their Tavira shoes. What’s funny is that the MK version is only $129, and the Aldo shoes are $90.00. Knock offs are getting more and more expensive!
More updates to come soon hopefully.
Enjoy your holidays!
Two Retail Giants Still Missing From Our Streets
With all this buzz of fast fashion stores, I might as well touch upon two retail giants who have yet to make a landmark in Canada that could give H&M and American Apparel a run for their money.
TopShop (UK)
No, not the crappy little store in Montreal Trust that bears the same name, I’ve been to that place twice and their clothes and shopping experience wouldn’t be quite as near as I would expect for a Kate Moss famed store. This UK retailer is owned by Arcadia Group, TopShop along with TopMan are a British sensation with nearly 3000 stores, of which 420 of them are found in 30 countries. So why is it taking them so long to come to Canada?
Last year they’ve announced that their first American flagship store will be located none other than in New York City. A 40,000 sq.ft. behemoth on Broadway will open Fall 2008, making our new H&M flagship look impossibly small at 15,000 sq.ft. The birth of a TopShop flagship store in Montreal might mean the end of Le Chateau as they seem to operate in the same fast fashion styles. While Le Chateau is doing relatively well for itself earning over $240 millions in sales in 2006, its revenue is minute compared to Arcadia’s overall $3.7 billion revenue (even split into 9 brands, one brand would still dwarf our Canadian counterpart).
TopShop would probably be the last of the European giants rounding out St-Catherine, it wouldn’t be surprising that they would have to displace other businesses in order to make room for a TopShop like H&M did with their flagship.
Uniqlo (Japan)
Though H&M may be drawing some attention to Japanese fashion designer Rei Kawakubo this fall, I ultimately believe the public will go for a more sensible Japanese fashion brand such as Uniqlo to make competition with American Apparel. Good quality office wear of chinos, button down shirts, long sleeve tees, and plain collared polos, Uniqlo is affordable comfort.
Though Uniqlo had 3 New Jersey stores a few years ago, the stores performed well below expectations and staggered in sales. Issuing a redirection, Uniqlo opened its flagship store in New York and closed the 3 New Jersey locations as to better reposition themselves on the market.
Uniqlo may not be as trendy as H&M or Top Shop, however they do tap into the market of shoppers who want to look put together without being over the top with casual wear that’s not Wal-Mart. It’s also a bonus that the New York flagship also carries Japanese yukata (summer kimono) for a cheap $40 during Spring, something that some consumers find fun and endearing. As Montrealers appreciate Japanese culture more and more, a yukata corner at Uniqlo would probably perform very well in Montreal as per my observations at this year’s Matsuri Japan festival at the Old Port. Long line ups snaked along the yukata rental booth, and many came owning their very own. At $40, it’s an affordable and fun investment.
