Canadian department stores The Bay and Holt Renfrew have been playing catch up with social media in creating online buzz through Twitter and bloggers. As Canadian fashion bloggers, editors and reporters are all writing about their fashion junkets online, it’s clear that Toronto has been host to some pretty impressive events.

Toronto has thoroughly adopted a more American approach to fashion, following in the footsteps of New York in throwing glamorous parties and inviting top end designers (local and international) to their expansive shops. It is afterall the country’s main financial hub. While Montreal’s fashion scene feels more like an exclusive club where the few talented designers toil in their boutique ateliers, dreaming up their next collection.

When speaking of the last standing department stores in Canada, Holt Renfrew and The Bay have demonstrated a strong fighting spirit for survival in the heated competition for consumer dollars. The Bay had particularly undergone substantial transformation under the direction of Bonnie Brooks, the woman who crafted luxury retailer Lane Crawford as Hong Kong’s top selling department store. In just two short years since her appointment as The Bay’s CEO, she had gotten rid of hundreds of brands and pulled in fresh ones into the store’s tired inventory. Flagship store layouts were reworked, a new website, and lo and behold, a Twitter account soon followed. In the process, Toronto’s flagship store on Queen Street received the biggest makeover of all. Turning the former St. Regis Room into what is now called “The Room”, a swanky white expanse of modern design, where it now carries over 70 high end designer brands. They’ve also managed to invite the likes of Jason Wu, a known favorite of First Lady Michelle Obama, and Roland Mouret, a french designer famous for his origami folded Galaxy dress.

The “God Save The Queen” event happening today in Toronto involves a designer-studded event where Londoners Giles Deacon, Erdem, Nicholas Kirkwood and Jonathan Saunders will be making an appearance.

Likewise, luxury retailer Holt Renfrew’s flagship in Toronto on Bloor Street have been throwing their own glamorous events leaning towards the social media scene, hosting events celebrating fashion bloggers (such as The Sartorialist’s Scott Schuman, Anita from I Want I Got, Danielle Meder from Final Fashion), photographer Tommy Ton, and veteran designers such as Oscar de la Renta and John Varvatos.

Toronto has been aptly raising its profile as a major Canadian fashion hub destination over the last few years. This is very encouraging for Canadians in fashion, there’s obviously a lot of talent bubbling in all corners of the country.

That being said, I feel a little left out by The Bay and Holt Renfrew. When I heard news that The Room was constructed for The Bay, I got really excited thinking that Montreal’s flagship would get the same treatment. Not quite so. We received The White Space which carries lines from Rachel Roy and Adam Lippes, but still lacks Jason Wu and Roland Mouret (carried exclusively by Ursula B. at this point). Granted, the new digs at the Montreal Bay store are great improvements, but the ambiance is still lacking. The energy of the store still feels a bit mémère, it doesn’t quite excite the shopping pheromones per se. Holt Renfrew in Montreal is really a sad place for a shopper to be. The staff is rude, the space is simply insufficient with the amount of inventory they have, and the experience feels  superficial. Is it any wonder why this store holds so little events concerning fashion bloggers and designers?

Montreal’s vibe seems to be leaning more towards a meld of art and fashion more so than commercial and fashion. It’s still a mood I haven’t quite understood myself, but the strong indie influence over the Montreal fashion scene has been forming a sharper image as the seasons go by. Avant garde, conceptual work that perhaps may make the city into a London-like hub of fashion.

This quote from Jean Drapeau sums up my feelings perfectly:

“Let Toronto become Milan, Montreal will always be Rome.”

Image credit: Vincent Brunelle

Online retailing in Canada has been a slow process. Back in 2007 when I first started this blog, online shops were virtually non-existant and only the typical storefront “About Us” websites were up. While our neighbors in the south were enjoying an explosive growth in online retailing such as Zappos.com, The Gap and its sister brands, Bloomingdale’s, Neiman Marcus, Saks, and the list goes on.

In Canada, our largest high fashion retailer, Holt Renfrew, is still lagging behind in setting up an online shop. I’ve sent an inquiry asking them when (if ever) will they make an online shop available. I received a courteous response that they’re “working on it”, but it’s been a couple of years and still nothing. Holt Renfrew holds a lot of media friendly events, even as far as celebrating bloggers last year and featuring them in their store front. So you would think they could benefit some extra profit by setting up an inexpensive way of shipping their goods directly to consumers who may not have the luxury to step into a physical store. Without this added service, consumers will simply look elsewhere to shop, such as the well curated Net-a-porter and its sister site of outstanding deals on TheOutnet.com.

At least one major Quebec retailer made the jump recently, La Maison Simons offers select pieces from their four main brands of Twik, Icone, Contemporaine and Miiyu. Granted, it’s quite a small selection considering they carry literally hundreds of styles for each brand, but then again, Forever21.com has succeeded in introducing new styles with ease, and Shopbop.com always has something new to show even with models in the picture.

So what exactly is holding Canadian retailers back from setting up an online store? It’s certainly an added expense, especially when the retail landscape is so tough between local designers and their foreign competition. But the benefits outdo far more than the initial risks, especially if their online store is done correctly.

One Montreal-based online shopping site has made surprisingly significant improvements over the last year. Ssense.com was once a website that was trying too hard to be hip, offering a lot of bridge collections and aiming for the clubby 20-something demographic. However in the last year, the site has undergone a complete site makeover, curating a much more refined look and introducing great fashion editorials. Models that once were lively, are now posing straight, nearly expressionless, but nonetheless defined a certain look. The clothes went dark, muted and unusual. I’d say they’re almost the complementary counterpart to Reborn and Trusstclub.

The formula for Ssense.com certainly works and should serve as an example for other Canadian retailers that online shopping can be done and quite fabulously. Holt Renfrew and Ogilvy should perhaps take note, they’re losing precious revenue to other businesses that do ship to Canada.

Montreal isn’t particularly a huge destination for luxury brands to have their own stand alone stores, and I’m pretty sure many of you are wondering where you could find your designer brands in the right places without too much effort.

So I’ve compiled a list of places on where to shop. Please keep in mind that most of the luxury brand boutiques are NOT the flagship stores, therefore will often times only carry a select number of items from the lines. If you want to blame a store for not carrying certain shoes or dresses, you can blame the store’s buyers.

Holt Renfrew
This Canadian high-end retailer will be probably the first place you want to look for in luxury brand names. They carry most of today’s known brands including some Canadian brands. There a few stand alone boutiques for Chanel, Dolce & Gabbana, Armani, Hermes, Gucci, and Tiffany’s, while the rest of the brands are sharing retail space. You’ll find most of the branded shoes here including Jimmy Choo.

Ogilvy
For some reason or another, only carries a handful of designer brands and the only site to carry official Louis Vuitton handbags, among other brands located here are Burberry, Michael Kors, Aquascutum, Ports 1961 and Hugo Boss. You will also find some unique perfumery brands such as L’Artisan Parfumeur.

TNT – The New Trend
Located in Westmount, TNT tends to carry more of the bridge collections, or less popular brands like Comme Des Garcons, Martin Margiela, Helmut Lang, but you’ll still be able to find some $500+ items in there if you look thoroughly.

Reborn
Located in the Old Port, for more avant-garde pieces from Ann Demeulmeester, Alexander Wang, Natalia Brilli, Rad Hourani, and Drkshdw by Rick Owens, it’s a tiny store but with a great selection. Surely not to be disappointed

Ursula B.
Located in Les Cours Mont-Royal, Ursula B. carries more European fashion apparels including Roberto Cavalli, Pringle of Scotland, Lanvin, Balenciaga, Viktor & Rolf, and Givenchy. Mind you, a very select collection chosen carefully by the owner herself. You won’t be disappointed by their very attentive staff either.

Mona Moore
This store on the Plateau specializes in carrying a very select list of designer footwear including Jil Sander, Lanvin, Dries Van Noten, Pierre Hardy, and Ann Demeulemeester. These high priced shoes are not to be trifled with, but don’t underestimate the power of their customers, some of their ultra cute shoes are gone almost instantly.

Rosenstein Paris
The official Christian Louboutin carrier, this store also is the official home to Repetto shoes, known for their classic ballerina shoes and flats, and Lucien Pellat-Finet. They also carry a unique french perfume brand called Les Parfums de Rosine. And yes, you can also find Louboutin at Holt Renfrew as well but in far fewer numbers.

Possible new luxury destination: Le Westin Hotel
This is pure speculation on my part, but the new Le Westin Hotel in the Old Port is said to open four designer boutiques in late 2009. Let’s cross our fingers that they will be brands that we don’t have yet!

If all else fails, you’re just a bus ride away to New York City.

Image credits: Holt Renfrew, Wikipedia

Namely, it is a fashion magazine and online store rolled into one. Quite obvious I know, but a deeper contemplation made me realize that online stores in general do not necessarily have the written editorial to tout their new products in a magazine format. Think of reading Vogue and be able to buy exactly what they’re saying is the hottest item of the season on the spot, instead of dragging yourself to the store, hope the store actually carries the item, if not, special order, and go through all the hooplahs one might go through to get the item.

We’re a lazy generation. I admit that many of you probably enjoy the going through the entire “hunting” experience of getting what you want, but I think it’s becoming increasingly difficult to ignore our need for instant gratification.

Online stores like Saks, Neiman, Forever 21, Piperlime and Zappos display their array of products and merely announce new arrivals, not quite hyping them up like Net-a-porter does. It also helps that Net-a-porter suggests looks and combinations, and allows you to really zoom in and analyze in full detail parts of the garment since it isn’t possible to do so in person.

I’m not suggesting all stores should start posting online editorials – however, I wouldn’t find it too shabby as a strategy to get more people to buy the products, especially if the store is selling different brands. Holt Renfrew and Ogilvy could perhaps benefit of such a move, especially when Holts already establishes a relationship with their clients with their aggressive call-to-action weekly newsletter. If both stores could offer online shopping and free shipping delivery (for shoes to start), they could definitely boost sales in these harsh economic times. Shoppers tend to shift to online stores when the market is down, so it would only be natural to take advantage of the online medium to keep sales afloat.

With the right combination of marketing and savvy management of an online store and proper, relevant, editorial content, I think clothing stores should consider this as a Plan B.

Image Credit: Versace from Holt Renfrew

Which brings me to these very interesting articles that popped up in the last couple of days.

Made in Canada – An in depth look at the advantages and some tips on how to keep a Canadian business going with some examples of some companies who have learned harsh lessons throughout the year. This also highlights that despite China and India’s cheap price, in the long run, it could become more costly to make things overseas as wages will increase over time.

Procter & Gamble links laundry to fashion - Tide, owned by P&G, has come up with a new type of laundry detergent that could be called as the “anti-aging solution” for clothing. Sure it’d be great to have a detergent that didn’t destroy your clothes…but how about buying clothes made of reliable, high quality material instead of the cheap kind if you want them to last?

Sick of Slow Service, Customers Walk -This is an ever growing problem in the retail business as Canadian consumers are fed up with the slow service being offered to them. And here’s another contributing factor of the ailing department store industry:

Department stores lose the greatest amount of business because of frustrated customers leaving empty-handed, with 78 per cent of survey respondents indicating that they have left a department store because of long waiting times.

It looks to me that HBC will really have to put customer service as a priority if they want to lure customers back. It will also need to significantly exceed the kind of service you get at Holt Renfrew (which is to say discriminatory and snooty).

The Gazette (shocking, I know)

Catalogue Yanked -La Maison Simons has decided to pull it’s Fall catalogue from the shelves after receiving numerous complaints of using too thin models on its pages. Although it’s been argued that images of very thin models do not cause anorexia, it has been proven to be one of the triggers that can lead to eating disorders. Montreal has especially been aware of the image it projects to its consumers in the fashion industry and Montreal Fashion Week fully supports the use of not-so thin models. However, from my observations when I’ve been to MFW, some of those girls seemed too thin in my opinion. But kudos to Simons for taking action.

If you’re not familiar with Lane Crawford, they are one of the most well-established department store chains in Hong Kong on par with our Canadian counterpart Holt Renfrew or Ogilvy. Under Brooks’ management, “the Lane Crawford group has tripled its business in the last five years and expanded its scope beyond Hong Kong and Macau into China, Japan, Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand and Indonesia,” according to WWD.com.

Baker says that there’s a gap between The Bay and Holt Renfrew, and he wants to fill that gap, but many Globe and Mail commentators were skeptical. Raising the usually affordable Bay prices might drive consumers away even if they were offering a better selection of brands. This is especially true with the failed project of Complexe Les Ailes in downtown Montreal where they were offering high end brands with considerably high price points for shoppers. Toronto-based Fairweather Group bought Complexes Les Ailes in 2005 and the upper levels have since been turned into office space.

Bringing in a luxury player and turning The Bay into a brand that sits between The Bay (the old one) and Holt Renfrew will prove to be tricky. Here’s a pricing breakdown between the two.

Holt Renfrew: Carries ready-to-wear and some bridge collections. $200-$5000 on average.
The Bay: Carries fast fashion, local, and some bridge collections. $20-$300 on average.

A premium price point would probably be somewhere between $75-$1000, if they indeed intend to offer better brands. However, I don’t know why this hasn’t been mentioned but what about Simons? They clearly have that premium price point – offering unique different brands, established an attractive shopping experience, while also offering a chance to pick higher quality brands. The demographic is however geared towards 18-25 year olds, while The Bay is probably targeting 25-35 yr olds. If anything, the new Bay (or Lord & Taylor) should perhaps take a cue from Simon’s and just make the experience a little more fun and luxurious without alienating their intended consumers.

Some might scoff at the idea of paying more for clothes, but these are people who don’t care for quality or don’t know what quality clothing is. What with the way stores are churning out new stock every month, it’s no wonder the general public demand cheap clothing. But I really think all this fast fashion lifestyle will turn around bite them in the butt. Soon people will tire of keeping up with trends (especially as we get older) and we would eventually want something durable and trendless. Fashion designers are already working towards seasonless collections, so “trends” per se are becoming obsolete. Therefore, stores will now have to make up for their seasonless collections and improve elsewhere such as price point, quality, branding, service and consumer experience.

So the appointment of Ms. Bonnie Brooks does inspire hope for The Bay brand, or really just the department store experience as a whole. We’re in serious need of quality stores in Montreal, and despite my initial reactions of The Bay possibly losing its brand name and appeal, at least they’re making an effort in changing it for the better.

After being happy to find out about my Ecco sandals’ provenance, I wanted to know if clothing brands would do the same in revealing where their clothes were made and what were their ethical standards.

Well, Toronto-based JUZD (pronounced “joost”) Bamboo is a particular case – it’s an unknown urban street wear designer that has been recently picked up by Holt Renfrew. I asked them a couple of serious questions and I was surprised by the thorough responses and learned a thing or two, it gave me some hope that there are brands out there who aren’t afraid of answering questions that are really relevant to the fashion industry. Jing Liu, Chief Designer of JUZD, happily answered my questions. Read on:

Q: Where are the clothes made (in Canada? China? India?)? And if you’re outsourcing overseas, is JUZD upkeeping labor law standards and why not keep jobs (and quality control) here in Canada?

It is made in China. China has the most advance textile technology and spends a lot on research and development. In addition the supply and qualityof bamboo is plentiful in China. It is made in a city that is rated as one of the ten best cities in China. However a lot of the assembly is here in Canada and  all the staff and contractors (excluding some designers) are here in Canada.

I have visited the factories and the technology required for creating these clothing is very advance. The facilities are clean and staff are treated well. My mom used to work in a clothing factory here in Toronto and honestly the facility in China is much cleaner and I would say safer.

From a personal standpoint I was born and spent most of my early childhood in China. This is one way for me to give back to my people.

(Dahlia’s note: As an Asian person, I’ve heard of “giving back” to our mother country very often from other asians in different businesses. There’s much sense of pride in giving back to your home country, and to hear that from a designer is pretty interesting to note.)

Q: How is bamboo fabric “eco-conscious” (i.e.: Aren’t bamboo trees part of the environment? How does it compare in being eco-friendly from the likes of cotton or wool?), and with so many brands pulling the eco-friendly card on consumers, what makes this brand stand out?

Bamboo is the most sustainable plant. It is consider a grass and grows up to one metre within 24 hours (Dahlia’s note: this is actually confirmed on Wiki if you were skeptical). It reaches maturity in just six months. Bamboo is antibacterial so it does not require pesticide. In fact the antibacterial characteristic is transferred when it is made into a fabric so it kills body odour and bacteria. It can grow in almost any environmental and soil condition. When cut it regenerates itself, this is seen when you cut a bamboo stick, it will grow on both ends. Growing bamboo actually enriches the soil unlike cotton which takes nutrients from the soil. Lastly bamboo consume four times more carbon dioxide than trees which creates a cleaner environment.

You can find our research article on bamboo here: http://www.juzdbamboo.com/benefitsofbamboo.php

JUZD is different in that we are not about jumping on the eco-friendly bandwagon. The use of bamboo is secondary to the design philosophy of respecting nature and the power of the human. Another big difference compare to other “eco” brands is that JUZD designs are edgy, aggressive, and fashionable. This targets a segment of consumers that have been traditionally ignore by eco-conscious brands. Lastly a great amount of attention is paid to the quality and standard of the clothing pieces hence creating pieces that are luxurious and comfortable instead low cost and low quality.

To sum it up, bamboo itself is way more environmentally friendly than growing cotton or any other textile plant, and it has loads of benefits. The only reservation one might have is how it is actually produced (not labor wise, but how it’s made in the factories) that may be criticized. Now this goes well into the textile industry and I certainly don’t have much say on ethics in creating fabric (that’s a whole other realm altogether). Just know that the fashion industry is whole lot deeper than people are led to believe

Which puts into question as to where Montreal fashion is going business wise. Montreal Fashion Week is coming next month, I really wonder who the buyers are and where they come from. Last fall I attended Fashion Week on behalf of GLOSS, and was surprised that that there were only about a dozen notable designers showing for a total of a mere 3 days. Even our most coveted designer, Andy The-Anh, showcased his collection in Toronto’s L’Oreal Fashion Week in hopes to catch a larger audience. It would appear that the Montreal market hasn’t attracted enough buyers (international and local) to come to our fashion week despite a recent multimillion dollar investment from the Quebec Government.

Ralph Lauren Fall 2008. Simple and could definitely sell.

Muse by Christian Chenail Fall 2007. Could also sell, but are they selling?

 

I made a round yesterday to Ogilvy‘s and only saw Marie Saint Pierre’s name as the only local designer on the store’s 2nd floor. Holt Renfrew did have Rad Hourani’s collection, but where are the M Siamo’s, Philippe Dubuc’s and Andy The-Anh’s in these stores? More over, there are so many specialized boutiques that it’s hard to pinpoint which stores carry which lines, making shopping even harder especially for smaller brands. Not to mention that local designers have to compete with many European imports like Mango, Zara, H&M, and Mexx to big brand designer names like Chanel, Dior and Gucci in the high end sector. Let’s not forget that even our own proud canadian sports label Roots has been shoved aside to make way to American Eagle Outfitters downtown.

Having a good business model is essential to survive in the industry, so far it’s hard to think of one Canadian label in particular which has successfully incorporated themselves into international waters on a grand scale. But unlike Europeans and Americans, Montreal fashion designers currently aren’t attractive enough for financial honchos to invest into their brands. Though $82 million is a generous amount from the Quebec Government, it’s peanuts when the likes of other designers get the same amount for a SINGLE brand in a SINGLE year. It’s not enough to be a designer, it’s now essential to have a working business model. If Canada, even more so Montreal, wants to compete with the big guns they will have to find a way to boost their visibility on a grand scale and be aggressive. We’re being much too docile to newcomers, praising and coddling them through magazines isn’t enough, they need to be able to sell their clothes to buyers and establish some loyalty amongst their shoppers.

Image credits: Style.com, Muse Christian Chenail

Sales. Make them big and make them early.

That did the trick.

Look what happened on Black Friday.

With online shopping growing in popularity, reports of a “Cyber Monday” is floating around. It’s the internet’s version of having their own little sales day for shoppers who didn’t want to confront the 2,500 or so shoppers lined up outside stores on Black Friday (the day after Thanksgiving). This year’s Cyber Monday sales are expected to jump 3 times than that of last year’s online sales to an astonishing US$700million, according to comScore.

In Montreal, you can already check out that stores are jumping into the early holiday sales with Holt Renfrew marking down their designer goods at 40%-50% off, and Browns shoe store is marking theirs off at least at 30% off.

Online shoe retailer Zappos.com is an excellent alternative in finding stylish less expensive shoes, fast delivery and return policy. I can’t recommend this site enough! Shoppers who have already bought from Zappos can review the shoes they bought based on fit, comfort and size and can base recommendations like Amazon.com. You can find a large range of brand names like Guess, Lacoste and even the likes of Marc Jacobs, DSquared and Guiseppe Zanotti. For Canadian shoppers, you’ll have to go to Zappos.ca, but will hold less of a choice selection, though it is ever expanding.

Here are a couple more of online shopping suggestions:

Etsy – Handcrafted items such as scarves, purses, trinkets, dolls, sweaters, pots, and more. Attractive, friendly, easy to use.

Tigerdirect.ca – Futureshop and Best Buy are grossly overpriced. My boyfriend always shops here for computer parts and other electronics.

Cafepresse – Get your designs or buy designs, printed on a bunch of paraphernalia like mugs, calendars, tshirts, clocks and whatnot, it’s a great way to personalize your gifts for an affordable price.

Non-online gift ideas

Futureshop – Though grossly overpriced for most electronics, for some reason they always have way cheaper DVDs. Why is that? You can find some really good combos for under $20.

MEC (Mountain Equipment Co-op) – For practical winter clothing, you have to go here. You know winter clothing isn’t as dorky and frumpy as you might think. Especially in our climate, there is little room for compromise with mother nature!

Gift Cards – Frankly, you can’t go wrong with gift cards.