The Montreal High End Shopping Guide

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

Online Shoe Store Bonanza

Gap’s new online shoe store. Fun layout, I like it already.

More online shoe stores are being added to the mix and this time a couple of them are from well-known popular brands like Gap and Amazon.com. I was forwarded a video link to Washington Post writer Ylan Mui’s report, which encouraged the notion that clothing brands are solidly making their move online. With the runaway success of Zappos.com’s business model of free shipping and returns, these online shoe sites are also rewarding you for shopping there either by giving you a $5 discount to getting a Thank You note in your shoe box. Looks like they’re looking to give Zappos a run for their money!

Piperlime - Owned by Gap Inc.
Very clean site, easy to navigate and has a nice selection of shoes ranging from $50 to $300. US Shipping Only.

Endless - Owned by Amazon.com
Also well organized and prices range from $14 to $800. US Shipping Only.

Simplysoles - Washington D.C.-based
What Ylan calls a boutique online shoe store, handpicked by the owner Kassie Rampel, with a price range of $100 and up. Can Ship To Canada (yes!)

Mona Moore - (a play on words of “Mon Amour” which means “My Love”) Montreal-based
This boutique holds an eclectic mix of handpicked designer shoes and accessories. This is not for frugal but you won’t find brands like Lanvin, Balenciaga, Marni, Pierre Hardy and Miu Miu like here. Prices start $100 and up. 1446, rue Sherbrooke Ouest.

Of course, for Canadian shoppers, we’re all wishing some online Canadian stores would get their act together and try to be as innovative as our neighbors down south, unfortunately it’s not happening fast enough. I did find a Canadian blog that listed numerous Canadian shoe brands and sites who do process orders online.

Happy Shoe Hunting!