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

The conundrum boils down to this: people who have the habit of buying $1000 sweaters, and those who don’t.

Fashion is known for its disposability, a garment that’s more than two years old isn’t deemed worthy to wear in the closet anymore. Some people buy clothes and have never worn them (tag still hanging). However, this is simply generalizing. There could be plenty of people who have bought clothes years ago and still wear them today. And it’s funny how we judge so severely on items that we personally value as “worth it” or “not worth it”.

Pringle of Scotland Cashmere sweater

Such is the case for designer clothing and their thousand dollar price tag, the nay-sayers who are just fine with shopping at regular mass consumer stores like H&M, The Gap and Banana Republic, wouldn’t dare dream of buying a pair of boots costing over $1000. But they will spend such money on things they think are worth it like cars and vacations. It’s really the same kind of spending, the only difference is the perception of value. Thus really, not that different from buying a $1000 sweater.

If you can compare that to an all-inclusive vacation where over the course of one week on the beach, sleeping, tanning, and consuming all-you-can-eat buffets, will be worth your dime. A sweater will certainly last you much longer than one week, in fact it will last you years, and you love that sweater because you spent $1000 on it. Sure, you’re not on some exotic beach with the sun, but again, different perception of value.

For those who have the habit of buying high end brands are usually the wealthier consumers or consumers who have a large amount of disposable income – much like the Japanese since they don’t even have to buy houses and cars for lack of space. And their perception of value lies in the quality of their purchases. As computer geeks will no doubt spill forth thousands for the latest computer technology, they will not settle for an e-Machine but rather a Dell or a Mac. One doesn’t buy a regular tv set (probably worth less than $200 these days) anymore but a stylish flat panel widescreen tv costing well over $700. Who has pagers anymore? iPhones and Blackberry are hot commodities.I could go on and on about perception of value, stamp and coin collections being two prime examples, but I’ll stop here.

Thus, I have to say that I did purchase a $1000 sweater at Ursula B last week. I wasn’t quite sure how to feel about it as the abstract notion of spending  seemed far more mind-boggling than the actual purchase itself. And this wasn’t done on the fly. I had spent a good 45 mins with the sales lady trying on sweaters upon sweaters, from Lanvin to Balenciaga. And she was very nice, we had great conversation and I even helped her button up the cardigans I had just tried on while talking about different brands. It’s the kind of service you rarely receive, and even I myself felt so comfortable with her that I was even doing things I realized I never do in a store, helping the sales lady fold and button up clothes, I mean who does that, really? Most of the clothes didn’t really fit to my liking, too big on the shoulders, or the sleeves were too long, or left me white hairs all over my black skirt.

It wasn’t until I slipped on a Viktor & Rolf black turtleneck sweater made of 100% virgin wool, not really what I was looking for (a cashmere sweater), but the detailing pleats in the shoulders and the fit was so perfect, I couldn’t help but admire myself in the mirror. It was a little tight on the neck but will probably stretch out over time. My emotions won me over: I had to have it. Even at the price tag’s obvious ostentatious amount, I figured that life was too short to dwell upon details like money. I think I may have to think about money when I’m really down in the slammer, but I still won’t regret buying the turtleneck.

It was only later that learned that Ursula B. is perhaps the only place carrying Pringle of Scotland knit sweaters, and I’ve been dying to own one of their cashmere sweaters for some time now. I just don’t think I can afford any more big purchases for the rest of the year. The store is so minimalistic there’s not even a need for a cash register, only a credit card machine. It was then that I noticed that the owner (I was assuming since she rang up my purchase) had a classic Togo Hermes Birkin bag in gray on the counter, and had an interesting conversation with her about Hermes. It was also later when I perused Ursula B’s website that she had on one of the runway outfits, the gray pleated dress. Definitely the owner.

Thus concludes my adventure and thought process of buying a 1K sweater. My credit card isn’t maxed out and I will be able to clear anyhow within 2 months time.

Image credits: Pringle of Scotland, Net-a-porter