Nordstrom finally opens its doors in Canada! See the pics from the glam gala in Calgary

by Caroline Gault September 19, 2014

Check out the pics from the Nordstrom Canada opening gala »

The day has come.

What seems to have been the buzziest of buzzwords (or the buzziest of hashtags, #NordstromYYC) in the Canadian retail scene since Fall 2012, Nordstrom has launched its first international outpost at Calgary’s Chinook Centre. The opening gala, hosted by members of the Nordstrom family, sold out to 1,800 ultra-stylish guests and raised $180,000 for the Alberta Children’s Hospital Foundation and United Way of Calgary.

Calgary owned it, and Nordstrom embraced the city’s talent in the months leading up to it, profiling local influencers in their “Meet Your Neighbours” campaign, and hiring the city’s stylists and photographers to pull in the creative (like former FASHION It Girls Kara Chomistek and Ania Boniecka.

The gala crowd was treated to Hotel Arts’ craft cocktails and unique hor’s doeuvres—Alberta lamb popsicles, fried chicken and waffle cones, and roasted yellow and purple beet goat cheese lollipops—and left to its own devices. This meant freely navigating and shopping two levels and 140,000 square feet in the highest of heels. Think: apartment-style change rooms and 30 moving mannequins donning labels like Missoni, Marc by Marc Jacobs and Rag & Bone, and the massive shoe department housing Valentino, Chloe, SJP’s exclusive new line and metal-plated cowboy boots by Old Gringo and Frye (hello, Stampede!). Given that the retailer launched in Seattle as a shoe store in 1901, it’s no surprise that footwear rules a large slice of the Nordstrom floor.

As the dust settles from an all-woman (some, all dressed in Chanel) dance party ignited by Toronto-based recording artist Sean Jones, the public will have access to Washington’s century-old pride and joy starting today, Friday, September 19^th.

Up next, Nordstrom hits Ottawa’s Rideau Centre on March 6, 2015; Pacific Centre in Vancouver in Fall 2015; Toronto Eaton Centre and Yorkdale Centre in Toronto in Fall 2016; and Sherway Gardens in Toronto in Spring 2017, for a total of six new Canadian stores.