FASHION Magazine

Blame it on cross border Thanksgiving sluggishness, but two days have passed since a pretty major Canadian retail announcement and the buzz seems yet to hit. Saks Fifth Avenue is not only confirmed as coming to Canada, but its first location has been revealed as the current Hudson’s Bay megastore on Bloor Street in Toronto. Amidst an influx of US retail entry to Canada including Target and Nordstrom, Saks is just the latest giant to tango with the existing landscape, one that has recently seen Sears tumble and cause Holt Renfrew to ramp up store expansions by 40%. The news also comes as a natural follow to the Hudson’s Bay Co. purchase of Saks for $2.4 billion earlier this year.

According to a Globe and Mail profile published on Wednesday, the shakeup is due to Richard Baker, the 48-year old majority owner of HBC, whose private equity firm NRDC (National Realty & Development Corp) also owns US chain Lord & Taylor. The magnate was the brain behind the Zellers location selloff to Target in 2011, just one of the company’s brainiac moves which also include launching in-store partnerships with Topshop and Kleinfeld Bridal.

Toronto is in love with Louis Vuitton. What else could explain the fact that the city’s two-storey Bloor St. flagship isn’t big enough to satiate the stylish hordes hungry for patchwork purses, angora skating skirts and velvet pumps?

On Tuesday, Louis Vuitton vice-president of Canada and Bermuda, Jean-Philippe Hecquet, told a gathering of top clients that the Toronto flagship would be moving to the north side of Bloor St. and tripling in size. The store will be located at 150 Bloor St. W. and is scheduled to open in the summer of 2012. “Our clients travel and get frustrated when they see things in other cities that they can’t get here,” Hecquet noted prior to an informal showing of the pre-fall collection.