Holy monogram! Louis Vuitton to expand its Toronto flagship
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.
After the presentation, women (two of whom laughed off arriving in the same pink dress from the spring collection) roamed the racks, snapping up tweed-y knits and wedge-soled pumps hand-set with crystals. Favourite pieces from the collection—inspired by ’20s Art Deco and the striped fabric works of artist Louise Bourgeois—included a chocolate-brown shearling vest, an orange-violet leopard-spotted silk dress based on Stephen Sprouse’s graffiti print, and a navy cashmere cardigan with heavily-sequined pockets—just right for Aspen or Gstaad.