Q&A: Joe Mimran talks about the first Joe Fresh flagship
Hanging out with Irina Lazareanu is what I call a Saturday night well spent. And this is how last weekend played out, when Joe Mimran rolled into town to celebrate the opening of the country’s first freestanding Joe Fresh Style flagship (540 Granville St., 604-681-4200, joe.ca). With him? A handful of Toronto media, Loblaws executives, musicians from Marianas Trench, Divine Brown, The Stereos and Sweet Thing (who gave a free, afternoon street concert to screaming fans), DJ Mia Moretti and electro-violinist Caitlin Moe, and of course, the models—Irina, Arlenis Sosa and Tiiu Kuik. Here’s what he had to say about the store.
How long have you been talking about opening this flagship?
“We’ve been talking about this for 12 months now.”
What makes this store different from the studio stores in Toronto and Montreal?
“This is a true flagship—it’s in an urban location, right in the heart of a shopping district. Also, the finish and the look of the store are quite different from what we would normally find in our studio store.”
Why Vancouver? A lot of people see Joe Fresh as a Canadian brand—perhaps even a Toronto brand.
“A lot of people think of us as a Toronto brand because we’re based in Toronto, but if you really look at the number of locations that we’re in, the west is more dominant than the east. We have a bigger presence in Superstores, and that’s where all the Superstores are. So we’re actually a western concept!”
What was in this space before you turned it into a Joe Fresh?
“London Drugs. When you look at the space, it’s so great because it’s just a big white box, and it’s so, so truly the brand. I love the way the images pop out of it, I love the way the colour pops out of it.”
Were any products made specifically for the flagship?
“The product is still the product, but you’ll notice that the fashion assortment and the amount of fashion assortment will be greater here than in Loblaws.”
Any plans for more flagships?
“We actually have 20 freestanding stores slated to open over the next couple of years, and we’ve already got about seven new locations already confirmed, all over the country, that are slated to roll out over the next six months.”
That’s so fast.
“Yeah, so is the concept—we’ve only been around for four and a half years. We’ve accomplished a lot, and I just want to keep that pace going so that hopefully, a couple years from now, we’ll see another evolution of the brand and evolution of our stature.”
Speaking of evolution, you launched an iPhone app this year. Is e-commerce next for Joe Fresh?
“We’d love to, but you know, as critical as it is, the majority of the shopping is still done in brick and mortar stores. You just can’t get away from the impact of presentation and human contact—you really don’t want to get away from it completely. I think it would be a shame if we ever got to that point.”
Especially when the stores look like this!
See a gallery of the Joe Fresh Style Spring 2011 runway show»
Check out the video below of DJ Mia Moretti and Caitlin Moe at the Joe Fresh party. (via Le Mode du Jour)
![](http://www.facebook.com/sharer.php?u=https://fashionmagazine.com/style/qa-joe-mimran-talks-about-the-first-joe-fresh-flagship/&title=Q&A: Joe Mimran talks about the first Joe Fresh flagship&picture=https://fashionmagazine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/oct10JoeFreshQA_lg.jpg&description=[caption id="attachment_27848" align="alignnone" width="580" caption="Joe Mimran poses with models (from left) Tiiu Kuik, Irina Lazareanu and Arlenis Sosa"][/caption]
Hanging out with Irina Lazareanu is what I call a Saturday night well spent. And this is how last weekend played out, when Joe Mimran rolled into town to celebrate the opening of the country’s first freestanding Joe Fresh Style flagship (540 Granville St., 604-681-4200, joe.ca). With him? A handful of Toronto media, Loblaws executives, musicians from Marianas Trench, Divine Brown, The Stereos and Sweet Thing (who gave a free, afternoon street concert to screaming fans), DJ Mia Moretti and electro-violinist Caitlin Moe, and of course, the models—Irina, Arlenis Sosa and Tiiu Kuik. Here’s what he had to say about the store.
How long have you been talking about opening this flagship?
“We’ve been talking about this for 12 months now.”
What makes this store different from the studio stores in Toronto and Montreal?
“This is a true flagship—it’s in an urban location, right in the heart of a shopping district. Also, the finish and the look of the store are quite different from what we would normally find in our studio store.”
Why Vancouver? A lot of people see Joe Fresh as a Canadian brand—perhaps even a Toronto brand.
“A lot of people think of us as a Toronto brand because we’re based in Toronto, but if you really look at the number of locations that we’re in, the west is more dominant than the east. We have a bigger presence in Superstores, and that’s where all the Superstores are. So we’re actually a western concept!”
What was in this space before you turned it into a Joe Fresh?
“London Drugs. When you look at the space, it’s so great because it’s just a big white box, and it’s so, so truly the brand. I love the way the images pop out of it, I love the way the colour pops out of it.”
Were any products made specifically for the flagship?
“The product is still the product, but you’ll notice that the fashion assortment and the amount of fashion assortment will be greater here than in Loblaws.”
Any plans for more flagships?
“We actually have 20 freestanding stores slated to open over the next couple of years, and we’ve already got about seven new locations already confirmed, all over the country, that are slated to roll out over the next six months.”
That’s so fast.
“Yeah, so is the concept—we’ve only been around for four and a half years. We’ve accomplished a lot, and I just want to keep that pace going so that hopefully, a couple years from now, we’ll see another evolution of the brand and evolution of our stature.”
Speaking of evolution, you launched an iPhone app this year. Is e-commerce next for Joe Fresh?
“We’d love to, but you know, as critical as it is, the majority of the shopping is still done in brick and mortar stores. You just can’t get away from the impact of presentation and human contact—you really don’t want to get away from it completely. I think it would be a shame if we ever got to that point.”
Especially when the stores look like this!
See a gallery of the Joe Fresh Style Spring 2011 runway show»
Check out the video below of DJ Mia Moretti and Caitlin Moe at the Joe Fresh party. (via Le Mode du Jour)
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