French luxury brand Chanel has opened a large ground-level boutique inside of Vancouver’s Holt Renfrew at CF Pacific Centre, replacing a previous location on the women’s upper-level designer floor. Although it’s technically a shop-in-store, Vancouver’s new Chanel concession is now Canada’s second-largest location, featuring the country’s first Chanel fine jewellery and watch boutique.
The new Chanel concession measures about 5,060 square feet, and includes a separate 750 square foot area dedicated to fine jewellery and timepieces. Some of the fine jewellery prices are astronomical — a ‘Camillia’ diamond broach with ‘pigeon blood’ red rubies, for example, is priced at a whopping $3 million. The store, designed by Peter Marino, features several rooms and carries women’s ready-to-wear as well as accessories and footwear.
Chanel is located in retail space formerly occupied by a Holt Renfrew salon and spa. Although Holt’s Dunsmuir Street facade now includes Chanel at its ground level, the Chanel boutique can only be accessed by the public through an entrance from within the Holt Renfrew store.
The new Chanel boutique will join a number of expanding concessions on Holt’s ground level. Plans provided show a relocated Tiffany & Co. as well as Louis Vuitton, in retail space formerly occupied by a sports retailer. Holt Renfrew is in the process of expanding its 147,000 square foot Vancouver store to about 187,700 square feet, with the expansion expected to open towards the end of this year.
The former second-floor Chanel boutique opened inside of Holt Renfrew in the spring of 2007, when Holt Renfrew relocated to a considerably larger new space at Pacific Centre. Chanel’s shop-in-store, which originally only carried accessories and footwear, expanded to 1,900 square feet in 2010 to also carry ready-to-wear.
Vancouver’s first freestanding Chanel location, measuring 1,300 square feet, opened in March of 1990 at 103-755 Burrard Street — now occupied by Coach. In May of 2000, Chanel relocated to a 5,000 square foot two level store at 900 West Hastings Street, which closed in the summer of 2010 due to poor sales, which some attributed to reduced cruise ship and tourist traffic.
Chanel’s first Canadian store, measuring just over 3,000 square feet, opened in April of 1989 at 131 Bloor Street West in Toronto. A 4,200 square foot second level was added several years later to create the current 7,300 square foot Canadian flagship. In January of 2017, Toronto’s Chanel flagship will relocate to an 8,700 square foot retail space at 98 Yorkville Avenue, most recently occupied by retailer Teatro Verde. In Canada, Chanel also operates shop-in-store concessions within Holt Renfrew locations in Calgary, Toronto (50 Bloor Street West), Toronto (Yorkdale Shopping Centre), and in Montreal.
