Paris-based luxury jeweller Van Cleef & Arpels will open its first freestanding Toronto store this spring at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre, according to new construction hoarding signage. The Toronto boutique will join a downtown Vancouver unit opening later this year, which is also currently under construction.
Toronto’s Van Cleef & Arpels will measure about 1,560 square feet on one level, replacing two smaller retailers — Swarovski on the corner, as well as an adjacent Crabtree & Evelyn store. Van Cleef & Arpels is the fifth Richemont Group-owned luxury brand confirmed to be opening at Yorkdale in 2017 in the mall’s expanding ‘luxury wing’. Across the hall, in retail space formerly occupied by Williams Sonoma, four Richemont brands will open boutiques including Piaget, IWC Schaffhausen, Officine Panerai, and Vacheron Constantine.
Van Cleef & Arpels will also open a freestanding Vancouver boutique this year on the 1000 block of Alberni Street. That store will be two levels and will be more than twice the size of the new Yorkdale unit. Other Richemont brands will soon be announced for retail space adjacent to Vancouver’s Alberni Street Van Cleef & Arpels.
Canadian jeweller Maison Birks also houses Van Cleef & Arpels boutiques in its flagship downtown Vancouver and Toronto locations. The Vancouver shop-in-store expanded to 1,435 square feet in early 2016, and the downtown Toronto shop-in-store will be expanded and gain its own storefront entrance with the renovation of Birks’ Manulife Centre flagship, which commences this year. Birks and Van Cleef & Arpels have had boutique partnerships since 2006.
Founded in 1906 by Alfred Van Cleef and his brothers-in-law Charles and Julien Arpels on the Place Vendome in Paris, Van Cleef & Arpels is considered to be one of the world’s most prestigious jewellery brands. Van Cleef & Arpels currently operates 12 freestanding locations in the United States. Cities include New York City, Bal Harbour FL, Beverly Hills, Costa Mesa CA, Chicago, Las Vegas (x2), Manhasset NY, Houston, Naples FL, Palm Beach FL, and Short Hills NJ. Noticeably absent are large cities with plenty of luxury brands such as San Francisco, Boston, Washington DC, and Dallas. All of the latter four metro regions, with the exception of Boston, feature Van Cleef & Arpels shop-in-stores at Neiman Marcus.
I find it interesting that the mall placed second-tier brands such as Tory Burch, Kate Spade, Burberry’s and Michael Kors near Bulgari, VC&A, Ferragamo and Moncler.
Nothing is confirmed, but there’s a possibility that at some point in the future, more than one of those brands could end up relocating as the mall continues to transform. Remember that Yorkdale’s ‘luxury wing’ was created out of existing retail space, and that strategy has changed as luxury shoppers have increasingly descended upon the mall over the past several years.
That said… VC&A shops in Beverly Hills, South Coast Plaza and Newport Beach are so beautiful. The only concern I have it that VC&A is on the cusp of becoming to "common" like Tiffany & Co. has.