Canadian purpose-led lifestyle retailer Obakki has opened a seasonal pop-up shop at Holt Renfrew Ogilvy in downtown Montreal as part of Holt Renfrew’s H Project initiative.
The immersive Obakki marketplace experience, located on the third floor of Holt Renfrew Ogilvy, features 25 artisans from 10 countries, including Kenya, Italy, Japan and Australia.
“With this pop-up at Holt Renfrew Ogilvy, the Montreal market will have a genuine opportunity to support and uplift artisan-made craft, shared Treana Peake, Founder of Obakki. “Many of our artisans come from very rural regions without any access to an international platform so an opportunity like this is huge. What you’ll find throughout the market is a lifetime of work, a whole lot of generational skill and an immense amount of pride and love that has been poured into the pieces before you.
“I honestly believe there is space in our design industry to both consider and incorporate modern, meaningful, and impactful collaboration. Because to me, sustainability is more than protecting the environments, it’s also about protecting, promoting and uplifting the communities and people behind the products we choose to put in our homes. And, the products you’ll find in this pop-up are the perfect example of this.”
Former Holt Renfrew at 1300 Sherbrooke Street West (Image: Dustin Fuhs) 
Former Holt Renfrew at 1300 Sherbrooke Street West (Image: Dustin Fuhs)
Montreal’s Holt Renfrew store, which operated nearby at 1300 Sherbrooke Street West since 1937, closed in 2020 to coincide with the opening of the expanded Holt Renfrew Ogilvy store on Ste-Catherine Street. Selfridges Group, the former parent company of Holt Renfrew, bought the 180,000-square-foot Ogilvy department store on Ste-Catherine Street in 2011 and subsequently announced that it would merge the two stores into one that would be named ‘Holt Renfrew Ogilvy’.
The 250,000 square-foot store is one of the largest multi-brand luxury stores in North America and has the opportunity to showcase brands in permanent and pop-up formats.
“We understand that the Holt Renfrew Ogilvy customer is looking for an expanded Home offering and this partnership allows us to bring them this product category in a meaningful way, said Alexandra Weston, DVP of Brand and Creative Strategy at Holt Renfrew. “To be true to both the Obakki and H Project brands it was important to include storytelling to provide the customer access to the story and the people behind the brands and products they were buying.
Obakki Holiday Pop-up in Holt Renfrew Ogilvy (Image: Jeff Malo / Holt Renfrew) 
Obakki Holiday Pop-up in Holt Renfrew Ogilvy (Image: Jeff Malo / Holt Renfrew)
Holt Renfrew and Obakki partnered on a pop-up in Holt Renfrew Vancouver this past Spring 2022, which allowed the brand to gain experience with this experience in preparation for the Montreal activation.
“Obakki and H Project have partnered for many years in various ways and are always connected. Since Obakki’s evolution from an apparel brand into homewares, we have been looking for a way to showcase more of the collection and the Global Market concept from Obakki was the perfect way to do this,” shared Weston.
“We always saw this as a roaming market. We began discussing the next location for the Obakki Global Market as soon as we wrapped in Vancouver.
The lessons from the Vancouver pop-up from a consumer standpoint will be evident in the Montreal location.
“The setup as a souk market that you have to weave through to experience all of the products and various artisans was very successful and something we mirrored from the Vancouver pop up in Montreal.”
Holt Renfrew also partnered with Obakki to present images of the artisans and story cards for each country and artisan.
“Because storytelling is so relevant for Obakki and H Project, we found that engaging the customer and associates with elevated events and increased training session was important to the success of the pop up.”
The Obakki x Holt Renfrew Ogilvy Pop-up goes from November 17th to December 13th and the full Obakki market collection is available online.
