LVMH-owned Italian luxury brand Loro Piana will be opening its first two standalone stores in Canada this year in Toronto. Construction is now underway on Bloor Street for a flagship, as well as at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre for a second Toronto location.
The Bloor Street Loro Piana flagship replaces a Dolce & Gabbana store, in a building spanning about 10,000 square feet over three levels at 111 Bloor Street West. A second Loro Piana store is under construction at Yorkdale, spanning more than 3,800 square feet in the mall’s new centre-run luxury wing that is currently in development.
David Wedemire and Stan Vyriotes of DWSV Realty negotiated the lease deal for Loro Piana and Tom Balkos of P3 Global Realty Advisors, along with Alex Edmison and Brett Taggart of CBRE represented the landlord.
Loro Piana has had a retail presence in Canada for several years at Holt Renfrew, and the brand continues to operate concessions at Holts stores in Vancouver and Calgary. Prior to the pandemic, Loro Piana also had concessions at Holt Renfrew’s Toronto stores including at the Yorkdale Shopping Centre and downtown at 50 Bloor Street West.
Until recently, the brand’s men’s clothing and other items were carried at Harry Rosen on Bloor Street in Toronto. Rosen operated a Loro Piana hard shop on the second floor of the store which was recently converted to a space for pricey Italian brand Kiton (Rosen’s flagship will be relocating in 2026 to Cumberland Street).
It’s not known if Loro Piana will open more Canadian stores — in Vancouver, the clustering of luxury brands at Oakridge Park, set to open in the spring of 2025, could be attractive to Loro Piana. There is no confirmation at this time, however, that the brand is expanding further in the Vancouver market beyond its ‘world of’ concession at the downtown Holt Renfrew, which is sizeable with a range of Loro Piana men’s and women’s ready-to-wear, bags, accessories, footwear and other categories.
Loro Piana’s expansion into Canada spells confidence in the high-end market. Luxury brands Retail Insider has spoken with are indicating that there is a local population that is buying luxury goods, including affluent households that are immune to economic challenges. The segment of the luxury market driven by brand-driven middle-class shoppers has been hit hard with inflation at the same time. Tourism has bounced back in Canada, though Chinese visitor numbers are down substantially when compared to before the pandemic. Luxury brands have also built-out an impressive retail offering in China, meaning that places like Canada are a less attractive shopping destination unless there’s a currency fluctuation.
Loro Piana is known particularly for its cashmere goods, with prices well into the thousands of dollars depending on the item. The brand was founded in 1924 and is the world’s largest cashmere manufacturer. French conglomerate LVMH acquired a controlling stake in Loro Piana in 2013 and now owns 85%, with the founding family owning the remaining 15%. The brand has stores in major markets globally as well as a network of concessions and wholesale accounts.
One of Loro Piana’s biggest competitors in the cashmere space, Brunello Cucinelli, has also been expanding in the Canadian market. That includes having opened its largest location in North America in early 2019 on Yorkville Avenue in Toronto and before that, a store on Thurlow Street in Vancouver in the fall of 2015. Brunello Cucinelli will open a standalone 3,250 square foot store at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre in its new luxury wing, replacing a ‘world of’ concession in Holt Renfrew that closed several months ago. A second Vancouver location for Brunello Cucinelli is confirmed to be opening at Oakridge Park in 2025. In Montreal, Carbonleo was said to be in talks for a store at Royalmount and we haven’t received confirmation of a store.
The luxury run of Bloor Street West is transforming into a row of flagship-sized luxury stores. It’s one of only a handful of such streets in North America, housing global luxury stores such as Louis Vuitton, Dior, Tiffany, Gucci, Prada, Saint Laurent and many others (and more to come). Yorkdale is also expanding its luxury offering by about 60,000 square feet by repurposing a central corridor into a new luxury run. Several luxury brands are confirmed to be opening, including Loewe (now open), Brunello Cucinelli and Loro Piana. Several other brands will be announced, including two standalone stores that currently operate as concessions at Holt Renfrew in the mall.
We’ll follow up on this story as we learn more about Loro Piana’s Canadian store expansion.
