H&M's upscale fashion brand COS (stands for 'Collection of Style') has announced that it will open its fifth Canadian location this fall at Mississauga’s Square One. The store will span about 5,060 square feet on one level, and it will feature a clean, modern interior similar to its other four Canadian stores. When it opens, Square One’s COS will feature the brand’s autumn/winter 2017 collections.

COS will be located in the mall’s new 'luxury wing' that debuted last summer. A 130,000 square foot Holt Renfrew store anchors the new wing, and Harry Rosen relocated into the new wing with a bright new store as well. Italian luxury brand Salvatore Ferragamo opened its largest Canadian store in the wing last summer, and a licensed Rolex boutique also opened nearby. Square One is one of Canada’s most productive shopping centres according to Retail Council of Canada’s Shopping Centre Study (with annual sales per square foot in excess of $1,000), and it’s also one of Canada’s biggest and busiest malls, and it will only become more popular with the addition of new retailers and entertainment concepts such as The Rec Room.

COS’ four other Canadian stores are in Toronto (x2), Montreal and Vancouver. COS launched its first Canadian store in September 2015 in Toronto at 85 Bloor Street West (former Tiffany & Co. space), followed by a second store in October of 2015 at 1310 Sainte Catherine Street West in Montreal (formerly occupied by Le Chateau). A store at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre opened in October of 2016 and in March of this year, COS debuted its first Vancouver store at 18 Water Street in Gastown. Sources say that more Canadian COS stores are expected to follow.

Parent company H&M launched the COS store concept on London’s Regent Street in March 2007. The brand has a wide product range that is divided into a number of different concepts, incorporating fashion essentials, reinvented classics and modern trends for men and women. COS was created by an in-house team of designers and buyers. It has 209 stores in 34 countries worldwide (Europe, Asia, North America, Australia and the Middle East) and currently retails online to 19 markets. H&M also operates & Other Stories (which is expected to enter Canada before the end of the decade) as well as its most recent brand, Arket, which will soon launch a store in London, with more to follow.

Canadian Retail News From Around The Web: June 8, 2017