Christian Dior Expands Vancouver Footprint [Photos]

(Photo: Holt Renfrew) 

By Craig Patterson

French luxury brand Christian Dior has expanded its concession at Vancouver’s Holt Renfrew flagship, creating the largest Dior accessory boutique of its kind in Canada. The shop-in-store concession is the latest brand to expand its presence within the CF Pacific Centre Holts, which has been under renovation over the past couple of years, coinciding with a significant expansion. 

The new Dior boutique replaces a smaller location that was located on the same floor — Holt Renfrew recently relocated its beauty hall to a space in the basement, freeing up valuable ground level space for a grouping of luxury accessory boutiques in an expanded leather goods and jewellery hall. As competition increases from the likes of Saks Fifth Avenue and Nordstrom in Canada, Holt Renfrew is curating some of the world’s top brands and providing them dedicated shop-in-stores spaces.

Dior's new location is prominent — when one enters Holt Renfrew’s ground-level Granville Street entrance, the new Dior boutique is located immediately to the left. A window that formerly showcased the store’s beauty hall now displays Dior handbags. 

The boutique also includes Dior’s new font, being an all-caps stylized DIOR — all other boutiques in Canada feature ‘Dior’ stylized branding that is a bit more subtle, though we might expect Canada's newest Dior boutiques to adopt the new signage, as is seen in new locations globally. 

One of the highlights of the new Vancouver Dior boutique is a limited edition 'Lady Dior' handbag. A selection of styles are available in the new boutique from several notable artists — Retail Insider Vancouver correspondent, Helen Siwak, toured the new space and showcases the designs on her own blog, EcoLuxLuv, and she also provided a 3D video tour of the space as per below. 

(Looking into the new Dior space from Granville Street. Photo: Helen Siwak)

(Inside the new Dior boutique -- the stairs on the other side of the window lead downstairs to the store's Granville Street entrance. Photo: Helen Siwak) 

Christian Dior currently operates accessory boutiques at Holt Renfrew in Toronto (50 Bloor Street West and at Yorkdale Shopping Centre) as well as in Montreal on Sherbrooke Street West. Saks Fifth Avenue at the CF Toronto Eaton Centre also features a separate Dior accessory boutique on the ground floor, as well as a women’s ready-to-wear salon on the third level women’s designer floor -- the first of its kind in Canada. Dior also operates a 10,000 square foot boutique at the Fairmont Hotel Vancouver, which is currently the largest standalone Dior location in North America. 

That will change towards the end of this year, however, when Dior unveils a 13,400 square foot flagship at 131 Bloor Street West in Toronto — the store will be one of Dior’s largest globally, joining other flagships that have recently grown on the ‘Mink Mile’. Dior will also eventually be relocating its Montreal Holt Renfrew boutique to a new 2,000 square foot concession space at the expanded ‘Holt Renfrew Ogilvy’ which will be located in the current Ogilvy location on Sainte-Catherine Street West — the Sherbrooke Street Holt Renfrew will close once the merger is completed, some time in the year 2020. 

This week in a separate Brief, we'll be reporting on some other updates as Vancouver's Holt Renfrew flagship renovations near completion. 

Craig Patterson, now based in Toronto, is the founder and Editor-in-Chief Retail Insider. He's also a retail and real estate consultant, retail tour guide and public speaker. 

Follow him on Twitter @RetailInsider_, LinkedIn at Craig Patterson, or email him at: craig@retail-insider.com.

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