By Mario Toneguzzi

International retailer DAMAT/ TWEEN, an upscale men’s fashion brand from Turkey, is opening its first Canadian store in CF Rideau Centre in Ottawa.

The first flagship store, which opens August 24, is being brought to Canada by Nextrue, a family-owned firm working hand-in-hand with many of the world’s leading corporations, and being marketed by Luxi Management, an international fashion marketing agency.

Luxi Mathi, CEO of Luxi Management, said the retailer will then expand to Toronto, Vancouver and Montreal and flagship stores will enter the U.S. as well.

She said the concept will be rolled out to the Canadian cities in the next four years.

“DAMAT is kind of the 30-year-old plus audience they’re going for. However, in the Canadian market I’m kind of predicting 25 plus because we tend to dress a little more mature. TWEEN is more young adults up to 30,” said Mathi.

“It’s a luxury men’s suit line. So for example like a Hugo Boss. Around that kind of marketing. A Nordstrom. That’s why it’s on the third floor of the Rideau Centre.

“It’s a really nice brand. The quality. All those other big brands they import from Turkey and Bangladesh but Turkey is usually the place where they get the textiles that are very high quality and because this brand is from there it’s like you kind of get the best of the best at good prices.”

Mathi said DAMAT stepped into the ready-to-wear sector in 1986 and registered as a “consumer’s favourite menswear brand”, creating modern styles with high quality fabrics and elegant designs. TWEEN gained acclaim from its original designs in the menswear sector.

View this post on Instagram

@damattweenca coming to @cfrideaucentre this August 2019! Stay tuned for more details about their launch!

A post shared by LUXI MANAGEMENT (@luximgmt) on May 10, 2019 at 6:40pm PDT

View this post on Instagram

Launching at @cfrideaucentre in August 2019!

A post shared by DAMAT | TWEEN CANADA (@damattweenca) on Mar 30, 2019 at 9:54am PDT

Orka Holding, which established the brands, describes DAMAT as an affordable luxury brand with the ‘total look’ philosophy. It describes TWEEN as a trendsetting, unique and dynamic brand - a “perfect synthesis of technology and tradition.”

DAMAT has locations in five continents and 82 countries around the world. It has about 380 stores and more than 1,000 sales points globally.

Mathi said the locations for the other Canadian cities have been picked out but they have not been finalized yet. However, they will be in Cadillac Fairview malls.

“It’s selling high fashion, high quality in the luxury line. All high-quality fabric. It’s obviously a pre-made fashion line. Nobody’s personalizing it with every kind of design,” she said.

“I’m very passionate about the Canadian market getting business. Our industry has so much capability of expanding in certain ways but we don’t put the emphasis on it.”

Mathi said that Canada is slowly becoming fashion forward.

“People are slowly investing into fashion design and obviously presentation is important. And when you wear a known brand it kind of accentuates your presence because when you’re dressed well versus when you’re not, people perceive you differently,” she said.

“And the luxury market right now I find it’s actually doing really well, especially companies like this because fashion is very forward in Europe. So as we’re getting direct links from Europe into here - because we’re going to bring another two brands as well and they’re all European - it’s going to make that transition of Canada being behind one step forward. I’m finding that all the luxury brands are establishing themselves around the world first and then stepping into the Canadian market. Because we’re not as fashion forward, we tend to only invest in what we’ve heard. We don’t really jump into the new things that we don’t really know until we create something for them.”

Mario Toneguzzi, based in Calgary has 37 years of experience as a daily newspaper writer, columnist and editor. He worked for 35 years at the Calgary Herald covering sports, crime, politics, health, city and breaking news, and business. For 12 years as a business writer, his main beats were commercial and residential real estate, retail, small business and general economic news. He nows works on his own as a freelance writer and consultant in communications and media relations/training. Email: mdtoneguzzi@gmail.com.

TODAY'S TOP HEADLINES