Photo: Built Form, Vancouver Skyscraper Forum.
Italian luxury fashion brand Max Mara‘s Pacific Centre store in Vancouver has more than doubled in size, annexing adjacent retail space formerly occupied by a watch retailer. Vancouver sells more Max Mara clothing than any city in North America, and also has the most Max Mara stores of any city on the continent.
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Max Mara’s former 975 square foot boutique expanded by adding almost 1,200 square feet of a former La Swiss watch store. The new 2,150 square foot location reflects the brand’s updated design by Duccio Grassi Architects. It’s the first Canadian location to feature custom tailoring, and features the Max Mara, Max Mara Elegante, Max Mara Studio, Max Mara Accessories and ‘S Max Mara lines.
Established in 1951, Max Mara is known for its womenswear as well as accessories and shoes, and has stores around the world. The company also retails other fashion lines including Weekend Max Mara, Sportmax, Sportmax Code, Marella, Pennyblack, iBlues, Max & Co., and Marina Rinaldi, among others.
Photo of Pacific Centre’s Max Mara in the spring of 2014. The store’s exterior and interior have been completely overhauled. Photo: Built Form, Vancouver Skyscraper Forum
Vancouver is North America’s top-selling city for luxury Italian fashion brand Max Mara, even surpassing sales in New York City. Vancouver also has the highest number of Max Mara stores of any North American city, with a sixth location scheduled to open next year.
Vancouver has three Max Mara stores and two (soon to be three) Weekend by Max Mara stores. Located on Vancouver’s tony South Granville strip, Vancouver’s largest Max Mara store (at 3,850 square feet) boasts North America’s first Max Mara bridal salon. Last year, its Oakridge Centre location relocated to a 2,475 square foot space. Its lower-priced Weekend Max Mara brand currently has two Vancouver locations: a 1,240 square foot Oakridge Centre store and a 2,060 square foot store at Burnaby’s Metropolis at Metrotown. A third Weekend store will open in September of 2015 below Pacific Centre’s Nordstrom store, beside a large new Apple Store.
Vancouver’s Max Mara stores are franchises owned by Catherine Guadagnuolo, founder and owner of Vestis Fashion Group. We asked Ms. Guadagnuolo why Vancouver does such high sales for Max Mara, and she replied to us that her company puts great effort into working with its customers, and has done so for almost 30 years. Vestis is expanding beyond the Vancouver market, opening two locations in Calgary: a Weekend Max Mara store next month at Chinook Centre, and a Max Mara store in the same mall in October of 2015.
Max Mara’s only other Canadian store location is at 151 Bloor Street West in Toronto. The company will also open an outlet store next year at the Montreal Premium Outlets.
Never see a person in there ever. How do they stay in business? I work in the mall.