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Hudson's Bay Company

Quality clothes seem to have vanished from stores in the past 20 years. All you can get is expensive, cheaply-made clothes that no self-respecting adult would have been caught dead in not that long ago. I suppose being "fashion-forward" means being very casually-dressed these days. A few weeks ago, I saw a man arriving at Canoe for dinner dressed in shorts and tennis shoes.
 
Top Shop is terrible quality!! As BUGEYEDBRIT pointed out Top Shop is just another overpriced H & M. I also have trouble finding my size since I'm not 6 ft 2. About 5 years ago i started shopping at Harry Rosen on Bloor. The sales associate i deal with knows exactly my measurements and style. Yes it's expensive but having quality fitted clothing makes it worth it for me.
 
Welcome to the world of vanity sizing. Many small women have been sized out of clothing because the so-called "size 0" fits like a 6. In other words, they make sizes appear smaller (by affixing a "medium" on something that should be a large, for example) to make consumers happy.

Even in men's clothing, a "34" doesn't always mean 34 inches anymore. God, how I wish stores would just label clothing with actual UNITS of measurement and stop wasting everyone's time with these ridiculous random sizes, vanity or no.
 
I suppose being "fashion-forward" means being very casually-dressed these days. A few weeks ago, I saw a man arriving at Canoe for dinner dressed in shorts and tennis shoes.

Have you been to the theatre lately?
 
Even in men's clothing, a "34" doesn't always mean 34 inches anymore. God, how I wish stores would just label clothing with actual UNITS of measurement and stop wasting everyone's time with these ridiculous random sizes, vanity or no.

Hear hear!
 
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arcadianvenue.jpg
 
There are a bunch of pictures like these and more interior shots at the top of the escalators on the 8th floor.
 
America’s Lord & Taylor gets some Canadian help
marina strauss — RETAILING REPORTER
From Tuesday's Globe and Mail
Published Monday, Jan. 23, 2012 10:57AM EST

Hudson’s Bay Co. is betting a Canadian touch will revitalize the oldest upscale department-store retailer in the United States.

Bonnie Brooks, who is credited with having started to revive the ailing Bay after she got the top job in 2008, was appointed president of Hudson’s Bay Co. on Monday. In that role, she also takes the reins at Lord & Taylor, the sister chain of parent HBC. She plans to extend her focus on heritage lines – including the Bay’s signature multi- striped blankets – and the budding popularity in luxury wear, European brands and men’s fashions.

“We’ve had a culture change in the Bay,” she said in an interview. “We have a can-do Canadian attitude that will be fun to take to the United States.”

Ms. Brooks’ promotion comes as Canadian retailers are being bulldozed by U.S. giants, including discounters Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and the soon-to-arrive Target Corp., which is scooping up HBC’s Zellers stores. Yet U.S. chains have had their share of pressures in an extremely crowded market, which in turn has prompted a growing number of them to look to Canada for growth opportunities.

And while HBC is controlled by an American – U.S. mall tycoon Richard Baker, who bought the Bay in 2008 after snapping up Lord & Taylor a couple of years earlier – this country’s oldest retailer now is turning to its Canadian executive knowhow to bolster business at the 186-year-old American chain.

“Bonnie has proved that she can do it,” said John Williams of consultancy J.C. Williams Group. “Lord & Taylor’s reputation is a bit musty. Someone fresh to the market who’s proven she can implement a revitalization program is called for.”

Even so, Lord & Taylor has enjoyed its own signs of a turnaround, although its sales softened last year. In 2011, same-store sales at its 46 stores rose 8 per cent from the previous year, compared with a 12-per-cent increase in 2010, a company spokeswoman said.

At the Bay, Ms. Brooks had a big catch-up job on her hands, with sales at its 91 stores gaining 6.5 per cent in 2011 after posting their first increase in a decade in 2010.

To ease HBC’s debt problem, Mr. Baker sold the rights to most Zellers leases to Target for $1.8-billion last year and, as part of HBC’s restructuring on Monday, poured $427-million into Lord & Taylor, with the funds used to reduce corporate debt. He put on hold his plan to raise more money by taking HBC public last fall amid rocky stock markets.

Ms. Brooks said her key strategy of introducing high-profile fashion brands at the Bay to draw younger customers has already been implemented at Lord & Taylor – but she will take it a step further. She wants to introduce some European brands to Lord & Taylor – which is known for its American lines – such as the ones that are carried at the Bay, including London’s Erdem and Paris’ Balmain.

She is also considering a reinvented way to add luxury goods to Lord & Taylor, emulating the Bay’s upscale The Room at its Toronto and Vancouver flagship stores. And she envisions expanding Lord & Taylor’s move last year to introduce HBC heritage items, including its blankets and even canoes.

“There is an astonishing heritage at Lord & Taylor, just like there is at Hudson’s Bay Co.,” she said. ”There’s magic in the heritage. I love the idea of being able to unlock some of the magic.”

Ms. Brooks has experience in re-imagining retailers, having helped breathe new life into Holt Renfrew before joining the Asian-based Lane Crawford department-store retailer, leading its turnaround initiatives.

Still, Ms. Brooks has had the benefit in Canada of having to battle very little direct competition in department-store retailing, said Randy Harris, president of consultancy Trendex North America. In the U.S. she faces an array of rivals, such as Nordstroms, Saks Fifth Avenue and Bergdorf Goodmans.

Ms. Brooks countered that along with more competition in the U.S. comes a much larger pool of high-end customers.
 
I am concerned about HBC's service. Many sales assistants seem to have an attitude.
A friend of mine went to shop for some beddings a few weeks ago, and two ladies standing beside bascially refused to help him since they were chatting. We complained to their manager, and they had to, very reluctantly, come to assist us, with an obvious nagativity.
Yesterday, I was shopping for shoes. After I found a suitable one, I ask for the left shoe (only the right one was on the rack). The sales person went inside for 3 minutes, came out and simply told me "I can't find it", I said "the other shoe must be somewhere", since apparently nobody would have bought one shoe, he shrugged and said "I can't find it" and walked away. It seems he just didn't want to put any effort in find the shoe.

I am sure not every sales person is like this as I had pleasant experience at the Bay as well. But as a major retailers, these incidences should not be allowed to happen.
 
Top Shop is terrible quality!! As BUGEYEDBRIT pointed out Top Shop is just another overpriced H & M. I also have trouble finding my size since I'm not 6 ft 2. About 5 years ago i started shopping at Harry Rosen on Bloor. The sales associate i deal with knows exactly my measurements and style. Yes it's expensive but having quality fitted clothing makes it worth it for me.

to be fair, you really can't use Harry Rosen's standard for Top Shop in terms of quality, as the former charges about 4 times the price. And keep in mind that very few people can afford shopping at Harry Rosen for most of their outfits.

I myself don't think Top Shop (Top man for me) is overpriced. Not sure if anyone notices, the CAN price is actually lower than the USD price, which rarely happens in Canada. I consider its quality at least decent for its price.

Another thing I particularly like about this brand is that it carries many slim fit clothes, which are suitable for Asians. You have no idea how frustrating it is for a relatively small-boned Asian to shop for shirts in most stores, such as the Bay and Sears, and their smallest shirts (usually 15'') are still too fat/baggy for me, and the sleeves are usually wayyyy too long.
 
Another thing I particularly like about this brand is that it carries many slim fit clothes, which are suitable for Asians. You have no idea how frustrating it is for a relatively small-boned Asian to shop for shirts in most stores, such as the Bay and Sears, and their smallest shirts (usually 15'') are still too fat/baggy for me, and the sleeves are usually wayyyy too long.

My Asians friends at work get their suits, shirts, pants at Brown's A Short Man's World http://www.shortmanbrowns.com/ I got some stuff there too since i like slim fitting sport shirts.
 
My Asians friends at work get their suits, shirts, pants at Brown's A Short Man's World http://www.shortmanbrowns.com/ I got some stuff there too since i like slim fitting sport shirts.

haha. Thanks!
I walked past it many times but refused to go inside because of the funny name! Why is it called "short man's world"? I am 5'9'', not really "short" even in Canadian standard. Couldn't find the right shirt usually because they are too fat/big/wide, not because I am too short.

I know that Top Man (and H&M, Zara) are pretty popular among Asians because their clothes are slimmer. Europeans seem to prefer more fit/tigher outfit compared North American men. I had to alterate several of my shirts bought from Banana Republic etc just to make them fit better.

I will try the store you recommended next time, now knowing it is not really for short men :p
 
haha. Thanks!
I walked past it many times but refused to go inside because of the funny name! Why is it called "short man's world"? I am 5'9'', not really "short" even in Canadian standard. Couldn't find the right shirt usually because they are too fat/big/wide, not because I am too short.

I know that Top Man (and H&M, Zara) are pretty popular among Asians because their clothes are slimmer. Europeans seem to prefer more fit/tigher outfit compared North American men. I had to alterate several of my shirts bought from Banana Republic etc just to make them fit better.

I will try the store you recommended next time, now knowing it is not really for short men :p

You're at the low-end of average. Lol. Under 5'8" is considered short. I hate shopping in Canada. A) It's geared toward women and B) it's geared toward larger-sized men (by larger I mean m-xxl and 30-waist and above). It's mind-boggling when I see a pair of skinny jeans in a size 42! When a new line comes out I can't be frugal and wait for a sale as all the s/p and xs/tp are gone by then. Same with size 8 shoes!
 
You're at the low-end of average. Lol. Under 5'8" is considered short. I hate shopping in Canada. A) It's geared toward women and B) it's geared toward larger-sized men (by larger I mean m-xxl and 30-waist and above). It's mind-boggling when I see a pair of skinny jeans in a size 42! When a new line comes out I can't be frugal and wait for a sale as all the s/p and xs/tp are gone by then. Same with size 8 shoes!


What DTowner said. Women's clothes fit 5'7"-5'8"ish even though the average woman in Canada is more like 5'5".
 

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