High street shopping at bargain-basement prices
Buy it at full price at some of T.O.’S most luxurious boutiques, or head to a consignment shop
High-end shopping is not about picking up some soy milk and bread on the way home.
It’s all about buying something you don’t need. What’s need got to do with it? It’s luxury.
The snob factor has always been a driving force in luxury shopping. Higher prices are considered synonymous with quality.
But everything has a best-buy date. The fabled Hermès Birkin, “the holy grail of handbags,” is waitlisted for up to three years at Hermès (130 Bloor St. W.), and can run from $9,000 to $150,000 depending on the skins.
The crème de la crème of international brands is housed on Toronto’s Mink Mile: everything from Chanel to Vuitton. Holt Renfrew (50 Bloor St. W.) and The Room at The Bay (176 Yonge St.), also carry them. Or you could alternatively blow out your credit limit at indie stores all around town.
Sermoneta has opened shop in the Colonnade (131 Bloor St. W.), the Canadian debut of the Italian glove chain named after the medieval town near Rome. The glove affair starts at $99 for driving gloves, rises to $280 for opera length and escalates for fur and novelty designs. 119 Corbo (119 Yorkville Ave.) favours edgier labels like Alexander Mcqueen, Rick Owens, Dries Van Noten, Haider Ackermann and Martin Margiela.
R.A.D. (which stands for Research and Development) in the new übercool section of town at 899 Dundas St. W., also carries Belgians like leather-crafter Nico Uytterhaegen, as well as esoteric lines like Lost and Found, not found anywhere else. R.A.D. had Rick Owens’ iconic stretch denim and jersey leggings for $715.
Jonathan + Olivia at 49 Ossington Ave. also carries ACNE and highend brands like Alexander Wang, Band of Outsiders, Marc Jacobs, Rag & Bone and Surface to Air.
Wang’s long sleeved shrug is $485; Surface to Air’s booties are $565.
George C (21 Hazelton Ave.) is arguably the best high-end shoe shop in town — if only for the Rocco P line of Italian boots. We love Rocco’s Bordeaux-coloured lace-up brogues ($850) and the yummy Cesare Paciotti black suede stilettos with beaded embellishment and faux crocodile for $995. The women’s section upstairs at George C carries couture pieces by Giles Deacon for $34,000. Hazelton Lanes (87 Avenue Road) is rather a retail wasteland but is still a go-to for TNT and the Fabrice jewellery store. TNT (The New Trend) has been renovated to the size of Varsity Stadium. It is 18,000 square feet on two levels for women and a new free-standing menswear store on the second level. They carry 350 brands of women’s wear from all over the world — Comme des Garcons and Isabel Marant are huge sellers though we lusted after the tribal silk caftan by Matthew Williamson for $1,495. If we hang on, the caftan might be available in one of T.O.’S luxury consignment resale boutiques. Shoppe D’OR (18 Cumberland St.) stocks designer labels like Prada and Chanel, some of which still have the original tags attached. South Beach has come to Yorkville for spring: Shoppe D’OR has 700 pieces of summery cocktail dresses and gowns in vivid hues, prints and florals in sizes 6 to14. Labels include Valentino ($189.50) and Carolina Herrera (a $3,000 sample selling for $295). Haute Classics at 946 Yonge St. has a drool-worthy wall of designer bags — all the big guns from Balenciaga to Louis Vuitton. They have just unpacked a huge consignment of Dior bags from a “Dior obsessive” that will be priced in the $650 range. Cat’s Meow Vintage Couture and Designer Wear at 180 Avenue Rd. has top-notch vintage, including Chanel jewellery. OTC used to refer to over-thecounter drugs. Now it’s Off The Cuff resale designer menswear at 5 Broadway Ave., which offers a laundry list of designers from Armani to Zegna. There are lightweight leather Prada and Dolce & Gabbana jackets selling for $800 while retailing between $4,000 and $5,000. Studio 1686 at 1686 Queen St. W. is the go-to for designer wear from film and TV productions at 60 to 80 per cent off retail. Sister-owners Marya and Irene Duplaga are stylists and wardrobe designers on films and television. A brand new Dries Van Noten blue print dress is $495; as is a brand new Zac Posen dress.