Cut from the same CLOTH
Three Canadian scions who inherited the retail gene are taking their from entrepreneurial parents are taking their businesses in new directions.
Retail business ‘gets in your bones’
Born in: Toronto
Age: 48
Grades 3-6: Upper Canada College
Grades 7-13: St. Andrew’s College
Post-secondary: Studied English at University of Western Ontario
Facebook status: married, father of two
Business: Andrews is a private business with three stores.
Darren Mason learned to ride a bike at Hillcrest Mall in Richmond Hill. He learned to ice skate at Yorkville’s Hazelton Lanes.
His mom, Joyce, was the founder of the Village Shop, stores that focused on quality fashion for working women in the 1970s, many of them entering the workforce for the first time.
His father was a wholesaler and his two grandfathers were in retail management — one of them ran children’s wear for Holt Renfrew.
“Every dinner conversation, everything I can remember — it involved fashion and retail,” says Darren, 48, president of Andrews, a women’s luxury department store.
Becoming a retailer was a natural move for him. “Knowing the head start I had, it would have been foolish for me not to take advantage of it,” he says.
In October, Darren and his sister, Beverley Lerner, opened the third Andrews location in the GTA, at Sherway Gardens. The second, at Bayview Village, has been expanded three times since it was founded in 1999.
His mother took over the first Andrews in Hazelton Lanes in 1991.
The store was available and the mall owners thought Joyce, who ran Village Shops in 12 locations, was a savvy re- tailer who could do something with it. Joyce closed her Village Shops as the leases expired so she could focus on her new luxury store.
She kept the name Andrews. It was simpler than changing it.
The new Andrews at Sherway Gardens features herringbone-pattern floors, Persian rugs and leather ottomans. Stylish movies like The Great Gatsby play on a big screen behind the counter, and the clothing racks are filled with high-end labels.
Darren still works on the sal at all the stores to stay connecte clientele, Toronto women wh to look sharp for that meeting w CEO or who need the right d that party.
Selling apparel means being familiar with fashion, business and the art of service. Mason loves all three.
His reserve doesn’t waver until he begins talking about the business of fashion. Halting sentences flow into paragraphs as he outlines the strengths of different labels and the importance of having a worldwide point of view combined with the abiliity to pare everything down to an intelligently curated selection.
He and his sisters accompanied their mother on buying trips to New York, London, Paris, Dusseldorf and Italian fashion capitals.
His sister Cheryl McEwen was also involved in the family business, but is now a philanthropist. She understood early the necessity of providing a high level of service for customers, says Darren.
“I was very fortunate that my three children all followed me into it." says Joyce, retired for 22 years. “They certainly knew the hours involved - for -
“Every dinner conversation, everything I can remember — it involved fashion and retail.” DARREN MASON PRESIDENT OF ANDREWS
get it, you can’t even track them.
“It gets in your bones. I’d put it that way. It was my life. Believe me, to be good in retail and have a good long run, it’s got to be your life.”
Darren dresses store mannequins with a discerning eye, layering smartly, using matching and contrasting colours and fabrics. It’s a maxim he applies to his own wardrobe. On the day of the interview, he wears Aquatalia, Prada, Rolex and a tie notable not because of its pedigree but because it was chosen for him by his daughter.
He is not afraid that Saks Fifth Avenue or Nordstrom, U.S. retailers opening GTA stores in 2016, are going to put Andrews out of business any time soon. “We are unique,” he says, noting that, given his time in the shops, he has a feel for what women want. “We’re more nimble.”