Cynthia Cheng Mintz

According to Joe Fresh‘s Twitter and Facebook pages, they will be opening stores not connected to supermarkets this spring.  Three of the locations will be in the Greater Toronto Area (Vaughan Mills Shopping Centre, Bramalea City Centre and Heartland in Mississauga) and the fourth will be in Rocky View, Alberta.  This is after the success of their standalone in downtown Vancouver and the rumours of one in Manhattan.  The stand-alone stores are going to be much bigger than the current stores connected to supermarkets and will sell clothing for men, women, boys and girls as well as items from their beauty and skincare line.  The Brampton store will be 18,000 square feet.

Backdrop of the Joe Fresh show at LG Fashion Week

Note that the GTA and Alberta stores are in the suburbs while the Vancouver store is on Granville Street, right in the heart of the city’s shopping area.  Joe Fresh Style has always been a little mix of hip, city living and cool suburban family, but having no stores in the 416 dialling area, to me, just doesn’t sound right.  Perhaps it’s about finding space at the right price. 

With the opening of new, stand-alone stores, I also hope to see an expansion of their line, especially into specialty sizes.  Since Joe Fresh has used non-standard sized models such as Crystal Renn in past LG Fashion Week shows, it would be amazing to see plus sizes and maybe even petites!