Toronto brands are ditching the high street for neighbourhood outposts | Canada Voices

At the new flagship store for his Toronto tailoring house, Wynona, Robbie Yarish set out to offer customers the unhurried, intimate experience of a Savile Row atelier.

“I wanted something that felt intentional in that way,” he said.

Wynona offers made-to-measure services by appointment, with Yarish guiding customers through a vast selection of wools and cashmeres, measuring inseams and advising on suit linings and button selection. His vision for a neighbourhood tailoring shop ruled out the clogged retail arteries of Ossington, Queen West and Dundas West.

After a year and a half operating a temporary sartoria out of East Room, a co-working office near Trinity Bellwoods Park, Yarish began searching for a permanent retail space that felt less like a store and more like his home. “You come, have a conversation, have an espresso,” he said. “It’s not rushed.”

In February, Wynona opened up shop in Summerhill, the leafy residential neighbourhood in midtown Toronto. “We’re not in the shopping core of Toronto,” said Yarish. “Someone needs to make a decision to come here, so we want to make it feel very welcoming and very warm.”

The 600-square-foot space is housed in a century-old building overlooking Ramsden Park and outfitted with furniture from the Swedish Grace era – a 1920s design movement that blends neoclassicism and art deco – that Yarish sourced from auctions. “We just want to create a community in a beautiful area,” he said, “and this neighbourhood just felt right for us.”

Wynona is part of a wave of independent Toronto brands choosing residential enclaves over tourist-heavy high streets, betting that locals’ long-term loyalty matters more than passing foot traffic. Next door to the tailoring shop is artisan sportswear label Body of Work, whose Superkül-designed flagship opens in April. After more than three decades in Yorkville, Motion – the funky womenswear boutique with an in-house line of the same name – moved to Seaton Village in 2024, a stone fruit’s throw from independent grocer Fiesta Farms and a couple of art galleries. Studio assistant Andie Csafordi said that owner Nancy Moore loved the idea of shopping local in a walkable neighbourhood where many longtime clients already live.

Last year, Living Beauty, a beauty retailer and spa, opened its first brick-and-mortar store on Dupont Street. The apothecary-style space is tucked inside a former Ford factory, a two-minute walk from Motion’s Christie Street storefront.

In Toronto, there’s clear demand for walkable retail. In a 2024 City of Toronto consultation, nearly 1,100 people weighed in on the subject, and the results showed broad support for more small-scale shops and services close to home. Last year, Toronto City Council voted to allow small shops in certain wards including Davenport, Parkdale-High Park and University-Rosedale, reversing a decades-old planning policy. In March, retail availability in the city hit a record low, suggesting that Torontonians have never been more keen to shop in-person.

Brands big and small are also opening neighbourhood flagships abroad. In London, Jonathan Anderson chose Pimlico for the second London outpost of his brand JW Anderson, opting for a central if sleepy neighbourhood dotted with antique shops over a buzzy commercial hub such as Shoreditch. In 2024, French label Lemaire opened a Tokyo flagship inside a former private residence in the elegant Ebisu neighbourhood. And a roughly 20-minute drive away, in serene Yoyogi-Uehara, New York brand Bode set up shop in February amongst the area’s cafes and wine bars.

“Shopping is almost like visiting an art gallery or a museum these days,” Lauren Sherman, Puck’s fashion correspondent, said in an e-mail. “It needs to be sensorial.” That’s why what she calls “second-floor stores” appeal to the aesthete. These apartment-style, by-appointment-only retail spaces, such as Cristaseya and L’Appartement in Paris, offer a more intimate, relaxed shopping experience.

Post-pandemic, shoppers waited outside of Balenciaga and Celine in snaking lines cordoned off by velvet ropes and monitored by security guards. No wonder many are now gravitating toward the opposite: calm, curated environments that bring them closer to the people who design their clothes and a real-life context in which to wear them.

Hidden shops beckon; they don’t beg. When there’s a Prada on every block, fashion becomes a free-for-all – even if you have to wait in line. “Shopping in physical stores is no longer about necessity. It’s about experience,” Sherman said. “So many of these designers are creating spaces that are very personal – where they’d want to be.”

It’s fair to say that retail is an unforgiving business, especially for independent shops trying to compete with big-box retailers on price, location and scale. Why would anyone open a tailoring shop in a family-friendly neighbourhood where parking is next to impossible? Because people need places to go. Locals and non-locals alike are interested in the neighbourhood whether or not they’re into tailoring, said Yarish.

Wynona’s business has never been better. And the other day, a friendly neighbour dropped off cookies.