Stuart Weitzman Invades Canada!

Montreal Fashion Minds attended the grand opening cocktail for the first Stuart Weitzman store in Canada, at Rockland Shopping Centre. A second boutique also opened in Carrefour Laval, and a third is planned to open in August, at the Eaton Centre in Toronto.

We were surprised that they would choose to open their first boutiques in Montreal, since most companies generally start in Toronto, but Montreal was chosen because of its dynamic presence of numerous designers who have made Montreal a fashion capital in Canada.

“Opening not one but two new retail stores in Montreal is a great international fashion statement and a logical step for the global evolution of the Stuart Weitzman brand.” - Stuart Weitzman

The 1300 Square foot boutique in Rockland Shopping Centre was designed by regular Stuart Weitzman collaborator, Italian architect, Fabio Novembre. The unique, modern design in a color palette of vanilla and grey with ribbon detailing has become a symbol of the international brand.

While we weren’t too impressed with the way we were greeted upon our arrival by GA Associates PR (last time we checked, PR stood for Public Relations), we did enjoy checking out the beautiful new boutique, and all the fabulous shoes and their complementary handbags.

Their Spring collection trends include ethnic tribal style with croc and python prints detailed with cord and metal, Greek and Roman sandals, moccasins, espadrilles and more.

Other trendy details include cut-outs, pearls, studs, sparkles and bright, energetic, 60s inspired colors.

We also can’t forget the 80s & 90s comebacks of Jelly sandals and platform clogs.

They also had a wonderful display of Stuart Weitzman’s famous one-of-a-kind shoes that the designer creates for one lucky star every year to wear to the Oscars.

The ‘Million Dollar Shoes’ which boats 464 diamonds were worn by Laura Elena Harring for the Oscar-nominated Mulholland Drive in 2002.

These beautiful ruby red shoes with 642 rubies unfortunately never made it to the red carpet in 2003.

In 2004, these Cinderella-inspired Shoes with 565 diamonds and a rare, colored diamond were worn by singer Alison Krauss who collaborated on the Oscar-nominated soundtrack for the film “Cold Mountain"

Shoes with Marilyn Monroe's opalescent Swarovski crystal earrings were worn by actress Regina King of the Oscar-nominated film “Ray” in 2005.

In 2006, Oscar-nominated singer/song-writer Kathleen Bird York for “In the Deep” - from Oscar winning film “Crash” wore these shoes, which donned Rita Hayworth's ruby, sapphire and diamond earrings.

Diamond Dream Shoes were created with 1,420 diamonds for actress Anika Noni Rose of the Oscar-nominated film “Dreamgirls” in 2007.

In 2008, Retro Rose Shoes with 1,800 diamonds shoes were created, but were unfortunately not worn on the red carpet.

In 2009, shoes were not created due to the sensitivity of the global economy.

While we enjoyed the boutique, the champagne and the shoes, we must admit, we have never been treated so poorly by a PR group ever before. We didn’t have a great impression of the event going in, or coming out, however we chose to not let that give us a poor impression of their client, Stuart Weitzman who did impress us with his fabulous new Canadian boutique.

All the photos from the event are provided by our fab photographer Hugo Trottier. Thanks Hugo!!