If you find our enthusiasm for holiday clothes (and fur) unnerving, we’d like to point out that we live in Canada, where for six months of the year any awesome outfit you wear gets overshadowed by the addition of your ginormous parka and heavy, unsexy boots. So when the time comes to swan around the homes of relatives in a full outfit – shoes included! – we get excited.
Also being Canadian, fancy dressing to us means Holt’s – as in Holt Renfrew, the Saks Fifth Avenue or Harvey Nichols of the north. Holt’s has been producing their own classically stylish brand since they opened in Quebec City as a hat store way back in 1837. To us though, Holt’s evokes images of sharply dressed older ladies (preferably wearing hats) going for lunch in the cafe and then for a browse amongst the store’s designer racks.
Like a lot of high-end stores, when shopping there you can sometimes feel a little, um, under appreciated, which is great, if that’s what you’re looking for. Most of the time, though, it just makes us want to ask the sales staff how much they earn as we slowly reveal the label of our jacket and say in an outside voice, “It’s totally REAL.” Buying vintage has its perks. And buying vintage Holt’s, which—there’s not point in hiding it—the store has a lot of right now, is sort of like the ultimate for Canadians during the holidays. You can feel ladylike and elegant and your great-Aunt will totally compliment your style.