Wednesday 5 October 2011

Topshop Hits Canada!!

Today at 11am, Canada's first Topshop and Topman opened its doors in Toronto's Yorkdale Mall!!!! Ahhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!



Hey guys, it's Raghda and I'm beyond excited, so please excuse the plethora of exclamation marks! :P I have been a fan of Topshop for many years, and the moment the online store began to ship in Canada, I had a small panic attack of glee. When I vacationed in Abu Dhabi last winter, I was completely euphoric once the big block letters of the store were in sight. The sales people had NO IDEA how lucky they were to work there!
A few months ago a huge chain retail store in Toronto began to carry a small collection from Topshop and a friend and I would visit it often. Now, the moment has come. Talk of it opening its own store has been in the air for quite a while, and today was the day. Well lemme just quickly go back to last week when a friend and I were stopped by a woman who asked if we knew what Topshop was.
 Me: YES O_O
And she told us about the grand opening on Oct 5th, 10am and gave us Topshop mags. The first 10 people to arrive in the lineup got $200 gift certificates for the store, and unfortunately we weren't as early as we'd hoped so we weren't as lucky. ):
I believe it was supposed to start at 10am, but there were a few delays and Sarah Taylor (TV personality/former MuchMusic VJ, in pic above) let us know that it would all start soon and that UK band Friendly Fires would play later in the day. When it was finally time to open, owner Phillip Green and supermodel Coco Rocha cut the ribbon and in we went! 
I was surprised by the amount and variety Topshop made available to us. Everything from outerwear, accessories, makeup, lingerie and a wall of shoes that could rival Aldo's newest collection! Naturally, as my newest obsession is faux fur, I was drawn to the fur collars. The ones I've been eyeing at H&M would just lay over your shoulder unless you clasped it with something like a brooch, whereas one side of the Topshop collar had an extra bit of fur that you could loop the other side through. 


Well at this point, one of the members of the camera crew (they were around earlier interviewing people in the lineup) was behind me as I was trying on the collar in front of a mirror. I didn't acknowledge it because my mind was on the collar and talking to my friend about it, until I turn and notice the rest of the crew filming me on my right! lol I had the shock of my life and couldn't help but laugh and awkwardly put the collar back, until a gentleman asked if they could film me putting on the collar. Why not!? So they wanted it to look like I was looking in the mirror (looking right into the camera) as I put it on, and I walk away at the end. I'm not quite sure what it was for, but as soon as I find it I'll link it here. :)
Anyways, the place is connected to the department store The Bay, and downstairs is Topman while upstairs is Topshop. The men's section was pretty straightforward, and nearly empty of customers compared to Topshop.
Once we had our fill, my friend and I went to Starbucks (the salted caramel mocha's are insanely good!) and I updated my fb status as "Coco Rocha is here at Topshop". I then had an eerie feeling and quickly closed the page when I felt someone over my shoulder. A few moments later the gentleman sitting next to me mentioned taking Coco to the airport. Okay, okay, be cool. stay calm. I didn't want to be really obvious and look over, but I knew Coco was sitting on his right. It's an understatement to say that I love Coco, because I LOVE Coco. I'll never know if she saw me updating my facebook, but the fact that its a possibility makes me giggle.

Ah so that was my day. Sitting next to Coco at Starbucks almost made it okay that I wasn't amongst the first 10 to win a gift certificate, but the fact that a beautiful Topshop is finally here in Canada makes us all winners in the end.




xoxoxox
-Raghda

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