page_title: Holt Renfrew
section_title: 1950–1999
hierarchical_section_title: Holt Renfrew / Operations during 20th century / 1950–1999
caption_attribution_description: English: Holt Renfrew flagship store on Bloor Street, Toronto
context_page_description: Holt, Renfrew & Co., Limited is a Canadian luxury department store chain founded in 1837 by William S. Henderson. It is currently owned by Selfridges Group, through which it is affiliated with the European department stores Selfridges, Brown Thomas, and de Bijenkorf. The chain is comparable to the American department stores Barneys New York, Neiman Marcus, and Saks Fifth Avenue.
  Once "Furriers in Ordinary" to Queen Victoria, the chain was founded as a fur shop in Quebec City.
context_section_description: The 1950s also saw the retailer establish new stores in secondary markets, including Edmonton in 1950, Calgary and London in 1953. The chain also opened outlets in some of the country's most prominent luxury hotels, including the Royal York, the Chateau Frontenac, and the Chateau Laurier.
  The 1960s saw Holt Renfrew build on its reputation as a high-end luxury retailer, closely associated with the leading European fashion houses.  In 1962, the company announced that it had secured an exclusive agreement to represent Paris designer Yves Saint Laurent and his haute couture in Canada.   At the same time, the chain promoted new, more affordable, ready-to-wear fashion designed to attract a younger clientele.  It established in-store shops for its Miss Renfrew line, marketed to "Young Careerists, College Girls, and Young Matrons," who wished to dress fashionably on a budget.
  Holt Renfrew's retail expansion continued with mall openings at Toronto's Yorkdale Shopping Centre in 1964 and Place Ste-Foy, Quebec City, in 1965.  By the mid-Sixties, Holt Renfrew experienced a change of ownership with the announcement that the Canadian Acceptance Corporation, a wholly owned subsidiary of C.I.T. Financial of New York, had acquired 93 percent of the company’s shares – that after a brief period of ownership by English retailer Blackett & Son Ltd. In 1971, Canadian Acceptance Corporation sold Holt Renfrew to Los Angeles-based department store holding company Broadway-Hale (later renamed Carter Hawley Hale).
  The decade also saw a change in leadership as Alvin J. Walker retired after 25 years as company president in 1967.  He was succeeded by Lenard M. Shavick.  Shavick, who joined Holt Renfrew in the post-war years as a buyer, saw to the chain's continued close relationship with the fashion houses of Europe and North America with frequent buying trips aboard.  "Every year, Shavick makes three or four trips to the fashion capitals while his staff of 18 buyers follow through with as many as 60 or 70 of their own."  Shavick further saw to the expansion of the chain's retail footprint with eleven new stores for a total of 23 outlets by 1971.  He unveiled Holt Renfrew’s first West Coast store at the new Pacific Centre, Vancouver, British Columbia, in 1975.  Four years later, he oversaw the development of the company’s new Toronto flagship store, at 50 Bloor Street West, with some 73,000 square feet of retail space, at a cost of $6.5 million.  In 1983, the chain's Edmonton branch opened a $6 million, 45,000 square foot store in Manulife Place – the city's newest and tallest building.
  The 1980s saw Holt Renfrew return to Canadian ownership after Carter Hawley Hale of Los Angeles put Holt, its only foreign asset, up for sale.  In April 1986, an agreement with Wittington Investments Limited, a Weston family holding company led by W. Galen Weston, was announced.   With Michael Brickell as company president, Galen Weston as chairman and wife Hilary M. Weston as vice-chairman, the chain underwent dramatic changes, including the introduction of new retail formats and extensive interior renovations to its lead Toronto and Montreal stores.  The new owners gutted some 7,000 square feet at the Bloor Street West flagship to accommodate new designer boutiques, as the retailer moved to restore a sense of luxury and intimacy.  They hired New York retail designer Naomi Leff to guide the renovations and changes to its merchandising mix.  In Montreal, they began work to revitalize the grandeur of the original 1937 Art Deco architecture of the Sherbrooke St. store and added  Giorgio Armani and Yves Saint Laurent shops to both Toronto and Montreal.  A new high-end Holt Renfrew retail magazine, called "Point of View," was launched a year later.
  The 1990s, under president Joel Rath, saw further expansion with some 62 thousand square feet of retail space added, in particular to Holt's landmark Montreal store.  The Sherbrooke Street site doubled its space in a $30 million expansion that pushed into adjoining buildings to accommodate luxury brand boutiques including Chanel
caption: Holt Renfrew flagship store on Bloor Street in Toronto
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