Aug

31

Zara Home, the pride of Spain, opens in Toronto

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Hamilton Spectator

GALICIA, SPAIN In the northwest corner of Spain, a place known as the Death Coast, is the end of the world, well, the western most spot on the Iberian Peninsula where Europe ends.

Nearby is Santiago de Compostela, famous first for its cathedral, the destination of pilgrims following El Camino de Santiago (way of St. James) hundreds of miles through the Pyrenees, carrying a Galician scallop shell as tradition demands.

Besides seafood and pilgrims, the area is known as the birthplace of Spanish dictator Francisco Franco and artist Pablo Picasso.

But its most famous current resident, Amancio Ortega Gaona, the world’s third-richest man, has revitalized this coast with Inditex, the world’s biggest fast-fashion retailer. The largest of the eight Inditex brands are Zara and Zara Home.

At a factory tour in May, the plan to launch Zara Home in Canada was announced.

A few months later, a piece of Galicia arrived at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre. A second Zara Home location also opened at Montreal’s Carrefour Laval. Online shopping at zarahome.com is available across the country.

The openings in Canada came a week after Zara co-founder Ortega Gaona’s ex-wife, Rosalia Mera, died of a stroke at 69. She was the world’s richest self-made woman.

Zara and Zara Home are phenomena. The shiny and austere headquarters are just outside the coastal city of A Coruna. Counting the 1,751 stores is tricky — the fashion line opens three a week in China alone.

Zara launched as Zorba in 1963, manufacturing housecoats. The first store opened in 1975. The name Zara doesn’t really mean anything; it was a second choice after an A Coruna bar owner objected to the original name. But Zorba, after the movie Zorba the Greek — the story of an intellectual fascinated with the working class — is a telling detail about the values and the interests of the inscrutable third-richest man in the world.

Zara Home launched in 2003, and now has 375 stores in 38 countries.

Ortago Gaona, who retired as Inditex chairperson last year, but who still reports to headquarters daily at A Coruna, is famously reclusive. His brands are equally shy: they do no public relations, no advertising and have no official spokespeople.

The only fellow on record is director of communications Jesus Echevarria, who explains the Zara model, shared with Zara Home, this way: “The model is about process. Contact with stores and consumers to see how trends are moving around the world.”

The concept, which permeates the culture of the Zara brand, is about humility. “It is about listening to the customer, letting the customer spread news about us. It is our personality, coming from such a humble place as this,” he says, pointing at the rolling Galician hills.

In Spain, where the economy is still locked in unprecedented unemployment, the size and success of this brand is a huge source of pride.

Zara clothing changed the pace of international fast fashion with its constant influx of new goods to its global outposts. Its designers quickly follow up on a hit with a similar trendy piece, never the exact replica.

This is part of the thrill for shoppers, creating a buy now or lose it forever imperative. It is so successful that even the highest-end designers have responded by upping the number of deliveries per year so that their wares do not look old in comparison.

At Zara and Zara Home offices, rows of designers, fresh out of international fashion and design schools, create all the lines: men’s, women’s and children’s basics and trend-driven pieces at Zara; bedding, towels, tableware and household accessories at Zara Home.

Zara sends two deliveries a week to its stores; Zara Home also has a regular influx of the new, geared around traditional two-seasonal collections. Basic bedding, bathroom and table dressings are always in stock, with colours reflecting the season.

Running parallel to the designers in the airplane hangar studios are the “country managers” who talk to individual store managers about what is selling and to stock up on a trend that is selling well. Echevarria says this is the feedback loop wherein customers drive the flow of goods around the world.

The 2,766-square-foot shop is on the ground floor at Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Centre. The look is crisp and tasteful, with a bit of Euro flare to make it stand out from the beige desert of home design stores out there.

Think witty Spanish touches such as a jellyfish pillow or unexpected jaunty striping for a bedspread, a candle shaped like a cockatiel or a leather patchwork rug.

Pricing is firmly in the fast-fashion range. Expect $7.90 to $59.90 for bath towels, $15.90 to $179 for sheets. And, in a wink at Ortega Gaona’s first retail foray, dressing gowns for $59.

Toronto Star