Joe Fresh was born only five years ago, when Mimran—one of the original creative minds behind Club Monaco, well-known as a sort of mad genius of retail—agreed to create a clothing line to be featured in the food aisles of the Lowblaw and Real Canadian Superstores (à la Target, with more fresh food). Before long, the brand erupted from the produce sections, multiplying like Manitoban elk into 330 stores all over the Great White North.
Now the label is set to thrive in the same space as megabrands UNIQLO and H&M, offering well-made, well-cut clothes in good fabrics at very low, “opening” price points (from $2 to $159). Joe Fresh spans every category—from ready-to-wear to shoes, intimates, and cosmetics—for both sexes, from birth on. And it does them well. In the Joe Fresh showroom—where gesso-matte walls and distinct nods to the boutiques of, say, Maison Martin Margiela create a very “Art Basel” aesthetic—Mimran waltzes through his fall collection, reflexively touching everything, exultant over the thickness of gold-foiled, skinny denim jeans and the hand-feel of merino turtleneck sweaters (both $49).
In addition to peppy, nicely made, current-but-not-runway-slavish sportswear, there are avant-garde signature pieces. The jewel of the fall collection is a bell-shaped neoprene coat—in orange, naturally—inspired by a vintage Balenciaga, which will retail for $99. Balenciaga, he explains, was able to achieve antigravity shapes through the use of expensive, double-weave fabrics that aren’t available anymore. “We first showed it in wool, but the wool wasn’t really capturing the shape. So I thought, Why don’t we try neoprene?” he says. “It’s like an art piece and sculptural and at the same time, it’s so brand correct.”
