In 1985, Canadians Joe Mimran, Saul Mimran and Alfred Sung opened the first store in Toronto on Queen Street West. This store, which still exists today, originally included a cafe below the sales floor, their second location was in the Promenade Mall in Thornhill. The first US store opened in Santa Monica in 1989. Until 1999, Club Monaco was a Canadian company and was based at Avenue Road and Bloor Street West along the Mink Mile in Toronto. It is now owned and operated by Polo Ralph Lauren, which acquired Club Monaco in 1999. Polo has allowed Club Monaco to exist as an independent entity within the group. Club Monaco originally marketed an image of yachting apparel, strictly designing black and white clothing for men and women. Around 2011, Club Monaco abandoned the black-and-white motif, scaled back the high-fashion tailoring, and entirely eliminated their men's clothing line. Somewhat struggling through an identity crisis, as recent as 2015, Club Monaco--in a complete departure from their original vision--further scaled back their design to their most casual yet and reintroduced a men's line. Recently, Club Monaco has transitioned itself into an international lifestyle brand that offers what it calls "affordable luxury with modern sensibility". Each store has its own unique concept and design as well as a mix of different products. Third-party brands carried in stores include Ray-Ban sunglasses, Citizens of Humanity jeans, Mackage leather goods and can include a variety of vintage goods from high-end designers such as Chanel and Hermès. Club Monaco also contracts with outside designers for products such as jewelry designed by Erickson Beamon and handbags from Jane Mayle. Club Monaco relies heavily on social media to market itself, using sites such as Pinterest and Tumblr to present its "lookbooks" or "inspirations" which can also be viewed on their website through their "Culture Club" page. Luxottica began distributing Club Monaco prescription frames and sunglasses in its retail outlets in 2007. In August 2013, Club Monaco launched their first footwear line consisting of leather flats and heels made in Italy. In the same month, the brand also introduced a higher-end label simply titled 'Collection'. The women's design team is currently headed by Steven Cateron. The men's design team was headed by Aaron Levine until he left for Abercrombie & Fitch.
Caban
Caban was a design-oriented furniture, tabletop, home accessories, bed and bath and apparel retailer launched by Club Monaco as its lifestyle brand in October 2000, in Toronto, Montreal, and Vancouver, with locations opening later in Calgary and Edmonton. Caban was an offspring of Club Monaco, and Joe Mimran, who was the founder of Club Monaco. In 2000, just after the launch, Club Monaco/Caban was purchased by Ralph Lauren, and began to lose focus and Mr. Mimran was ousted. In the summer of 2006, Ralph Lauren Corp. closed all of the Caban stores to focus on the Club Monaco in the United States. The last store to close was the flagship store on Queen St. West in Toronto. Caban opened its first lifestyle concept store in Montreal in the historical landmark Laurentian Bank building located at 777 St. Catherine Street Saturday, December 9, 2000. It closed the branch in 2006, after which Banana Republic opened its flagship Quebec store.
