Ami Paris Sharpens Focus on North America Focus With Toronto Store

PARIS — As European luxury brands converge in the U.S. for their upcoming destination shows, Ami Paris is breaking new ground farther north, with the opening of its first store in Canada.

The 970-square-foot unit that bowed Saturday in Toronto’s Yorkdale Shopping Center is located on the ground floor of the retail complex near the Holt Renfrew department store and next to the Gentle Monster boutique.

Wrapping around an angle, Alexandre Mattiussi’s brand stands out by an expansive curved 80-foot-long facade with bay windows that show glimpses of the interior, echoing the brand’s Paris flagship, all Euville stone and beige limewash offset by oak wood and a striped parquet floor.

Mirrors and champagne gold details finish off an apartment-like feel for the space, which will offer a full cross section of the French brand, spanning menswear, womenswear and accessories, starting with the fall 2025 and holiday collections.

For chief executive officer Nicolas Santi-Weil, Canada is “a market with strong potential and that loves France,” he told WWD.  He called the upscale Toronto shopping mall “a place to be,” on par with South Coast Plaza in Costa Mesa in California or Dubai Mall in the Middle East.

Opening its sixth North American store in Canada, rather than in the U.S., where it has five stores across New York, Miami and Los Angeles, as well as 79 doors with retailers, signals Ami’s ambitions for the region.

To date, North America is among its top-three markets and the fastest-growing one for the French brand, clocking a 40 percent year-on-year increase “despite logistics that have not yet been optimized,” said Santi-Weil. “We have real potential there and most of the clients are new clients.”

The ambition is to increase the market’s share to at least 20 percent of the business by being more present with its own retail and through wholesale business with department stores, with ongoing partnerships with Saks Global and Nordstrom.

The U.S. currently accounts for under 10 percent of the French company’s turnover, a proportion to be read in light of a shift in its retail strategy that saw it divide by four the number of pure-player partners, many in North America.

Ami’s imminent arrival at Neiman Marcus is also expected to boost the brand’s presence. “With the number of doors they have, it can go fast,” he said.

There’s also “really a card to play” with womenswear, with an 86 percent year-on-year growth on the American market, said Santi-Weil.

Although the company did not share current trading figures, Santi-Weil said growth for 2025 is in double-digit territory globally. In February, he told WWD the company was on track to do as well in its fiscal year 2024, which ended on Feb. 28, as in 2023, when it passed the 300-million-euro mark.

Sales in the U.S. are “positive,” with double-digit increases in most stores and a sales progression “between 10 and 14 percent” for the fall 2025 collection, compared to the same season last year, according to the executive.

E-commerce, which was brought back in-house in 2024, is another avenue for growth. Santi-Weil said there were plans to open a warehouse in the U.S. to serve the North American market, a project slated for the second half of 2026, or the early months of 2027 at the latest.

“It is becoming crucial for us to open a warehouse in the U.S. to serve our retail, our online [consumers] and even our wholesale [accounts], which will increase our agility with department stores,” he said. This move would also lessen tariff pressure.

Ami currently has one central warehouse in France, which it plans to move to a larger facility in April, and several regional ones in Asia.

To support its North American expansion, the brand has recruited Bruno Rezzonico, most recently senior vice president network development for the Americas at Gucci, who joined Ami as president North America in May.

But the Toronto opening is “also a way to slightly reduce our exposure with regards to the U.S.,” said Santi-Weil.

Although the U.S. continues to have “pharaonic development potential,” characterized by “consumers who are interested in value for money as well as a European aura,” Santi-Weil prefers to remain “very prudent, because the context is adverse,” particularly with rapid-fire decisions by the American presidential administration.

Still, Ami had been “less impacted than other luxury brands,” thanks to a price point he dubbed “friendly luxury” and “more reasonable markups” on the U.S. market, according to the executive.

“Even with increased tariffs on French products, we remained more accessible than them, at much lower prices,” Santi-Weil added. “Our competitive advantage is this price positioning.”