A Portuguese Flannel shirt.
This is the first in an occasional series highlighting new stores and hidden gems worth shopping at in the city
Park & Province
927 Queen St. W., 647-348-3311, parkprovince.com
The owners
Chris Naidu and Gray Butler
In a nutshell
This online store turned menswear shop mixes both the new and the timeless to help men adapt to new styles with our guidance.
The story
We started as an online menswear shop about 2 1/2 years ago, which sprouted from us wanting to branch out and do our own thing. Gray has worked in retail and my background is in fashion and beauty photography, but I've always had an interest in menswear and clothing. We've both always had a passion for the different realms of owning a shop, so when we decided to run an online shop we branched out from there. In December, we had a pop-up shop on Ossington that lasted one month, and from there, we slowly decided to make the transition. It's whirlwinded in the past couple of years.
The stock
We try to provide things that have either never been in Toronto or Canada or are really unknown. We then mix those brands in with the classic and staple trends. The more common brands that we carry only make up about 30 per cent of our stock and then the rest are the unknown and new brands that eventually turn into our bestsellers. We put them all together because we feel they all fit well in our casual, contemporary store.
The philosophy
The idea behind the store is that we want to create a place that isn't impossible for people; you shouldn't have to think too hard about the clothing. We're offering something that is either new and unique or just a slightly different perspective. We focus on quality fabrics, quality fit and a decent price point because we think that's what people need. We're really passionate about the products we sell, so it's really easy for us to pass it off to our customers. On the other end, it's really easy to wear most of our stuff, so it's capable of speaking for itself as well.
The buy
Portuguese Flannel. Having been our most popular shirting brand since they first launched last year, brothers Antonio and Manuel are part of a fourth-generation fabric manufacturing family from the north of Portugal. It's very hard to come across a shirting brand with such great fits, quality and pricing, yet they've successfully done it. ($158-$165)
This interview has been edited and condensed.