Wedding dress giant Grace Loves Lace to walk down the aisle in Canada

Australia’s largest wedding dress exporter Grace Loves Lace is expanding its horizons in North America with the upcoming opening of its first showroom in Canada, located in Toronto’s Distillery district with an expected launch in August. 

Celebrating its tenth anniversary this year, the direct-to-consumer fashion company gained virality online after one of its gowns was pinned more than 2.5 million times by Pinterest users, creating a following that disrupted the industry.

Despite the impact of COVID-19 worldwide, there has been no shortage in demand for the dresses manufactured in Burleigh Heads on the Gold Coast.

The business has experienced rapid growth during this period, delivering a 35 per cent increase in sales in the 2020-21 financial year.

“When we started discussing launching to a new country, we knew Canada was ‘the one’,” says founder and creative director Megan Ziems, who won the Australian Young Entrepreneur Award – Fashion Design in 2018.

“We receive around 100 enquiries a month from our Canadian brides-to-be wanting to see, touch and try on their dream GRACE gown so the launch in Toronto was a no brainer for us,” she says.

The announcement brings the designer’s reach to 17 showrooms globally, with eight having opened during the pandemic including Toronto.

“With the Canada and US border closed since March 2020, our Canadian brides-to-be haven’t had a chance to experience the full GRACE experience. So, we decided to bring it to them,” Ziems says.

“Canadians and Aussies have such a similar style. We are no fuss, laid-back and adventurous, who value good quality product and design.”

If everything goes as planned, the wedding dress giant will deliver a further eight showrooms in the US by September 2022, lifting its global bricks-and-mortar tally to 25.

 

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