Designer name-dropping and great architecture. What more could a sophisticated urban fashionista ask for?

Rather than go the tried-and-true route of fashion photography, this eye-catching newspaper campaign to support the opening of Holt Renfrew’s new Vancouver store features drawings of models as architectural blueprints. Each mentions at least seven designers, and aims to highlight the variety the new 137,000-sq.-ft. store will include. The tag is ‘More Space, More Designers.’ Twice the size of the former Vancouver location, the store was designed by NYC architectural firm Janson Goldstein.

The full-page newspaper executions are running in the Vancouver Sun, as well as Ming Pao Vancouver and Sing Tao Vancouver. The latter two were targeted because Asian-Canadians comprise a large segment of Holt customers in Vancouver.

‘We’re really pleased that Holt Renfrew agreed to go the illustration route because it stands out more in a newspaper environment,’ says Elspeth Lynn, partner/AD at Toronto’s Zig. ‘It would have been very easy and completely acceptable to do fashion photography. It was the magnificent design of the new store being as important as the fashion itself that really drove us to think about how we could combine those two, because we wanted to demonstrate the depth and breadth of their designers in their newly designed space.’ Lorraine Tao, partner/copywriter, adds that marrying fashion and architecture also addresses a consumer insight. ‘I think the Holt’s customer is as interested in style for their clothing as they are in architecture, so it combines both,’ she says.

client: John Gerhardt, director of creative services; Janet Eger, director of communications;

Melissa Browning, manager of advertising and sales promotions; Jennifer Daubney, communications

co-ordinator, Holt Renfrew

coach: Andy Macaulay

copywriter: Lorraine Tao

AD: Elspeth Lynn

project manager: Carlie Naftolin

strategic planner: Lynn Sivec

illustrator: Shingo Shimizu, Sharpshooter