The founding father of Canadian males’s clothes retailer Harry Rosen Inc. has died at 92.
Rosen opened his first made-to-measure menswear retailer on Parliament Road in Toronto in 1954 alongside together with his brother Lou and ran the corporate for 51 years till his son, Larry Rosen, turned chair and CEO in 2005.
In an announcement, Larry confirmed his father’s passing on Sunday, saying he “willed his enterprise into existence one shopper at a time.” He stated Harry began “with a $500 mortgage and a dream.”
“His ardour for menswear and style was contagious; his capacity to show and encourage had been unparalleled,” the youthful Rosen stated.
“The workforce he constructed and the values he instilled have helped the enterprise span throughout the nation, three generations, and almost 70 years. Phrases merely cannot summarize the affect he had on us all.”
An Order of Canada recipient in 2004, Rosen was concerned philanthropically within the Canadian Paraplegic Affiliation, Company Fund for Breast Most cancers, Most cancers Care Fund, Mt. Sinai Associates for Life marketing campaign, United Manner, CAMH and UHN.
Whereas the corporate bearing his identify was recognized for dressing Canada’s most distinguished elite in tailor-made fits, with 20 shops throughout Canada, it had expanded lately to incorporate a casual-wear assortment.
“From Day 1, Harry’s imaginative and prescient was to develop into a genuinely worldwide males’s boutique that exemplifies service, recommendation,
craftsmanship, persona and individualization in clothes and equipment for males,” the corporate’s web site states.
In the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, when restrictions curtailed workplace work and social occasions — considerably slowing the demand for formal put on — the corporate ventured to interrupt into a brand new class, grooming, and expanded its athetic-leisurewear choices.
‘A visionary and a real gentleman’
The retailer additionally shifted current brick-and-mortar relationships between its employees and clients on-line, permitting its wardrobe consultants to curate its web site for purchasers right down to particular dimension and color suggestions.
The corporate stated two years in the past that it was in a position to triple its e-commerce gross sales in 2020 — reaching its 2023 goal three years early.
Rosen is survived by his spouse of 68 years, Evelyn, together with 4 youngsters, 9 grandchildren and 6 great-grandchildren, a posting on the web site of Benjamin’s Park Memorial Chapel stated.
“He will likely be remembered for being a visionary and a real gentleman,” the posting said.
