Ten days ago, Jean-Sebastien and Jean-Jeremie Siow were on the South Lawn of the White House.
They had been invited by Aiemann Zahabi, the Montreal bantamweight they have dressed for years, who walked into UFC Freedom 250 as the only Canadian on the card. Four thousand seats. Invitation only. Zahabi lost to Sean O’Malley in the second round, but the Siow brothers were there with him for all of it. Then they flew back to Montreal. Then they came to Toronto.
SUITABLEE opened at 20 Richmond Street East on Tuesday. Both brothers were on site, the same way they have been for every step of this company since they launched it in 2015.
They are two engineers, one from McGill and one from Concordia, who spent the early years driving around Montreal fitting clients in their homes and building a measurement database one appointment at a time. Toronto has been part of the plan for two years. They made four or five trips here before committing to anything, visited every market the city had to offer, and pursued this specific address throughout.
For SUITABLEE, this is not just another opening. It is the biggest market they have ever entered.
“If you want to own Canada when it comes to custom suits, and then North America, you have to own the biggest market,” Jean-Sebastien said. “The GTA is that market. It is the capital of Canada when it comes to business. It is a huge wedding market, with a tremendous base of women customers. We expect this to grow.”
The company already knew the demand was here. Years of pop-up shops across the GTA had given the brothers a read on the clientele before a single lease was signed. That history made the decision easier. Finding the right address took longer.
“Eighty percent of our Toronto opening was dependent on the location,” Jean-Sebastien said. “Being at the intersection of old Toronto and the Financial District was critical, and accessibility was critical. This is our flagship in Toronto, and we wanted it to be truly central.”
The space is the former home of a Subway franchise that occupied the Confederation Life Building for roughly 30 years. Completed in 1893 and designated under the Ontario Heritage Act in 1975, the building spans 427 feet along Yonge, Richmond and Victoria Streets. It was Toronto’s largest commercial building of the 19th century when it opened, and a Romanesque Revival design so distinctive it later influenced the architecture of New York’s Fifth Avenue mansions. Connecticut brownstone at the base, chocolate-pressed brick and red sandstone above. Jackson Turner of CBRE handled the tenant-side negotiation, a relationship Jean-Sebastien said the brand expects to carry nationally.
The broader retail context matters here. Downtown Toronto has been searching for focused, experience-driven retail since Nordstrom, Saks Fifth Avenue and Hudson’s Bay all closed. Simons has opened at the Eaton Centre, but the gap for brands with a clear identity and a reason to exist has not been filled. The former Saks and HBC space has yet to announce a direction. When the Ontario Line opens, with its new platform being excavated 40 metres below the existing Queen Station, the foot traffic through this stretch of Richmond changes significantly.
“It had to be a piece of history,” Jean-Sebastien said. “Our Montreal flagship is in Old Montreal, across from the Basilica. We did not want a normal commercial retail feel. Being part of the Confederation Life Building matters. It is just a beautiful building. But the second part is bringing a truly streamlined experience to the customer. There are suit providers in Toronto, but what we bring is genuinely different. The experience is different, the technology is different, and the brand operates at a level that the smaller boutiques in this city are not at. We wanted to bring the full SUITABLEE experience here.”
GTA Contracting handled the buildout and delivered on a tight schedule. The store was roughly 80 percent complete at opening, a deliberate call by the brothers. Wedding season is running. FIFA has brought an international audience to the city. Every week of delay is revenue that cannot be recovered.
“We have come from nothing,” Jean-Sebastien said. “We were fitting people out of their homes. We do not need much to fit people well. What was important was capturing the wedding season and being in the core of the suit season as early as possible. Every week we delay is a loss of revenue we cannot recover.”
Building a presence in Toronto is not something the brothers expect to happen quickly. Jean-Sebastien describes the next six to twelve months as the period where SUITABLEE stops being a brand that is in the city and starts becoming a brand that belongs to it.
“I think of SUITABLEE as a medium brand moving into a larger brand, but always with a very localized, boutique approach,” he said. “Every city we enter, we want to be involved with the local personalities, the local causes, what matters to the people who actually live and work here. Toronto is going to take six to twelve months for us to really get our hands into the local scene. Partnerships with athletes, comedians, actors, all of the important players.”
The first signals are already there. Monica Wright Rogers, the inaugural general manager of the WNBA’s Toronto Tempo, was among the brand’s first Toronto customers. It is exactly the kind of relationship the brothers pursue in every market they enter.
SUITABLEE is not a franchise, and that distinction is central to how a new location is built. The company relocated a head stylist from Montreal to establish the standard, with the rest of the team hired locally. Jean-Sebastien raised the staffing model himself, specifically in the context of Toronto’s retail closures and the experienced talent those closures left available.
“One thing we do very well is making sure all stores operate as similarly as possible,” he said. “The problem with a franchise is that every location ends up being slightly different. Our competitive advantage is that we are not a franchise. Everything runs through the brand. We relocate someone from Montreal to maintain continuity, and then we hire locally, because it is very important to know the differences between each market. We bring the brand, the quality, the experience from home, and then we bring in local people who understand the market they are serving.”
Richmond Street is the starting point, not the destination. Yorkville, Mississauga and Scarborough are already identified as the next GTA locations, following the same three-location model the brothers built in Montreal. They are not waiting for the first store to prove itself before mapping what comes next.
“We cannot afford to wait two years and then start looking, because that becomes four years,” Jean-Sebastien said. “We have already scoped out the territory. People in the GTA will not all come downtown to get a suit. We want it like Montreal, three locations that make the brand accessible across the market.”
Nationally, the framework is in place. Vancouver follows, with Oakridge Centre’s renewed premium retail investment making the West Coast increasingly attractive. Calgary is next, consistent with the brand’s existing presence across NHL cities. The Maritimes sit further out, but Jean-Sebastien notes that no brand at SUITABLEE’s scale has ever operated in Atlantic Canada.
“To be a truly Canadian brand, you have to be in more than Eastern Canada,” he said. “Vancouver, Calgary, those are natural next steps. And if we go to the Maritimes, that would be the first time a brand at our level has operated out east.”
The philosophy driving all of it has not changed since the brothers started fitting people in Montreal living rooms eleven years ago.
“We have always approached expansion the way you would approach a military campaign,” Jean-Sebastien said. “You own the territory before you move. Quebec is ours. Ottawa is established. Now the goal is Toronto, and we want to own it, not just be in it.”
Ten days ago they were at the White House. Today they were on Richmond Street. The pace has not changed. The plan has not changed. The only thing that changes is the territory.
A grand opening celebration is planned for September. SUITABLEE is open now at 20 Richmond Street East.
Dustin Fuhs is the founder and Editor-in-Chief of 6ix Retail, Toronto’s premier source for retail and hospitality industry news. As the former Editor-in-Chief of Retail Insider, Canada’s most-read retail trade publication, Dustin brings over two decades of expertise spanning retail, marketing, entertainment and hospitality sectors. His experience includes roles with industry giants such as The Walt Disney Company, The Hockey Hall of Fame, The Canadian Opera Company, Starbucks Canada and Blockbuster.
Recognized as a RETHINK Retail Top Retail Expert in 2024, 2025 and 2026, Dustin delivers insider perspectives on Toronto’s evolving retail landscape, from emerging brands to established players reshaping the city’s commercial districts.