As one of the most iconic Canadian brands celebrates its birthday on May 2, it appears that the country's best-kept secret is leaking south of the border, and we're not sure whether us Canucks should share the wealth.
The Hudson's Bay Company turns 343 years old (how ancient!), and we’re celebrating just how far our beloved Bay stripes have come since a prince with a crazy Victorian wig aka. Prince Rupert, and King Charles II started it all. All kidding aside, "The Bay" was once called “Company of Adventurers of England trading into Hudson's Bay." What a mouthful!
About a decade ago, The Hudson's Bay was just a department store your mom bought dishware from but it has since been revived with new branding and ventures such as luxury designer womenswear department The Room as well as partnerships with trendy heavy hitting retailers like Topshop and more recently, designer bridal store Kleinfeld.
Brands like Rodarte and Rachel Roy are amongst the internationally recognized designers who have made appearances at The Hudson's Bay's flagship location on Queen Street in Toronto recently. Naturally, our friends in the south have also started taking notice and now we’re stripe spotting on celebrities – and they're not all Canadian!
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Celebrities Who Love The Hudson's Bay Company
“Silver Linings Playbook” star Bradley Cooper was recently spotted being his stylish self in a Hudson’s Bay toque while in New York City.
Cooper isn't the only male celeb to be crushing on the stripes. The object of our teenage lust, Vancouver-born Joshua Jackson of “Dawson’s Creek” fame was also seen wearing the Hudson’s Bay striped scarf at the airport with girlfriend, actress Diane Kruger.
Women, obviously can't get enough of the famous coats. "The O.C." star Rachel Bilson, who is basically an honourary Canadian for dating Canuck actor Hayden Christensen, has been seen numerous times wearing her voluminous hooded peacoat.
Even fashion’s finest have been spotted wearing the green, red, yellow and indigo.
Vogue Japan’s editor-at-large, Anna Dello Russo has a special relationship with Canadian street style photographer, Tommy Ton and they were both at The Room at The Hudson's Bay Queen Street location last year to launch the photo exhibit, “When Tommy Met Anna.” Anna wore a custom coat featuring The Hudson's Bay stripes by Canadian designer Erdem and a striped canoe fascinator!
Canadian fashion icon, Jeanne Beker is also a huge supporter and fan of The Hudson's Bay. She’s been seen sporting the stripes on more then one occasion and even has her own line, “Edit by Jeanne Beker” available in Bay stores.
Even reality TV stars love the Canuck brand! "The Bachelorette’s" Jillian Harris has also been photographed wearing a Bay sweatshirt.
Some celebrities have made contact with the famous stripes without even realizing it.
At the 2012 Toronto International Film Festival, celebrities like "Total Recall" star Colin Farrell and "The Help" actress Octavia Spencer walked the red…I mean, the striped carpet as The Hudson's Bay was a major sponsor of TIFF.
So Canadians, cherish the quiet time we have left with our stripes as we’re predicting a major explosion of Hudson's Bay gear in Hollywood and NYC. We just hope the likes of Lindsay Lohan and other Hollywood goofs don’t start getting their DUI mugshots wearing our squeaky clean stripes.