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The girls on the bus go shop, shop, shop

What a day! The first Girls’ Day Out shopping tour to Nordstrom in Calgary was a huge success. Fifteen ladies laughed, shared and shopped on October 4th, while learning some style tips and making new friends. bags edit

When we arrived we were greeted by a Customer Service representative of Chinook Centre who generously provided each guest with some wonderful beauty samples, courtesy of Shoppers Drug Mart.

The group dispersed, fully exploring the mall. I and two others headed straight for Nordstrom. We checked out the ladies’ wear departments, oohing and ahhing over the luxurious brands. Burberry? Yummy. Diane von Furstenberg? Gorgeous. Hugo Boss? On trend!

For lunch, we managed to get into Bazille, the hip new restaurant inside Nordstrom. What an amazing menu! I tucked into the sumptuous salmon nicoise salad, while my companions enjoyed other selections and we shared the house fries with a wonderful olive-based dip.

After lunch, we headed for the shoe department, which was hopping. Two manufacturer reps were on hand to showcase their brands, Frye and Munro. The three of us bought six pairs of shoes and put two more on order.shoe dept editRepresentatives from Munro Shoes and Nordstrom salesperson extraordinaire Natalie (2nd from right) assist Julie (centre) with shoes

The staff were absolutely amazing. Friendly, knowledgeable and well-trained in the Nordstrom customer service model.

Back on the bus, the Girls shared their shopping finds and more than a few laughs. It was a full day and we arrived back in Edmonton right on schedule.

On the way home, I was humbled that the group was busy planning our next excursion! Clearly a good time was had by all.

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Nordstrom rocks the house!

I had the chance to attend the Nordstrom Calgary opening gala last night, along with 1,800 other fashion-forward people. What a party!

floor sign editFun floor stickers were scattered through out the store

I will be writing a series of posts about my experience, but first, here are some comments from two of Edmonton’s most prominent fashion experts, who also attended the Gala.

“I was really impressed with the open concept of the store, but also the effort to create an intimate and unique experience in each department. This is the kind of department store design we haven’t seen much of in Alberta and it’s exciting to see stores like Simons and Nordstrom leading the way. Also, kudos to Nordstrom for the Canadian artwork I spotted in the fitting rooms.” Janis Galloway, Dress Me Dearly.

fitting rm 2 apt editOne of several custom designed fitting rooms at Nordstrom

“I think Nordstrom will fill a gap in the Calgary and Alberta fashion scene – it’s not The Bay, it’s not Holt Renfrew, it’s not Simons. It feels youthful, but still carries the established, high-end labels we’ve formerly had to travel to the States for. And did you see that shoe department?!”  — Caroline Gault, Alberta editor, Fashion magazine

ladies wear editLadies wear!