Want, Les Essentiels de la Vie in expansion mode

By

Chenu Alexis

Published
Dec 16, 2014

Founders of the Want agency, in 1999, twins Dexter and Byron Peart opened their first multi-brand store in Montreal in 2000, the Want Stil boutique, dedicated to Scandinavian brands, and at the same time became the exclusive distributors of Scandinavian brands Acne Jeans and Paul & Friends for all of North America.

Three years later they teamed up with distribution giant Mark Edwards Apparel (North American distributor of Miss Sixty, Energy, Killah, James Perse, Filippa K., Maison Kitsuné, Swims, Aesop, Astier de Villatte, etc.) and created the brand Want Les Essentiels de la Vie with the group's founders, Mark Wiltzer and Jacqueline Gelber.

A leather goods and creative accessories brand, Want Les Essentiels de la Vie proposes its first bags "with a certain approach to luxury, influenced by architecture and design, paying attention as much to worth as to function, and in a style that plays with pure lines, at the same time masculine and feminine, uptown and downtown, classic and modern."

The line proposes some thirty items every season, in men's and women's versions, with prices starting at 120 CAD for accessories and ranging from 175 to 995 CAD for its bags.

Designed in Montreal and made in Italy using leather treated in French and Italian tanneries and organic cotton from Turkey, the WANT Les Essentiels de la Vie collection proposes, among other items, iPad and iPhone covers, wallets, computer bags and leather bracelets, each item with the label's signature mark, a two-tone zipper, custom-fabricated in Japan.

A new stage in the development of the brand in 2011 with the opening of the Want Apothecary boutique in Montréal (4960 Sherbrooke Street West). A boutique with a design inspired by the ambiance of 19th century pharmacies, with a glass counter, wooden shelves and cement floor tiles, showcasing the entire Want Les Essentiels de la Vie collection but also proposing offer brands, such as Acné, Filippa K., James Perse, Maison Kitsuné, Swims shoes and Byredo and Aesop cosmetics, or most of the labels distributed by the Mark Edwards Apparel group.

Many other collaborations follow, including Blackberry, J.Crew, Orlebar Brown, Opening Ceremony and The Sartorialist; the opening of two more stores in Toronto and Vancouver, inaugurated this past July and both designed in the same retro style; and the launch of the first line of bags and gloves for women this summer.

With its headquarters in New York and offices in Montreal, Want Les Essentiels de la Vie currently has a global distribution, with a presence in more than 25 countries, from Barneys in New-York, to the Galeries Lafayette and Bon Marché in Paris, in numerous concept-stores (Colette and FrenchTrotters in Paris, Opening Ceremony in New-York, The Webster in Miami…), as well as almost a dozen online sites: MrPorter.com, TheCorner.com...