On Friday morning, I headed to Yorkdale Shopping Centre bright and early to attend the opening of MUJI’s third and largest Canadian store. It was a morning of full of sake, snacks and embroidery. Yes, yes, embroidery! Prepare yourself for the incoming flood of pictures…
There aren’t many things that can get me out of bed and into a TTC train early on a Friday morning, but a MUJI event is one of them. As you probably already know from previous posts, I love MUJI’s clean aesthetic, and I find their prices more than fair for the quality they offer.
I was so excited for the day ahead, I managed to get to the mall a little early (still half-asleep), so I had time to check out Yorkdale’s recent expansion. MUJI is in good company there with brand new Nordstrom, Uniqlo and Reiss stores, as well as a branch of Nadège (where I bought a cappuccino and a croissant for the journey home, of course!).
THE NEW STORE
I find visiting MUJI stores extremely soothing, and the Yorkdale store is no exception. It’s spacious and uncluttered, with defined areas for every type of products and plenty of cash registers for speedy checkout. It’s a dreamy shopping experience, complete with the calming scents wafting over from the aroma diffusers display.
After a quick sake toast to celebrate the new store, the guests were introduced to the MUJI products and services that are now available to Canadian customers. As well as a large selection of the usual stationery, storage, skincare, clothing and interior decor, you’ll find a huge food aisle, an embroidery station where you can have your purchases customized and consultations services to make your shopping experience even better.
THE SNACKS
In case you don’t know this (but how could you not?), I love snacks. No one loves snacks more than I do. So you can imagine how thrilled I was to have an excuse to eat snacks for breakfast. It helped soak up some of the sake, so #noregrets.
The strawberry and chocolate marshmallows have my heart — they’re not too sweet, and filled with gooey chocolate and strawberry jelly. Perfect study snacks, and they’re individually packaged.
There’s also cotton candy, a huge variety of Japanese candy I had never even heard of before (the ones I tried in-store were all delicious), as well as tea and powder mix for hot drinks. I can’t wait to try the Instant Green Tea and Mulberry Tea Flavoured Latte mix* and see how this Matcha-like drink turns out!
The MUJI team sent me home with lots of different snacks to try, so check out my Snapchat for updates in the coming weeks (okay, maybe more like days, because I don’t think I’ll be able to resist for long).
THE EMBROIDERY
The new Yorkdale location has an exciting embroidery station (previously only found in Tokyo and New York City), where you can have your shirts, bags, handkerchiefs and other MUJI clothing items customized with lots of different designs. They even have designs that are exclusive to Canada, including a moose and a beaver. It’s perfect for tourists and for personalized Canadian gifts to bring when visiting friends abroad.
When I arrived at the event, I received a beautiful custom tote bag embroidered with the name of my blog*. It was such a nice touch. The MUJI team really knows how to make a girl feel special!
THE CONSULTATION SERVICES
If you love MUJI’s laid-back, minimalistic vibe, but don’t know where to start to incorporate it into your life, the Yorkdale store has both personal style and interior decor consultants to help you out. You’ll find the consultation desk near the cash registers, where advisors who trained with MUJI in Japan can help you find key pieces to update your wardrobe or your home.
I have my eye on their beautiful collection of winter jackets, and on the cozy-looking non-itch wool turtlenecks as well. I never really considered MUJI to be a legit clothing store, but I saw so many beautiful neutral-toned pieces during my visit, I’m definitely going to go back to pick up some essentials.
MUJI is also a great alternative to Ikea, especially when it comes to storage ideas. Storage is really what they do best. I have three of those MUJI clear acrylic storage units to store my most-used makeup, and I can’t recommend them enough.
I’m so excited to go back and stock up on chocolate-filled marshmallows and woollen wardrobe staples. Have you visited one of MUJI’s three Toronto stores yet? What did you get?
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