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• Jamaica-born Iris Simpson rose from Eaton\u2019s sales associate to one of Canada\u2019s most influential luxury buyers, stylist and mentors in high fashion.<\/li>\r\n \t
• Trained in fashion merchandising, she rose through Eaton\u2019s and Hazelton Lanes to buy for elite designer boutique Yves Saint Laurent.<\/li>\r\n \t
• As a Black woman in a coveted buyer role, she faced disbelief from clients, yet won respect with impeccable taste and business savvy.<\/li>\r\n \t
• Reinventing herself as a stylist and co-founding Hello, COUTURE!, she now champions sustainability, upcycling and greater diversity across the fashion industry.<\/li>\r\n<\/ul><\/span><\/div><\/div>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t
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  Few people in the fashion industry possess the professional credentials and social network of contacts that Iris Simpson has amassed over her four decades in the business. She’s emerged as an astute merchant and advocate for social justice and Black inclusivity.<\/p>

  Simpson credits her mother, Vashti, a dressmaker, who taught all her daughters to sew and imparted to Iris a love of fashion. She could cut freehand without a pattern and made all of Iris’s clothes, including matching outfits for her dolls at the same time.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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  Early Life and Career<\/h2>\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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  Born in Clarendon, Jamaica, Simpson was the youngest of eight children to parents, Arthur and Vashti Simpson. In 1958, the family emigrated to Toronto, Canada. She was educated at Monarch Park Secondary School and then at Ryerson Polytechnic Institute<\/em> (now Toronto Metropolitan University), where she graduated in 1978 with a diploma in Fashion Merchandising. While pursuing her diploma at Ryerson, Simpson worked simultaneously at Eaton\u2019s department store as a part-time sales associate.<\/p>

  For Simpson, Eaton\u2019s management trainee program was where it all began. It\u2019s where she developed from a part-time sales associate at the Attitude Shop, which showcased all the hip\u00a0 young designer collections, to manager of the designer department, Signature Shop, home to established Canadian and international designer labels.<\/p>

  Nella Walker is a creative and design director who, in the mid-80s, was also in Eaton\u2019s management trainee program when she met Simpson,\u00a0 a manager at the time. According to Walker, \u201cIris shared her skills, knowledge and expertise in an energetic and welcoming manner. Even in these early days, Iris was a talented merchant, marketer, networker and educator. Our professional relationship soon evolved into a lifelong friendship.\u201d Professional relationships that became lifelong friendships is a recurring theme with Simpson.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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  Simpson’s career as a buyer was about to ignite.\u00a0 She says, \u201cIn 1981, I met Krystyne Griffin, who was head of the Eaton’s Paris buying office. When she resigned to take over the rebranding of Hazelton Lanes into an exclusive designer retail destination, she coaxed me with a great opportunity to come with her to Hazelton Lanes, where Yves Saint Laurent was opening their first standalone boutique in Canada.\u201d<\/p>

  The Canadian fashion icon, Krystyne Griffin, recalls the beginning of their more than 40-year relationship as colleagues and friends. \u201cShe came to my office in the late 70s. Iris, beautiful, young and Black, was a vibrant and accomplished young woman at 25 years old, and I felt immediately that she should join our team at Hazelton Lanes,\u201d says Griffin. \u201cWe were creating a specialty small shopping centre, where only international destination boutiques — YSL\u2019s Rive Gauche, Herm\u00e8s, Guy Laroche, Courr\u00e8ges<\/em>, Armani — were being assembled.”<\/p>

  In Simpson\u2019s eyes, this was the gateway to high-end Toronto fashion on an international level. In its time, Hazelton Lanes — now Yorkville Village — attracted the top fashion aficionados of the city, with society women flocking to new designer stores, according to Simpson. \u201cHow exciting for me, especially as a young Black woman,\u201d she says. \u201cMy aesthetic grew, we had all kinds of special events, lunches and fashion shows.\u201d<\/p>

  Simpson\u2019s success owed as much to her business acumen as to her refined sense of style. According to Griffin, \u201cIris was not only a ‘fashion’ personality, she was a business executive. She travelled internationally to buy the fashion collections. And I was witness to her abilities, as were many VIPs both in Europe, and the U.S. They were impressed by Iris; She was capable, firm, yet courteous to all. A winner!\u201d<\/p>

  Griffin, who has an esteemed history and vast connections in the fashion industry, pays Simpson an exceptional compliment. \u201cI will always be grateful to have worked with Iris Simpson,\u201d she says. \u201cIt is on the shoulders of persons like Iris that I made my own successful career in fashion.\u201d<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t<\/section>\n\t\t\t\t

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  When a client asked to speak to the buyer, the sales associates pointed to Iris as the buyer. The woman kept looking around saying “Where?” The sales person pointed again, “She’s right over there.” The woman then replied, “No, I want to speak to the buyer.”<\/p>

  It was obvious that because of her preconceived ideas, this client would not believe that Iris, a Black woman, was the buyer of expensive designer collections.<\/p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t\t

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