Meet Your Neighbour: Metra Fashion House
Cathy Brown, owner of Metra brings us high fashion to Collingwood where urban meets rural. Collingwood has chic restaurants and bars and a lively art scene; all perfect venues to express your style. At Metra you will find outfits from everyday denim and casual tops to classy cocktail dresses and work attire.
“As a little kid, shopping with my mom, I had a knack for putting together outfits and my mom would always ask me for advice when selecting new outfits for her wardrobe, it comes to me very naturally. In high school, I worked in a clothing boutique and was completely in my element,” recalls Cathy. “I love being able to meet the needs of women and help them look the way they aspire to look but have a hard time achieving it themselves,” she explains.
Cathy moved to Collingwood in 2006 and was, like so many other young entrepreneurs, drawn to the area for the recreation, landscape and lifestyle.
“When I moved here, I wanted to open a small yoga studio with a retail boutique. I had taken kinesiology in university, and it was through the Tracks Business Program that I had an opportunity to get into fashion retail in downtown Collingwood.” The Tracks program was a government funded business start-up incubator. The program provided a retail location for up to 8 entrepreneurs at a time to test out their retail concepts. The Collingwood location was called Store 54. “There wasn’t enough space for a yoga studio, so it was suggested that I focus on the fashion retail portion of my concept. That was really the beginning for me. I started with two brands with a focus on Canadian made, sustainable clothing. Today we have over 50 brands in the shop,” Cathy explains.
At Metra, they offer fashion forward clothing tied to the trends that we see on the runway as well as street wear style that you see on the streets of Paris, London and New York. All the staff are expert stylists and are happy to help you create unique looks that suit your body type and lifestyle. They can help you create looks that transition from day to night and that can be styled with your existing wardrobe.
“I love the culture of Collingwood Downtown, it feels like a little slice of the city in a more rural setting. We’ve got it all here…arts, culture, restaurants and shopping. This town is small enough that you can enjoy a real sense of community and create lasting relationships with your customers” says Cathy.
The next time you ‘have this thing to go to and have no idea what to wear’, check out Metra Fashion House located at 93 Hurontario Street, find them on-line www.metrafashionhouse.com/ or follow Metra on Facebook www.facebook.com/metrafashionhouse/ or Instragram www.instagram.com/metrafashionhouse/?hl=en to stay up to date on new arrivals and special events.
Quality & Sourcing
We believe in high quality well-tailored garments that stand the test of time. We source our lines from Montreal, Toronto, Vancouver, Europe, and U.S.A. We have a strong commitment to supporting our Canadian fashion industry.
Metra is inspired by minimalist modern fashion with exceptional quality and design. The name comes from Geometra, the term for a female architect in Italian.