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Canada’s West Coast and the Luxury of Knowing Where to Look

As the World Luxury Chamber of Commerce prepares to mark World Luxury Day on October 8, our attention turns homeward. Canada‘s West Coast has drawn artists, collectors, and discerning travellers for generations, and its most significant wealth has long preferred discretion. Hypercars and luxury EVs appear on our streets in numbers disproportionate to other Canadian cities, and Labubus have found their way onto Gucci handbags. Still, street-level flash is part of any high-ranked city, and every generation expresses its style in its own way. The deeper character of luxury here comes from the landscape itself: the mountains, the ocean, and the forests that frame nearly every view.

A Coast the Stars Call Home

For decades, some of the most celebrated names in entertainment have chosen this coast as home, and most prefer to live here without fanfare. Nanaimo-born Diana Krall and Elvis Costello keep a luxury home in West Vancouver and an island retreat in Nanoose Bay. Sarah McLachlan also lives in West Vancouver and founded her Vancouver music school in 2002. Pamela Anderson, famously discovered at a BC Lions game, returned to Ladysmith and fully renovated her family compound there, and she has called Canada her sanctuary.

Hometown loyalty runs deep. Michael Bublé built his Burnaby estate, now valued at close to $30 million, across the street from the elementary school he attended, and included an indoor hockey rink. Bryan Adams reportedly lives in London, but The Warehouse, his Gastown recording studio, serves as a home away from home whenever he returns to work. The newest name among them, Heated Rivalry star Hudson Williams, has longtime ties to Kamloops and most recently lived in downtown Vancouver, having moved to the city in 2020.

The Nineties and the Birth of a Luxury Address

The 1990s reshaped Vancouver. In the years leading to the 1997 handover of Hong Kong, new residents arrived from Hong Kong in significant numbers, bringing global capital, cosmopolitan tastes, and an appreciation for fine property that transformed the luxury housing market. At the same time, film and television production arrived in force, and the Hollywood North name took hold.

Retail followed. The city’s luxury era began in 1991, when Chanel opened on Burrard Street alongside a handful of smaller high-end shops. Alberni Street, a sleepy stretch of restaurants and office towers in the 1980s, gradually became the primary address of the Luxury Zone, a name coined by Craig Patterson of Retail Insider magazine. Tiffany & Co. opened on the street in 2006 and relaunched in 2017, and it now holds court on a busy corner, where Atlas holds time above those shopping below. Hermès unveiled a two-level flagship across Burrard Street in 2019, and Richemont invested heavily in the district, opening standalone boutiques for Van Cleef & Arpels, IWC Schaffhausen, and Panerai.

Oakridge Park and a Second Luxury District

In 2026, the city gained a second destination. Co-developed by QuadReal Property Group and Westbank, Oakridge Park opened in May as Canada‘s largest redevelopment. Its roster includes Louis Vuitton, Chanel, Dior, Ferragamo, Loewe, Loro Piana, and Bulgari, several of them operating their first standalone Vancouver boutiques. Tiffany & Co. launched a new 5,000-square-foot boutique, and Lugaro Jewellers, long the home of Jacob & Co. in the city, brought the brand to Oakridge Park in a dedicated boutique alongside OMEGA and H. Moser.

A Thriving Market for Luxury With a Past

Alongside the flagships, Vancouver sustains a flourishing luxury resale community. Consignment boutiques across the city, including Mine & Yours and Turnabout Luxury Resale, trade in authenticated designer fashion, jewellery, and accessories. Online platforms serve a younger generation that values immediacy, with pieces verified and delivered within days. Together, these channels move millions of dollars in designer goods each month. For a publication shaped by the pursuit of pieces with provenance, this circular market is ecoluxury in practice, extending the life of well-made objects and placing them with owners who value their history.

Estates Beyond the Road

Vancouver holds some of the most expensive real estate in the world, yet its grandest residences rarely line a boulevard. They sit high on the forested slopes of West Vancouver, along the shores of Indian Arm, and across the islands of Howe Sound. Some can be reached only by yacht or float plane, their privacy secured by water and forest. Wealth here is measured in seclusion and in views that cannot be replicated.

Fortunes Built on the Coast

The region has its share of billionaires, and their ties to the coast run in different directions. Jim Pattison built the Jim Pattison Group into one of Canada‘s largest privately held companies from his Vancouver base. Lululemon founder Chip Wilson owns the Point Grey Road estate that has repeatedly been assessed as the most valuable residential property in the province. Anthony von Mandl, founder of Mark Anthony Group, also remains firmly anchored here. Alibaba co-founder Joseph Tsai, a Canadian citizen, reportedly spent part of his childhood in British Columbia.

Beyond individual fortunes, a handful of families have shaped the way the city lives, and each has carried that work across generations. The Louie family story began in 1903, when Hok Yat Louie opened a general store in Vancouver’s Chinatown. His son Tong acquired London Drugs in 1976 and began building an empire of pharmacy retailers. Today, third-generation leader Brandt Louie has passed the joint presidency to his sons, with a fifth generation already in view.

The Aquilini family, led by patriarch Luigi Aquilini, built the Aquilini Investment Group with his sons Francesco, Roberto, and Paolo, and today owns the Vancouver Canucks. Several of Luigi‘s grandchildren are now active in the business. Bob Gaglardi launched what became Northland Properties in Kamloops in 1963 with a $5,000 loan. His son Tom now leads the hotel and hospitality group, with his siblings working alongside him. Keith Beedie founded his company in 1954 building single-family homes. His son Ryan has led it since 2001, growing it into the largest private industrial landowner in Metro Vancouver while carrying the family’s philanthropy forward. On this coast, legacy is something each generation inherits and then builds upon.

A Michelin Table Grounded in Place

The Michelin Guide arrived in Vancouver in 2022, and the 2025 edition recognized twelve restaurants in the city with a star, among them AnnaLena, Burdock & Co, Published on Main, and St. Lawrence. Michelin inspectors have praised Published on Main for its instinct in using produce at the height of its season. Burdock & Co builds its seasonal, locally sourced menus around chef Andrea Carlson‘s long-standing commitment to urban agriculture and farm-to-table cooking.

Across the province, chefs draw on an abundance that few regions can match. Foraged, farmed, and Indigenous ingredients shape menus that earn international acclaim without losing their sense of place. That connection between the plate and the land that produced it is ecoluxury in its most natural form, and it remains the defining signature of West Coast dining.

Beyond the city, the Okanagan Valley has grown into one of Canada‘s most celebrated wine regions, and its sun-drenched benches are home to a collection of award-winning estates. Mission Hill Family Estate, owned by Anthony von Mandl‘s Mark Anthony Group, released Oculus in 1997 as the Okanagan‘s first icon wine. The 2020 vintage made history when wine writer John Schreiner awarded it a perfect 100 points, the first Canadian red wine to receive that score. Few milestones speak more clearly to how far the valley has come.

Luxury, Seen and Unseen

This is the landscape that shaped our ecoluxury philosophy, and the one we return to in every story we publish. This year, we were honoured to be asked to contribute as a co-author of the World Luxury Chamber of Commerce manifesto, and on October 8 we celebrate our corner of the country alongside the global luxury community. On the West Coast, luxury is both visible and invisible; you simply need to know where to find it.

Author Profile

Helen Siwak, Luxury Lifestyle Observer: Helen Siwak is the founder of EcoLuxLuv Communications & Marketing Inc and publisher of Folio.YVR Luxury Lifestyle Magazine and PORTFOLIOY.YVR Business & Entrepreneurs Magazine. She is a prolific content creator, consultant, and marketing and media strategist within the ecoluxury and luxury lifestyle niches. Helen is the west coast correspondent to Canada’s top-read business magazine Retail-Insider, holds a vast freelance portfolio, and is an EIC for Hire. Connect with her here: [email protected].