Calzedonia opens in Canada: the first store in Toronto, with Intimissimi next door
On 16 October Calzedonia and Intimissimi opened their first Canadian stores at CF Sherway Gardens in Toronto. The aim is at least 20 shopping centres; Canadian e-commerce comes later.
Two shopfronts side by side, two entrances, two signs: where Kate Spade used to be at CF Sherway Gardens in Toronto, Calzedonia and Intimissimi have been open since 16 October 2026. They are the Verona brands' first stores in Canada. The date came from Retail Insider on 26 October, as the group had not announced it in September. Calzedonia is entering Canada through the shop door rather than a website: tights you touch first and buy online later. Here is who runs the stores, what is on the shelves and where the next ones are going.
Who is bringing Calzedonia to Canada
Oniverse, the Verona group formerly known as Calzedonia Group, is not running the stores itself. They are opened by ILT Group, a Toronto company that is Oniverse's exclusive Canadian partner. According to the 10 September press release, ILT was founded in 2008 by Nevio Gabriele and Mauro Mammina, who have opened more than 100 stores for the group's brands in almost twenty years; Retail Insider names Ukraine and Kazakhstan among their markets. Retail Insider also says ILT spent about a year and a half studying Canada.
The two stores are separate in every way: entrance, branding, assortment and staff. "They will be completely separate," Mammina told Retail Insider in September.
What Calzedonia sells in Toronto
The press release lists the launch products: the autumn/winter collection, sheer thermal tights, Nude Feeling 20 denier sheer tights and swimwear. Retail Insider adds Calzedonia's Leg Perfector tights among the products highlighted at the opening.
Canadian prices have not been announced. As a guide, on Calzedonia's US site, checked on 29 October, Nude Feeling 20 costs $17 and the Sheer Thermal Tights $37. If you are unsure about thickness, 20 denier is the classic everyday sheer: the full scale is in our denier guide.
The image the group chose to announce its arrival in Canada: four shades of sheer, each with a shoe in the same colour. Photo: Oniverse.
You cannot buy online yet. "Both boutiques will operate as retail-only locations at launch, with Canadian e-commerce to follow," says the press release.
The numbers and the quotes
"Our goal is to eventually be present in at least 20 of Canada's leading shopping centres," Andrea Meoni, general manager of ILT Group, told Retail Insider. The pace will depend on how the first five to seven stores perform.
The order is already set: Toronto, Montreal and Ottawa first, then Vancouver. The next confirmed address is an Intimissimi at CF Toronto Eaton Centre in 2027: Retail Insider gave May in its September piece and April in its October one. A second Calzedonia has not been announced.
"Canada has long been on our radar," Matteo Veronesi, a board member of Oniverse, said in the press release, adding that many Canadians already know the two brands from travel and social media. Mammina put the priorities in order: "Our first priority is to build awareness of the brands in Canada."
For scale: according to the press release, Calzedonia, founded in Verona in 1986, has more than 2,000 stores in 55 countries, and the Oniverse group more than 5,500. Retail Insider puts the group's 2025 revenue at about €3.7 billion. The brand's story, from its first tights-only shop onwards, is in our Calzedonia brand history.
Why the store comes before the website
For a tights brand, starting with a shop makes sense. Tights are chosen with your hands: the transparency of a 20 denier, how a nude shade sits on skin, how firm the waistband is are easier to judge at a counter than on a screen. Meoni was talking about lingerie, but it applies to hosiery too: the product "needs to be understood and explained".
There is also the market. Canada is the home of Sheertex, the "unbreakable" tights sold almost entirely online, whose company was sold to AYK International in February 2026 after years of losses. Calzedonia is coming in through the opposite door: mall prices, lots of shades and a shop to try them in. The first five to seven stores will show whether it works.
The photos
The photo at the top and the one in the text are the press image Oniverse released with its 10 September announcement. Photos of the two Toronto stores are in Retail Insider's 26 October article (linked in the references).
For now Calzedonia has a single Canadian address, but the whole chain starts from the same gesture: walking in and asking for a pair of 20 denier sheers.
