Grace Clothing, Orchard Park Shopping Centre

General information

Nancy (the owner of “grace" clothing) knew that when she had to find a name for the Orchard Park Shopping Centre location, it had to be something that captured a state of mind, similar to her established Atlantic Canadian brand, “envy”. Read below to find out how she landed on the name “grace".

"The Story of Grace...

Grace was the name of a very special person in my life, my grandmother. Much like myself, my mother was a "career mom" and my grandmother lived with us and took care of me. She was my world as a child.

To me, Grace has always been a name that means beauty, inside and out, and is only bestowed on girls that have the ability to carry this trait whether it's in a name or being described as someone who carries themselves with grace.

In the initial stages of brand development, I had suggested the name “Grace” as it was meaningful to me.

I hesitated as I wasn't sure if people would understand its meaning, or if it could be associated with the "envy" brand that we have worked so hard to create over the last 16 years.

I am big believer in fate. There have been too many weird and wonderful things have happened to me over the years, for it not to exist.

The following things left me no choice but to bestow envy's western sister with the name "grace".

1. When researching the word envy I came across a website that stated "the opposite of envy is someone with grace."

2. After receiving lists of suggested names, nothing resonated enough for me to say "that's it"! Later on, when a group of us were casually discussing names , someone asked, “What does your name mean?” I googled it and to my surprise the Latin name for Nancy is “Grace" (No I don't think my mother knew this or I am sure she would have mentioned it!). This gave me goosebumps!

This was still not enough to convince me.

3. So... I researched other words for grace and a large alphabetical list came up. Immediately the name "Aneta" jumped off the page. I have never met anyone with that name prior to meeting my current Director of Sales, whom is connected with “grace".


4. On our buying trip to Vegas, we were headed to the clothing show and one of the buyers forgot to bring a bag with her. We said “No problem, the vendors inside always have them”. As we headed into the convention centre, we grabbed a bag; Guess what's on it! Grace!

5. Finally! After leaving Vegas and heading to LA, Glen (my husband) and I took our team out for dinner at our favourite restaurant in Santa Monica. During dinner the subject of the name came up again and we went over all the things that had happened along the way, of how it keeps popping up and getting hard to ignore. At this point I was definitely leaning towards the name but I was going to keep hunting when I got home.

6. Then...it happened! The moment that blew my mind! A waitress popped by our table, when one of our buyers says "excuse me, can I see your tattoo"? She flashes us the tattoo, and just like that the name Grace was staring me in the face. Just when I thought it couldn't get any clearer, I asked her if I could take a photo of her tattoo and this is what she did when she showed us. Grace, with a heart. The iconic symbol of our established “envy” clothing brand.

Fate working at its' best!