Do you have a favorite shopping area? Please consider writing it up for us.

Montreal isn’t just a city of great international restaurants and chic boutiques. Montreal hosts a fabric district to rival New York’s – and the prices are much better. Many of the vendors will first address you in French, but almost all are fluent in English as well. No one will tell you “they don’t make that any more” in order to get you to buy something else. If they know someone else has what you’re looking for, they’ll tell you which store to try next. If you’re making small purchases vendors will appreciate it if you offer Canadian cash. There are ATM machines in the Jean Toulon market and in the pizzeria on Rue St-Hubert. Stores will sometimes accept American cash, but they might offer you a one-for-one trade. Fabric is measured in metres (39.37”) rather than yards (36”), so there’s a built-in bonus. Most of the stores are talking about getting websites, but don’t have them yet.

The majority of  the stores are along Rue St-Hubert. You can start at the farmer’s market for lunch and work your way up Rue St-Hubert from the lower end shops that carry odd lots and polyesters, ending on the far end at the couture fabric stores, or you can start at the couture end and work your way back. For fabrics, my favorite shops are Textile Couture Elle and Tissus St Hubert.

FABRICS

Tissus St Hubert, 7399 Rue St-Hubert, is owned by Joseph, who makes trips to Italy to source fabrics. He has luscious Italian wools, boucles, silks (especially 60” wide Italian prints), and suitings. I bought an exquisite new boucle for $70 a metre Canadian – that’s $52.50 a metre American. I’ve also bought doublefaced wool and a wool/cashmere mix at Tissus St Hubert. I think the wool/cashmere was $40.00 a metre, which equals $30.00 American. Kitty Daly purchased a 4-ply off-white viscose for a wedding gown, $40 Canadian a metre, exquisite quality. Take time to talk to Joseph and his helper, Omar. They both have a great sense of color and an intimate knowledge of their vast stock. They have 2 warehouses across the street and if you describe what you’re looking for they will happily bring it from one of the warehouses.

Kitty’s note: I dare you to get out of there empty handed! Omar told us about Daou, a Lebanese restaurant around the corner and a great place for a leisurely break. Tissus St Hubert will have a website (it’s not running yet) at www.Gamma-Textiles.com.

Textiles Couture Elle, 7361 Rue St-Hubert, is run by Jean and his family. Jean is Omar’s uncle and he and Joseph go on buying trips abroad together. Couture Elle also has boucles, Italian wools, silk tulle, 4-ply silk crepe in a variety of colors, evening wear fabrics, and designer fabrics. Jean carries a nice range of high quality laces. His prices for lace were close to what I pay for wholesale, with the advantage of being able to buy less than 4 yards of a pattern.

On one trip I bought three laces and accidentally left the bag at a trim store. I called the trim store and the owner said she had my bag. I called Jean and he immediately offered to go get the bag and to mail it to me – at no extra charge.

There’s very little overlap between Couture Elle and Tissus St-Hubert. They shop together and divide up the fabrics between them. I was introduced to Couture Elle by Kitty Daly and she recognized boucles she had seen at Michael’s and in New York. Jean is their source and he, as the source, charges much less.

C&M Textiles, 7500 Rue St-Hubert, carries a wide range of fabrics, notions, and patterns. There is a large showroom of home-dec fabrics and a bargain basement. They have rayon Bemberg lining in a wide range of colors, but at full cost. Many of their fabrics are synthetic blends. They also have the best rest rooms in the fabric district, and maybe in North America.

Riatex, 7360 Rue St-Hubert, has fabrics arranged in aisles by price. Most are between $2.99 and $9.99. Remember that these prices are in Canadian dollars. Most of the fabrics at Riatex are stretch fabrics or polyester. They also have some home-dec fabrics. They have a nice weight of stretch satin in many shades of white, 60” wide, for $7.99 a yard.

Goodman Carlyle 7282 Rue St-Hubert is a large dark store with odd bolts from jobbers, the middlemen who buy overruns from manufacturers and sell to retail shops. You can find treasures here if you take the time to look. Silk and wool are at one end, home-dec at the other. Everything imaginable is in between the two.

BUTTONS, TRIM, NOTIONS

Rix Rax, 801 Rue Gilford at the corner of Rue StHubert, is a button store to die for – cabinets made for blueprints are full of boxes of buttons, buttons are in cases, on the walls, on rotating stands, on cards. I found the perfect vintage button for a client’s coat. The store is open from 11 until 6 most days. Don’t get there until at least 11:15. 11:30 would be even better. It’s a small shop that rarely opens on time and the owner gets rattled when a disgruntled crowd descends on her at opening time. Allow time to browse and be patient as you wait your turn at the antiquated cash register. I recommend paying with cash to save time. I also recommend a GPS to get there as there’s construction in the neighborhood. When the construction is completed, you’ll be able to drive from there straight up St-Hubert to the fabric stores.

Rubans Boutons, 7363 Rue St-Hubert, is a tiny store run by Richard Letendre, a theatre buff and button collector. His stock is much smaller than Rix Rax’s, but his location is more convenient. He has a nice selection of buttons, both new and vintage, and has a chest of ribbons.

Trimcite 7381 Rue St-Hubert, has ribbons, trims, and all kinds of elastic by the yard. It’s a great place to look for trim for your Chanel jacket.

Kava, 7609 Rue St-Hubert, has industrial supplies, invisible zippers, and large cones of thread for $2.50, machine needles, bra hooks, elastic, sewing machine parts, Velcro, and irons.

Add to this mix dozens of smaller fabric stores, button shops, and even a sewing machine shop with a treasure trove of used machines and you have the making of a fabulous few days in Montreal.

Jean Toulon Farmer’s Market: the second most important reason to travel to Montreal! Glorious fruits and vegetables all year long, beautifully displayed and at bargain prices, as well as meat markets with

handmade sausages, pates, and exotic meats and fowl hard to find in the States. The downside is you have to eat any uncooked items there, as they don’t permit bringing them across the border. However, there are several eateries, making it an excellent lunch stop, and a few bakeries where we buy treats for our husbands to keep them from getting jealous of our trips.

Montreal is a four-hour drive for me. Kitty Daly and I go and make a long day of it. Ideally you’d spend a few days, allowing you to see all the fabric stores and to eat a few meals – Brazilian, Ethiopian, Chinese, Indian, Turkish, and Lebanese Montreal is a multi-facetted city. Allow time for the Botanical Gardens and take the family to the Biodome!

There are also several small lot wholesalers who exhibit at the Fabric Expo in New York. Many are in a large building at 5445 Rue De Gaspe. We plan to check it out on a future trip – so much to see

Written by Rachel Kurland and Kitty Daly