Yesterday, I went to marché St Pierre for the first time. My work colleague Amanda needed to buy fabric to design a leather necklace for a mother who is coming to Paris very soon. When Amanda was studying at Parsons design school in Paris,this is the place she would go to buy fabrics. You’ll see it’s great,’ she said.
Marché St Pierre is worth the trip: a street of fabric shops that continues for 3 blocks, located nearby the lovely and touristy lower Montmartre district. If you walk there from les Abesses, you can enjoy the sight of the Basilique Sacré coeur.
Marché St Pierre is THE dream place for textile lovers in Paris. It looks like a little fabric village surrounded by specialty stores selling cissors, beads, hooks, buttons, fringes… Amanda and I first stepped into Marché St Pierre boutique, felt quite old but great wooded floor housing 5 floors. They did not have leather fabric. So we went on to the competitor store, Marché Reine across the street. Although they did not have leather, we stayed for a little while in the store and I started taking picture obsessively. I really liked the ambiance of the store: when you enter, the first thing I noticed was the aisle dedicated to wedding dress fabric on the far right. The dummy mannequins stood on fabric tables and were tiny little lady with a kitchy 70′s (hair) style. The size of the dummy mannequins were strikingly little compared to what you normally see displayed in shopping window. On the upper shelves, all around the store, lay figures inspired fabric-for-dress ideas.
I proceeded to go to another aisle on the left, and found ‘Madras fabric’ which is a light cotton with very bright colors associated to summer clothing. It reminded me of my time in South India.
Further down the aisle, I came across the quirky floral design of ”liberty section’- quite fashionable this summer and cupcake designs fabric! I’m having a serious love affair with cupcakes since Nancy talked me into Southport cupcakes in Chicago. I recently spotted a cupcake store in Paris (by accident- believe it or not) and will certainly write about it soon. Needless to say, the fabric store was filled up with women of all ages, mothers and grandmothers, couples with their babies. I also found Eiffel tower fabric and thought it was a pretty neat gift idea for any Parisian lovers and visitor. Next time you visit Paris, might be a good idea to stop by Marché St Pierre. It is a delightful experience, crafty neighborhood, cheap and high quality fabric for many original gift ideas!
