THE GARMENT DISTRICT, OFFSPRING OF THE BOULEVARDS AND NOBLES

ONLY NOBLES COULD BUY THE FRENCH EAST INDIAN COMPANY'S SUMPTUOUS CLOTHS*

*Jeanne Poisson, the future Marquise de Pompadour, as a commoner could only buy them in secret (toward 1740).

So the company settled where it would be near its clientele.

The Fiancée of the King of Garbe, artist unknown, early 18th century / Château de Condé - Aymeri de Rochefort

The painting in the dining room of the Administrator's chateau. The pretext is a love story, but the real subject is the ship.   

Its presence brings other textile companies and the Industrial Révolution leads the area to specialize in mass-produced clothing.  

Map of 1648 / zoom

The name Le Sentier  — "The Path" — comes from that track that linked the Saint-Denis and (disappeared) Montmartre gates by the rue de Montmartre, which lies along the relatively populous fringe.

Adapted from Open Street Map / zoom

The red arrow shows our walk, the yellow arrows, the neighborhood frontier. 

 M° Réaumur-Sébastopol, point of departure (behind it, "Textile Stationary Store")

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Its labor force, immigrant from the start:

Provincial French from the mid-19th century. 

Armenians and Eastern European Jews from about 1900.

North African Jews from the 1950's-1960's.

Asians from about 2000.

 La Vérité si je mens ! ("Would I Lie to You?") by Thomas Gilou with Richard Anconina, 1997

Movie: A gentile tumbles into Jewish manufacturing of the Sentier... 

 

It became a place of intense energy, where fashion was designed and delivered within a week...

Left, photo taken in 2000; right, from Would I Lie to You? 

...until gentrification and Chinese competition led many merchants to move (toward Aubervilliers in the north, from about 2000).

"Lease for sale" (in 2020)

Yet some remain...

...and at least one has moved in:

(in 2023)

Xuly.bët, please click. 

For a walk about this street's shopping, 

please click

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Next,

A once-seedy neighborhood and gentrification with character