II.2.3. SHUN THE GROTESTESQUE PROFITS : "REAL" PARIS'S AFFORDABLE SHOPPING

MENU: 2.2.3. "Real" Paris's affordable shopping

MARKETS AND THE GARMENT CENTER: DEALS AND WARES

THAT ARE WORTH THEIR COST 

Wholesalers in 18th-century houses

Main topics

• Wares at a neighborhood market

• A street where (some) wholesalers sell retail

• At last a brand to appreciate

• Woolens for Heads of State

• Detour: knowledge of the past brings an extra dimension

• Detour: the Boulevards, once luxury's planetary heart

• If you absolutely must buy globalized brands 

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Wares at a neighborhood market

A STREET WHERE (SOME) WHOLESALERS SELL RETAIL

DISCOVER "LE SENTIER,"* THE GARMENT CENTER

*"The path" connected the Saint-Denis and Montmartre rampart gates.

Adapted from a Google map

For the reason why this particular area became that for clothing manufacture, please click.

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Rue Saint-Denis, whose sinuosity reveals the trade route:

Wholesaling is omnipresent:

Window signs: "Urgently seek mechanic," "Seek knitwear producer" 

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Stores that do not sell retail usually have a sign that says so:

"No retail sales"

If there is no sign, walk in and ask.

Lys Fashion

220 rue St. Denis

No sign

 "Do you sell retail?" "Not normally, but once in awhile it's ok." 

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You will find novelties, classics... 

Isadora Diffusion

231, rue Saint-Denis

...and deals:

Avoid Saturdays,

when many shops close for Shabbat.

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 At last a brand to appreciate 

AT LAST A BRAND TO APPRECIATE

 

XULY.bët:* FASHION BY A DESIGNER WHOM WATCHING THE STREET FROM HIS BIKE INSPIRES

*"Watch out!" in Wolof

 Web site photos except those of the workshop

 Founder, designer and boss, Mali's Lamine Kouyaté (in French)

New York Fashion Week, 2016 / Zoom

Backstage

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144 rue Saint-Denis

Web site, 2024

The red stitching recalls the ties that unite us and the blood we share:

Web site photos from 2022, here and below

As well...

 Invitation to Open House 

" We are so proud to see our dress on the unique RIHANNA!" 

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For the spring 2025 collection, please click.

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Open house

  

XB & crew invite you...

Model Chrystèle and architect

Florian Coignet, assistant, and art gallery owner

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Upcycled materials, and production in the workshop itself

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To visit the workshop by appointment,

 order via Internet or register for open house invitations:

www.xulybet.com 

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Woolens for Heads of State

WOOLENS FOR HEADS OF STATE

WHEN COUTURE COLLECTIONS ARE OVER MONSIEUR GUESZ

BUYS UNUSED CLOTH AND RETAILS IT ECONOMICALLY

(SINCE 1969) 

The couturier Fadel, to whom we will return, suggested this shop:  

Les Tissus français

13 rue Beauregard, 2e

01 42 36 94 98 / 01 45 08 40 72

Fadel has bought cloth here for a generation. Tailors for Houphouët Boigny and Nicolas Sarkozy, among other well-known people, have been clients as well.

The cloth for the coat below: 72€ per meter elsewhere (if found), 28€ here.

A coat for me

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The no-frills straightforwardness

(notice the window's simplicity)

is another reason to visit the shop.

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Detour: knowledge of the past brings an extra dimension

DETOUR: KNOWLEDGE OF THE PAST BRINGS AN EXTRA DIMENSION

DISCOVERING "LES TISSUS FRANÇAIS" MEANS PASSING THROUGH A 17TH-CENTURY SLUM FOR VERY PARTICULAR CRIME 

Adapted from a Google map

     Paris in 1530 / zoom

• It was still further from the center than rue du Bout du Monde.* Even there, police did not venture.

*"Street at the end of the world"

     Adapted from a plan of 1676 / zoom

• The neighborhood became one of the planet's most elegant: The next page shows why.

          Boulevard Saint-Denis by Jean Béraud, toward 1890 / zoom

• Rue Beauregard ("beautiful view") refers to the slope from which one saw the countryside beyond the city wall, and rue de Cléry, which connected neighboring gates, brought the name Le Sentier ("The Path").

• That slope comes from garbage dumped at the extreme edge of town, plus rubble from the rampart's demolition (in 1674).

Police absence in this distant, sordid slum drew people who wished to be left alone, as at Saint-Germain.

France's most notorious serial killer, poisoner Catherine La Voisin, lived on n° 24 of this street and was arrested on the steps of this church:

 Notre-Dame de Bonne Nouvelle

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For that story please click, 

and for how the area became world-known for elegance,

please read on.  

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 Detour: the Boulevards, once luxury's planetary heart

DETOUR: THE BOULEVARDS, ONCE LUXURY'S PLANETARY HEART

THE IMPORTANCE OF "LES BOULEVARDS" CAME FROM  FACILITATING ACCESS TO VERSAILLES BY REPLACING THE RAMPARTS

*Demolishing ramparts, 1672; building the boulevards at the Saint-Denis arc, 1674; eliminating the Court of Miracles, 1676; arresting poisoners and sorcerers, 1678-1680; the move to Versailles, 1682; nuns establish themselves in the convent below, 1683.

Tearing down the city wall asserted continental power, and rooting out crime was part of moving court and government to Versailles.*

     The Saint-Denis Gate by Alexandre Pau de Saint-Martin, 1810-1830 / zoom

                                                  Adapted from a map of Paris toward 1530 / zoom

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Residents change

• Nobles had already settled in these outskirts, but the area became much more desirable with the transformation just mentioned. 

• For example, many women of the nobility retired at the end of their lives to a convent, to leave worldly life behind and think of their salvation. This was one of those convents, which was next to the Saint-Denis gate. They came immediately after the criminals had been suppressed and the court established at Versailles.* 

*Police actions, 1676 and 1680-1682; court lastingly in Versailles, 1682; convent, 1683.

For more on noble residents, please click.

 The convent of the Dames de Saint-Chaumont, built in 1735 / zoom

• The middle class that the Revolution made dominant brought famous restaurants and the first sidewalk cafés :

The Café Tortoni at the Boulevard des Italiens by Eugène von Guérard, 1856 / zoom

        

Only men are seated: Respectable women came accompanied by men, and rarely, for in this epicenter of prostitution restaurants' private salons had couches for after dinner.  

• As the terrain of fashionable young men...

...the Boulevards are a setting of famous novels:

       Adaptation of Balzac's Lost Illusions by Xavier Giannoli with Benjamin Voisin and Cécile de France, 2021 / zoom

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Luxury establishments grew up nearby: I used to take visitors to the last workshop to produce flowers and plumes by hand...

Bruno Légeron inherited it from his great-great grandfather, who bought it 1888.

• It was founded in 1727 and a client was the royal court. Monsieur Légeron, above, made all the plumes and flowers for the film Marie-Antoinette by Sophia Coppola (in 2006).

Zoom

• Haute couture orders led to extras, which you could buy at reasonable prices after rummaging through the drawers: 

• A multinational acquired it in 2020. Visits are over. 

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The Boulevards were often painted...

Boulevard des Capucines by Jean Beraud, toward 1900 / zoom

      The Boulevard de Montmartre by Camille Pissaro, 1897 / zoom

     View of the Grands Boulevards of Paris by Fausto Guido, toward 1900  / zoom

Now Las Vegas evokes them:

     TripAdviser / zoom

But low-level brands and fast foods align there now.

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For the Boulevards' tie to Palais-Royal please click here,

for more on the nobles here 

and for the garment center, here.

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Next,

If you absolutely must buy globalized brands