Friday, June 19, 2009

Buttons and Bows

There is an area in downtown Toronto known as the Garment district. According to Wiki:
The Fashion District is the name given to the area of Downtown Toronto around the intersection of Spadina Avenue and King Street. The area is known for having stores that sell clothes straight from the manufacturers. The area derives its name from formerly being home to many clothing manufacturing businesses, but today relatively few have remained.
I have always known this area as the Garment, not Fashion district, but no matter. The interesting thing is that a larger area around Spadina near King was home to a quite a few clothing manufacturers. I know of one designer label which is still in the area, just below King and to the west of Spadina.

This statue is at Richmond and Spadina and it features the tools of the trade from times gone by in this area - A thimble and some buttons.

One other remnant of the times gone by in this area is the abundance of fabric shops along Queen St running west of Spadina, just one street north of this statue. I am sure that there would be at least 10 fabric shops and nearly the same number of shops specializing in buttons, ribbons and "findings".

1 comment:

  1. A statue of a thimble and buttons; interesting photograph. Your blog post reminded me of NYC. I happened upon the garment district in NYC many years ago. I remember the hustle and bustle, being pushed out of the way as people pushed racks of clothes to and fro along the sidewalks. It was a madhouse!

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