A haberdashery, buttons and a Paris Letter
Somewhere between Canada and Paris I lost a button on my coat. Somewhere between the airport and the apartment, I lost another. And between the apartment and the Métro, I lost yet another.
Travel is not easy on clothes.
Coco Chanel once said “Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.” A coat missing three of 18 buttons doth a shabby dresser make, so I off I went to the haberdashery to either replace three buttons of similar ilk, or 18 new wonderful buttons.
Haberdashery is the best word in the English language.
Truly, a mouthful of glee. Haberdashery. Five gorgeous syllables that when spoken feel more like a sentence than a word. A haberdashery is called "mercerie" in French, and is one of the few examples of an English word being better than a French word. At the haberdashery, you'll find all the bits and bobs you'll need to sew and mend clothing to invoke your inner Coco; from latches to buttons, ribbons to zippers, and all the needles and thread you'll ever need. Most people head to the 18th arrondissement to take care of their DIY tailoring needs, but you'll also find wonderful vintage buttons in dusty old antique shops. Look at what I found...
You know a shop like this is going to distract you for much longer than it should.
The packaging is so pretty I felt like buying these just to frame them. Now I wish I had. Drat.
I have NOTHING that would go with these buttons, but I considered buying the buttons, then finding the dress. Gorge.
More gorge. Mostly for the pretty pink and black colour combination. Boring buttons but great packaging.
I found six lovely buttons of the same style, but alas I required 18. That's the problem with going the vintage route. These are likely all that's left of this button. Zut alors.
Fabric remainders were also on hand to distract me from my goal. I wouldn't even know what to do with these lovely squares of fabric, but I wanted them anyway.
And there were all these gorgeous labels. Vintage papers are my kryptonite. I found a lot of lovely bits and bobs, but not 18 of the same bob so off I went to the 18th arrondissment to duke it out with the other shabbily dressed Parisians.
At Mercerie Saint Pierre (6, rue Charles Nodier), they have an entire wall of buttons. All the buttons are neatly stacked in these little tubes. The trick is to find a button you like, then hope to God there is 18 more of said button in the tube. Then hope to God each button doesn't cost a gazillion Euros... times 18 buttons.In the end, I opted for a sensible set of silver buttons.... 
Then I bought a bunch of fun red ones that I couldn't resist adhering to another coat that doesn't even need new buttons.
These are the new red buttons that inspired the red in the latest Paris Letter, available when you subscribe over at the shop.Even button shopping is fun in Paris.
