Fabric Therapy

A trip to my favorite fabric store cures many ills. I left NYC for a while in the early 2000's and the thing I missed the most -- I mean the very most, more than the Met, or the other Met, more than hot Greek platter in Astoria, more than getting drunk on cheap beer at the International, was my favorite fabric store, Paron Fabrics. I love Paron Fabrics. They have gorgeous dressmaker fabrics that range from tastefully understated quality wools and silks to more artful arrangements of glimmer and texture that I admire from afar but don't really have the lifestyle to wear. And they have a discount section where everything is 50% off. I always start out on that side, but about half the time I wander over and fall in love on the full price side nevertheless.

This time I got some lovely purple/rayon/silk boucle for a simple, sleeveless dress. A lofty pink-beige boxy plaid for a little shawl-collar jacket, and one yard of silk-linen blend in a luminous burgundy color that I've admired the past few times I've been in the store. I don't have the time right now to make the kind of structured blouse or feminine dress that I think this piece of stiff sheer really calls for, but I decided that a scarf would suffice and allow me to possess her.



I hope that everyone in the world will visit Paron when they visit NYC. Sadly, we never know how long our favorite fabric stores are going to last now even in New York. Rest in Peace P&S on Broadway below Canal, one of my near-work haunts the past couple of years, and the most recent of my acquaintance to fall.

This is something that makes me worry about the future. What will I do when there are no more good fabric stores left? I used to think as they closed in Boston or Maine or Pennsylvania, that at the least there would always be good fabric stores in New York, but now the ranks seem to be thinning out even here and it makes me very sad. Whence goes Home Ec...