Space FB

These past few weeks have been all about rediscovering things/people, it seems. From writers/authors to singers, and most recently, a homegrown Montreal boutique/designer called Space F(rancois) B(eauregard). When his Les Cours Mont-Royal location was taken over by another retailer, a few years back, I was brokenhearted, to say the least because to purchase his clothes meant paying a visit to his other still-existing boutique along St-Laurent - hardly convenient and quite the undertaking for a mother of two little ones. What you've got to understand is, come wintertime when you're indoor bound, malls become "the" hangout place. And why not? With lots of free parking, those best-kept secret family rooms which you never knew existed until you became a parent yourself, the foodcourt, etc., all under one roof in a perfectly climate-controlled environment? Now compare that to pushing along those clunky contraptions called baby strollers and negotiating slushy sidewalks, jampacked with other pedestrians whilst exposed to the elements? It's a no-brainer. So for the past years, putting my kids' comfort before my own, I've relinquished being understatedly fashionable decked in FB, in favor of the convenience of the mall with their very commercial & cookie-cutter boutiques:(

The other day, Kumar, mentioned to me that he saw a nice coat for me at Space FB. "What do you mean"?? I asked, bewildered as I swung around to face him. "Were you around St-Laurent"?? "No" he replied, "...at Les Cours." "No.Way. What do you mean? Didn't they close years ago"??? "Yeah, but they've re-opened last summer." My jaw dropped, "And you're just telling me this now, months after the fact"?? I demanded. "Well..." he shrugged, a bit sorry for having opened his mouth...

So I made a mental note to check the boutique out at the next chance I would get. That chance came a few evenings ago. After dropping off the kids' at Grandma's and heading downtown with the intent of meeting Kumar after he got off work to have dinner somewhere, I found myself conveniently at the mall, with plenty of time to kill. So I made that famous beeline, well, no, actually I had to look for the boutique.
Sure, it had re-opened alright, but at the obscure Northern end of the mall, that unfortunately doesn't see too much traffic. I walked into the modest-sized minimalist boutique that must occupy an area of around two hundred square feet, max. And it took me about two minutes to go through their entire winter collection in dark shades of black, grey, blue and browns, predominantly in a cotton stretchy blend material, interspersed with a few numbers fashioned out of tweedy heavier fabrics. If I honestly had my way, I would've bought everything in there, but especially from having been set back a couple hundred bones by the famous (and ridiculously ubitiquous) Canada Goose that Kumar got me, I settled on one LBD that fit me like a glove and that had been marked down to $29.00! In chatting to the sweet, quippy and petite Cristina, who was minding the store all by herself, and who turned out to be Filipina, also, I learned that Francois Beauregard, really does cater specifically to petite women of slighter proportions (my euphemism for diminuitive persons like me!) but by no means limits his creations to fit only the vertically-challenged! Cristina asked me to get the word out, that Space FB is back at Les Cours Mont-Royal and I promised that I would. So here goes: please support local designer Francois Beauregard! If I'm able to persuade even just one person, I would be delighted to know that I'm able to effect change at least in a little way through this even littler blog....