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Thursday 17 June 2010

New York Fabric Shopping Spree

As you saw from my last post, I was lucky to have some NY shopping experts with me and although time was short and we only visited 3 stores, they were all different shopping experiences and close enough to each other that I recommend visits to all of them if your time is short too. For full reviews of these stores and many more in the garment district do visit LindsayT's blog, she also has some great articles and maps too, all handily referenced in the sidebar.

Here's where we went and what I bought....

First stop was Mood Fabrics of Project Runway fame. This is a large, but well organised store, a great place to go if you have a good idea of what you are looking for. Or you can be like me and wander around till something jumps out. I only bought 1 piece here, a peacock inspired cotton print, not cheap for a cotton, but gorgeous quality.


Next up was Elliott Berman Textiles. Lots of lovely designer fabrics here at very reasonable prices. They also have swatches of a large range of their fabrics at the front of the store so you can shop those if you find it easier. This was a very relaxing shopping experience, we were the only customers in the store at the time. I'd decided to focus on fabrics that are difficult to get in Hong Kong - knits - so that's what I bought here - 3 pieces.

Sensible

Loud

Crazy (this is an Elie Tahari if I remember right)

Finally, Carolyn took me to one of her favourite spots, Metro Textiles. This is a relatively small store, but manages to cram a lot in. If you know what you want the owner can probably dig it out for you, but it's kind of fun to dig around and see what you find and the prices are good. Here was where I stocked up on some basic knits and a couple of extra impulse buys.

Plain knits

Printed knits

Mystery (to me) fabric for jacket, silk print, border print cotton


You know this all looks quite restrained to me now, but it weighed a ton! It's fortunate for me that the US regulates airline baggage by piece and not by weight.

It is baking hot and extremely humid in Hong Kong now and I really need to make some summer tops and dresses so hopefully most of these won't be in my stash for too long. Stay tuned!

14 comments:

  1. Beautiful fabrics. I'm surprised you included silk which is abundant in Hong Kong.

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  2. all your purchases are beautiful. Mood does have great cotton but the prices are not as great as other places. I love metro, that is my favorite store in NYC. I'm happy you had a great time.

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  3. Great looking fabric. Love the "loud" piece.

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  4. New fabrics, and from NY! Lucky you :) You have some really nice ones there.

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  5. I am loving all the fabrics! I especially love that crazy Elie Tahari print!

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  6. I was waiting to see what you got from Metro...nice haul! And actually pretty restrained...I have taken people there who've bought 25/30 pieces because Kashi could ship them home! I'm sure that they will take shape at the proper time...until then I'll be waiting!

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  7. Awesome picks! You lucky girl. I would LOVE to go to NYC and fabric shop.

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  8. Ooooh, fantastic choices! They aren all going to be great.

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  9. That Elie Tahari knit is uhmazing. Glad you had a fun time!

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  10. i am so jealous with u right now... :)

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  11. Hi Allison, could you please contact me at kingkong17@rocketmail.com. I really like to know where is the Hong Kong 'Hawker Bazaar' in Sham Sui Po for buying fabric. Hope to hear from you soon!

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  12. Fantastic picks. I love the second fabric the most, it looks like some Pucci print!

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  13. Your crazy print is Norma Kamali rather than Tahari. I made it to Berman during the heat wave and purchased two prints this week - such fun to find another great source. Kashi at Metro had lots to choose from too. I had better luck with him than Paron this time. It looked like the Project Runway cast was heading into Mood when we walked back by - my daughter found knits there this trip. Have fun creating!

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  14. You brought back some really amazing pieces. Happy sewing! :)

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