This is an incredibly special place that's difficult to put into words. Kept carefully secret for…read moredecades, and now only open few hours a day on a few days a week, when you come here please move carefully and slow and know that you are on some sacred old school Montreal hallowed ground.
The Little Shop is tucked in an old Parc Ex residential duplex, the only sign there is a wonder world in here is the demurely open door a few afternoons a week. The collections fill every single room of the mainfloor, basement and second floor apartments. And I do mean collections: there is material behind this quiet, gritty, working class frontage for a massive fashion, fibres and collectibles history museum. A room devoted to antique lace? Midlength cocktail dresses? Picture frames? Crates of hundreds of vintage eyeglasses, bowties, bakelite, turn of the century hats, 100 year old Spanish hand embroidery? Yes, all of this and more. Though it's overwhelming, like every secondhand and vintage store you've seen has sucked and tucked the best of themselves into tight corners of this one building out of a sheer undeniable desire to be together, there is order. For example, a wall of carefully folded quilts greets you when you walk in, including beautiful historic pieces usually only seen in museums and in movies...
Because the secret of the Little Shop is this: it's the private, professional renters that are it's original appointment-only clientele. The Cirque du Soleil comes here to rent costumes and set dressings, the McCord and other museums borrow from here to fill out exhibits, the Spiderwick Chronicles created rich fantasy worlds out of the goods hidden in the Little Shop. And they are often hidden: apparently props people are notorious for hiding their finds amidst the dusty bounty... and the staff laugh tolerantly when they find a room that's been tossed, as they begin the Sysiphian work of re-establishing order.
The owner is kind, and incredibly wise about the history and value of her goods, generous in spirit with the young vintage kids who come find her these days, even the couture kids who dig and dig and leave with the same old brand name things.
She is carrying on a tradition inherited from a generation before: truly brave, creative, inspiring parents who carefully opened their vast hearts to artists and cultures and taught generations of Montrealers about the stories and true blood and sweat values in these goods. Take a minute to have tea with the cool people hanging out there, if you're lucky enough to be offered one, and you'll be overwhelmed with stories of great Montrealers like Hugh MacLennan, you'll find out you're sitting next to a master laceworker, and you'll get a glimpse of a special beating heart that belongs only to this town.
