Rue Pigalle, Isabelle Fish's high-end jewellery and accessories boutique, recently relocated to the Trinity Bellwoods park area from its previous location at 104 Yorkville Avenue. The store’s hand-picked, lovingly-curated offerings — most of which made their way from across the Atlantic — are now housed in a space that is four times larger than before.
The items at Rue Pigalle are all individually selected by Fish, and she focuses almost entirely on European designers whose work hasn’t yet made its way to the North American marketplace. Her other main criterion for choosing items is an inexplicable sense of coup de coeur; that jolt in the heart that comes from falling instantly in love with a piece. She also looks for items that showcase “something different,” wherein the design, technique, materials or history set it apart from the pack.
An item that immediately leaped out at us was a show-stopping necklace of red flowers by designer Stefano Poletti, with petals fashioned out of plastic bottles and the centres formed out of natural sponge dipped in latex paint ($325). Many of the pieces on display are hewn from unconventional materials, and we love the coarse, spongy texture of the rings and bracelets by Parisian designer Tzuri Gueta, made of silicon and silk (ring $125, bracelet $290).
While Fish focuses on small, independent designers at Rue Pigalle — you won’t see any big name brands in her collection — there’s no denying that this is the realm of high fashion. Many of these designers have worked for large fashion houses (Gueta, for example, recently did a collection with Chanel, we’re told).
“A lot of our designers work with haute couture,” says Fish, “so what you’re getting here is that high quality at gallery price.”
For those looking for something slightly less eclectic (albeit far from conventional), there are funky necklaces made from glass beads made by Canadian-born, London-based designer Logan Wilson, for $385, and a set of leather and sterling-silver bracelets made by a young French couple who go by the name Delesse ($270-450).
Along with jewellery, Rue Pigalle carries scarves, including a fabulous painted silk collection from Spanish designers Oh!…Oh! ($450), and bags by designers Louis Quatorze, Philippe Roucou and Stéphanie Césaire. The retro-chic Philippie Roucou bags, made of woven cotton with a leather base, look like something out of 1920s Paris, and can be custom-ordered to the client’s specifications.
These personal touches are very much part of Fish’s vision for Rue Pigalle, which is centred around one-on-one service and a relationship between customers and artists.
Fish herself insists on having a personal rapport with the artists she works with.
“It’s about a relationship, not just about selling things,” she says.
Rue Pigalle, 927 Queen St. W., 647-352-8115