Notes From the Road | Visit Mercerie Ultramod Paris

In 1832, a new boutique called Ultramod opened its doors in the center of Paris, a stone’s throw from the opera. Offering treasures to milliners and modistes, the shop has been a favorite ever since. Today on Notes from the Road, let’s Visit Mercerie Ultramod Paris.

Ultramod is the oldest haberdashery in Paris, and the shop offers the finest materials for creations …. antique and vintage ribbons, silk velvet, vintage buttons and thread, trimmings and tassels to name but a few.

This amazing boutique has a history of almost 200 years and city records show that it’s always had the same name at this address on Rue de Choiseul. It traces back to 1832. The boutique has always sold products referred to as’ menue mercerie’ which in English means all the essential accessories for sewing and embroidery.

In the 1800’s Parisiennes knew the right hat was the crowning glory of their fashionable ensemble. A design for a hat began with a lengthy consultation with a lady’s milliner, to decide the shape, material, colors and embellishments needed to create the most perfect chapeau. A visit to a shop like Ultramod would be part of the excitement, often the client and the milliner would meet for a consultation in the shop to select the finest quality materials and discuss the latest fashions.

A trip to the milliner required time, good taste and trust between the client and the vendor. The design consultation was lengthy, starting with the occasion, at that time women might have four to five changes of outfit per day and a hat worn to the Opéra would not be appropriate for a promenade in the Tuileries Gardens. Further decisions ensued; the shape of the hat, the base material, the colour scheme and finally the accessories; feathers, flowers, ribbons, lace, tulle. The discerning client depended on the milliner to be up-to-date on the latest fashions and the milliner depended on her artisans to supply her with the finest quality materials. 

Ultramod has two shops across the narrow street from each other. The Mercerie and the Chapellerie {Fournisseurs des Modistes}, a hat making shop. The shop has been and still is a treasure trove to designers such as Givenchy,  Lanvin and Jean Paul Gaultier, who visits personally to select his materials. 

Anne-Marie and Jean-François Morin bought both shops in the 1990s and today their daughter-in-law, Anne Christine Morin, ensures that customers are welcomed with Parisian charm and exceptional customer service, as they have been for almost two centuries

Countless wooden shelves are filled with ribbons, boxes of trim, and buttons. Honestly, if Aladdin loved ribbons, buttons and tassels as much as I do, his cave would be filled with all things Ultramod.

If you adore buttons, this is the place for you!  There are shelves stacked with boxes of buttons of all colors, textures and shapes, neatly organized so you can see what is where. It’s a button heaven!

No visit to Paris is complete without visiting one or both of these charming shops. Ribbon makes a wonderful souvenir, and can be used in so many beautiful decorative ways.

Visit Mercerie Ultramod Paris

4 Rue de Choiseul, 75002 Paris, France

Tel: 01 42 96 98 30

Open M, T, W, TH, F 10-6 {Wed. extended hours to 7:30pm}

Sat 2-6, Closed on Sunday.

As you might imagine, I purchased some stunning ribbons, both antique and vintage, and hat stands. Always in love with vintage and antique laces, millinery flowers, ribbons, I mean who can resist?

I couldn’t resist this amazing antique wood sewing box. It is beautiful wood on the outside, but inside? Beyond exciting, it’s lined in the most gorgeous wine colored silk, with all sorts of compartments in the lift off top tray.

Inside, it contains some beautiful antique sewing accessories, a gilt Palais Royale pin keeper, little packs of needles, silk threads mostly in pinks, buttons, tiny little boxes with some parts to diminutive watches, two lace edge remnants, a hat pin etc.

I can only imagine the joy this box brought to its owner long ago, when every lady was an expert at ‘fine’ sewing. Not repair, or making of garments, {she had people for that!} per se, but creating beautiful little gifts in silk and embroidery work for dear friends and family.

SHOP FRENCH MERCERIE >

Are you a lover of ribbons, laces, buttons and millinery flowers and hat stands from the late 1800’s, early 1900’s? How do you display your collection? We’d love to know!