Boutiques come and go: it is part of the cycle of retail. But the closing of Maria Balla’s Les Créateurs in January was a particularly sad day for fashion retail in Montreal.
The respected retailer with signature red hair said she was fed up with retail, citing a host of factors from the economy to the state of fashion design.
For 32 years, Balla’s boutique on tony Sherbrooke St. W. in the heart of the Golden Square Mile served as a beacon of avant-garde fashion in Montreal, bringing rarefied fashion from the likes of Rei Kawakubo, Yohji Yamamoto, Rick Owens, Ann Demeulemeester and many more to the city.
But Balla never liked the term avant-garde: she instead always spoke of the fashion of yesterday, today and tomorrow.
I always believed not in the fashion of today, but fashion that you could wear yesterday, today and tomorrow.”
Maria Balla with a model wearing Yohji Yamamoto as the retailer marked 20 years in business, in 2003.
From the Les Créateurs web site, above, three looks by Junya Watanabe. Below, the shop has seen a fair share of top collections, including those from Comme des Garçons, Jean Paul Gaultier and Dries Van Noten.
Balla says she can’t abide commercial designers, those who introduce a particular colour, for instance, and the next season you know it’s last year’s garment.
She names Rick Owens, Ann Demeulemeester and Haider Ackermann as designers whose fashions stand up season after season.
She brought to Montreal the Belgians, with their deconstruction, and the Japanese, with architectural designs.
“They’re cerebral designers, and sometimes customers find it difficult to wear and even to understand. It needs a lot of confidence.
“What I learned over all these years, is that women still do not have enough confidence.”
But Balla decided it was time to say goodbye to good things, she told me.
“I’m finished with retailing, and that’s about it.
“The face of Montreal is changing. It’s not what it used to be,” Balla said, adding Montreal’s economy was a problem.
Of course, the fashion world is in turmoil everywhere. The internet revolution, with social media, online sales, instant communication and the onslaught of fast fashion knockoffs are turning retail on its heel. And then there is the prevailing trend to athleisure dressing.
There were many factors at play in her decision, Balla said.
She calls fashion stagnant at the moment, with designers concerned only with selling.
“The fidelity of clients is not the same. Older clients have other priorities. Youngers ones do not dress. They think a handbag will do.”
Asked about her best memories of Les Créateurs, Balla was clear: “When a client came in and was happy – comments and appreciation. Those are the rewarding parts.”
Balla is busy closing down the business at the moment. “I’ll put my thinking cap on (about) what’s next.”
