A visit to Passementerie paradise in Paris...

A glorious section of the Parisian mercerie shop ‘Ultra Mod’ showing a bright and colourful array of vintage silk stain ribbons, trimmings and fabrics. The silk fabric on bolts was woven in Lyon and St.Étienne, some woven by hand. At the top of the image, see if you can spot Ultra Mod’s collection of antique iron plates.

Cabinets stuffed with luscious spools of silks, racks filled with the finest hand woven silk fabric and vintage baskets spilling over with antique passementerie… last week I visited a haberdashery paradise. I took a trip to visit the exquisite Ultra Mod shops in Paris, and what I saw there was a sumptuous feast for the eyes and for the soul! Ultra Mod has two shops on opposite sides of the road - a ‘mercerie’ shop selling all manner of haberdashery items, and a hat making shop selling every conceivable item that a milliner could require.

Antique haberdashery cupboards stuffed full of exquisite hand embroidery yarns, including fine silks used by Hermès to hand stitch their silk scarf hems.

The oldest haberdashery store in Paris, Ultra Mod has been selling the chicest notions, trimmings, ribbons and braids for over 100 years. Many of the finest couturiers today source their buttons, braids and tassels from this fabulous shop. When I visited, antique haberdashery cabinets were stuffed to the brim with every imaginable textile notion, including the most stunning array of vintage, ombré dyed silk velvet ribbons, hat making supplies from the 1950s, silk flowers and even a wonderful collection of the most beautiful silk moiré fabrics, having been woven in Lyon and St. Étienne in France. I was blown away by the range of coloured ribbons and threads - deep, energetic and nuanced colours, which are often so hard to find.

Reels of the most beautiful satin ribbons in every shade imaginable. Ultra Mod stocks an extensive range of colours that are hard to source from other suppliers.

Entering both of the shops, I felt as though I had entered another era when a visit to Ultra Mod meant more than a mere shopping excursion; it was a journey into a bygone time where ladies sought the perfect ribbon to embellish a summer hat or carefully selected buttons to adorn their handmade coats and dresses.

The main feature why Ultra Mod is so exceptional in the haberdashery world is because of its unique and vintage inventory. The original shop opened in the 1920s, before being sold in the 1990s - the sale included all of the remaining stock including many precious items from the 1950s, much of which is available for sale in the shop. I saw shelves stuffed to the brim with beautiful passementerie from the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, featuring remarkable treasures such as delicate silver lace braid and brightly coloured, chunky wool jacquard ribbons from the 1960s and 1970s.

Seeing such an extensive collection of unique and highly decorative passementerie in one place was wonderful! The millinery store unusually boasts a vast array of vintage upholstery passementerie, including braids, fringes, tassels, and curtain tiebacks - everything one needs to decorate a country château! This expansion into selling furnishing passementerie was prompted by the decline in the everyday hat-wearing market during the 1950s, leading the owners of Ultra Mod to diversify their offering in a spectacular fashion. There are all sorts of wonderful treasures, just waiting to be discovered.

This is one section of Ultra Mod’s millinery shop that sells vintage furnishing passementerie, trimmings, tassels and braid. Much of the available stock comes from the 1960s and 1970s and included some very rare designs and unusual colour combinations.

I was lucky enough to visit both Ultra Mod stores as part of Rebecca Devaney’s wonderful ‘Textile Tours of Paris’. Rebecca was once a haute-couture embroiderer working for couturiers such as Chanel and Lesage and she is also exceptionally knowledgable about the history of haute couture, which she generously shares throughout the tour. The tour lasts three hours and we were able to visit numerous exceptional haberdashery shops including Paris’ last silk merchant, Au ver a Soie, which is normally closed to the public. Rebecca was an exceptional tour guide - warm, funny, friendly and very knowledgeable. 

If you are planning a visit to Paris, definitely add a trip to Ultra Mod (and a tour with Rebecca!) to your itinerary.