An amazing closet

>> Brigitte Chartrand’s Reborn boutique brings pieces of the world to her corner of Montreal

WARDROBE MISTRESS: Chartrand

by JULIET WATERS

Brigitte Chartrand notices things. “You’ve just come from Olive & Gourmando,” she remarked the first time I walked into Reborn, the boutique she opened two years ago in Old Montreal (231 St-Paul W.). Immediately I figured my face was smeared with Valrhona brownie crumbs. “No, no,” she reassured me, “I can smell it.”

Chartrand’s nose for fashion is equally acute. Even before she opened Reborn, a blogger described her as someone, “toujours au bleeding edge de la mode.” Rad Hourani, the Montreal designer whose show at Paris fashion week recently catapulted him onto Style.com’s top 10 designers to watch, regularly calls Chartrand his muse. “She’s inspired me a lot. Her presence. Her energy.”

Right now, that energy is condensed into a chic but tiny store that could do double duty as a closet. An amazing closet, stocked with only the best and latest from young international and local designers. The current collection will appeal to both club kids looking for an indie, androgynous, rockstar look and to anyone hunting for eclectic accessories (Natalie Brilli’s deer head purse with its leather covered antlers is worth a trip alone). But there are also timeless knits and dresses.

Chartrand is wearing a tulip dress by Montreal designer Duy when I interview her. But she’s picky when it comes to local brands. “I do have a small percentage of local designers, because I think it’s important to have local brands that deserve to be beside an international designer that has a lot of recognition.” Especially now that Reborn has become a destination store for North American fashionistas looking for difficult to find designers like London’s Preen, and Berlin’s Bless.

To meet increasing mail order demand, Chartrand launched a Web site in December for online shopping. At Reborn.ws, you’ll also find Born Again, a magazine that will feature a different artist every season. This month it’s Hourani, but Chartrand stresses, “it doesn’t have to be someone in the fashion industry. It’s someone that I truly believe needs to be talked about. It could be an image, or a video. Basically it’s giving them space on our Web site.”

Beyond the Internet, “Reborn International,” as Chartrand half-jokingly refers to her store, has no specific plans for expansion. “I really believe in internet business. I have thought about opening stores in Sweden and Vancouver, because I have a lot of customers from out West. But I don’t believe in having two stores in the same city. If I did, it would be something else. I would like to have a gallery. Or try different things like that. But right now I’m just trying to go a step at a time… I’m thinking more about how to make the store bigger, like how to get the space beside me,” she laughs.