Philippe Dubuk on St Dennis

We discovered a designer's menswear in Montreal a couple of years ago. It is called Philippe Dubuk and is housed in a two-stored stone house on St Dennis Street. His aethetic is of minimalism in both structure and color but has unexpected details that inspires individualism: A bit of hybrid of Ennio Capasa's Costume National and John Galliano's Christian Dior but decisively more wearable. We dig his design. period, especially his structured pants, somehow fit me like gloves, which doesn't happen all the time. So this time when we went back to Montreal for Valentine's day, we again made our dutiful stop at his store. St Dennis is a long street that runs straight north-south and is lined up on both sides with colorful cafes, restaurants and boutiques. It is where bohemians meet and locals hang. During the many times we walk down the street, we see businesses sprout and wither, like everywhere else, yet local people keep on trekking along the street, braving the cold Quebecois winter if necessary, looking for that piece of something they love. When we entered Philippe Dubuk, the store was about to close for the day. But there was a ominous sense that the store may be closing for good. The young designer caught fire a few years ago and won many awards. His store expanded quickly into the cities as far as Tokyo. Yet money troubles scaled him back to the solo presence in St Dennis where he started off. Last time when we were there, he had a woman collection, now he completely hauled that as well and started carrying man's shoes made by other designers. It was nothing but a small detail that may suggest a financial struggle.
We couldn't help worrying because his boutique has been the one that drew us back over and over again to St Dennis. If the Italian fashion industry was slashed, a Canadian independent designer may not be spared after all. So here it is, everyone is mercilessly thrown into the ebbs and flows of the business climate. The talented, the visionary, are no exception. Yet what can we do? "Joie de livres", Curtis whispered it into my ears and handed me five fabulous pants. Yeah, that's probably what we can do. Live our life and try on the pants as long as he still makes them, and then walk down St Dennis to look for that piece of something we all love. Maybe if we all do that, then that piece of something we love will manage to survive and be there for us for the longest time to come.