Puces Pop Don’t Stop #1 Gifts for Girly-Gals
Shopping for gifts? Sure, there’s the Internet, but you already spend all day at work on-line. You can wander up and down St. Laurent or Mt. Royal, but we know you haven’t put snow tires on the car or winterized your boots yet. Of course there’s the mall — which sucks even when it isn’t the holidays. Nothing says I love you like a gift from a box store. Montreal has more than its fair share of holiday bazaars that allow independent, non-commercial artists to offer their creations. Among the reliable favourites is Puces Pop. The artisans vending their wares produce high-quality and quirky goods that delight and surprise. Here are our favourites on offer — and to make things more interesting, we asked the artists to tell us who they have on their covet list.
Illustrator Andrea Manica makes stickers, zines, cards, magnets, and other swirly girly stuff. Using pale greens and chirpy pinks as her palette, her work features images of small objects, gals, and little sprigs of nature. Her work is edgy, but positive. Her stickers and cards are always popular, but she thinks that her shrink-plastic pins of moths and leaves will be a big hit. While at Puces, she’s looking forward to meeting Tobin Louise Reimer. “Her drawings are so sweet and delicate and interesting,” says Manica. “I hope she will be my friend. I will share her things with my sisters!”
The ever practical napkin gets a refined makeover by combining natural textiles with ancient techniques of sewing and dyeing. As with all things Japanese (or Japanese inspired), the emphasis on the fabric goods by Objective (Mariana Robledo) is simplicity with a few small refinements to make things just-so. Geometric forms give rise to her most popular sellers: printed cotton napkins and lavender-scented hanging triangles. Ikat bags are the perfect size for porting a laptop or a magazine. When asked what she’d like at Puces pop, Robledo says she’d like an apron from Noir & Black.
Putting on a swimsuit doesn’t need to be an exercise in self loathing. The romantic, floral suits made by Mimi Hammer (partners Camille and Joao) are a splash at any pool and pretty to boot. The high wasted bottoms are best sellers, but many snatch up the lacey, yet practical waterproof pouches for holding wet suits. Mimi Hammer also offers earrings, bags, and of course, swimsuit tops, bottoms, and one-pieces. Joao might be revealing too much when he says he’d like to buy Camille something from Dot & Lil. We won’t tell her if you won’t.
Puces Pop takes place from Dec. 13th-15th at Eglise St. Denis (5075 Rue Rivard). Friday 5 p.m. -9 p.m. Saturday and Sunday 11 a.m. – 6 p.m.
