Posts from ‘Boutique’
IVKO sweaters are so yummy.
This year browns and blues are strong for Fall.
Just forget about black.
Ignore it.
Look below and you will see why.
These Ivko sweaters and hoodies are both $199 at Boutique Katrin Leblond
This is Josiane Lacoste: client who dares!
She had this photo shoot done (and this is not her first) just for the fun of it; just because it makes her feel good.
She is wearing the green Bella dress ( I have one left in XL).
xoxo
Picolinos shoes on sale $178
Black cerise dress with red dots $199
For those of you who do not know: These are scarfettes!
They were invented by me, but the adorable term “scarfette” was coined by my dear friend Nadine.
They are also called mini-scarves, hair ties and ribbon-ties by my clients.
Their purpose is multiple. They can simply be tied around your neck to add a little touch of class. They can be used as headbands or pony-tail ribbons. They can be tied onto a camisole at the strap on one side just above the bust adding a textile detail of colour. Their uses are multiple.
They cost $8 each
I have been working on this raincoat design for over a year.
It has a huge hood that can be rushed in two directions: around the face and down the centre back. This allows you to adjust for pouring rain, romantic strolls or pull it all the way back into a ruffle collar.
It has two buttons and a belt that ties around the waist. The coat is embellished in the centre back with appliqué and ribbons.
I made it in blue, green and black. There is a black denim version of the same coat for fall that is not waterproof. The coat is both feminine and functional. I promise it will protect you from the rain. It has a full skirt that give it a bit of a timeless vintage feel. I call it the Fairytale raincoat.
All colours $380 S-XL
available at the boutique or on etsy
Gypsy skirt 100% American made cotton, $189
Ahhhhhhhhh.
The Halo headbands. We have had them in our store now for a few months and thanks to Kate Duchess of Cambridge, they are a huge fashion item this Fall. Yes, you heard it, I said Fall. That is because all the Fall collections are starting to come into the store. I will be doing a huge delivery of new designs this week and we already have the B-line Fall collection selling out fast. That is not to say that you can’t still peruse our sale rack if you crave a last little treat. But, back to headbands….
Maybe you can’t imagine an occasion for one of these, but I can help with that. Are you going to a weeding? A pic-nik? A birthday party? Are you a waitress looking to get more tips? Do you have short hair that you are trying patiently to grow out? Are you cruising for a date on ladies night?
If you are a future bride, you should definitely come and see what we have to decorate your head. I also make veils and fascinators for weddings.
This last one is so classy and classic. It is lace decoupage and hand-sewn beads….so pretty and fancy. It would look amazing in black hair.
All available at Boutique Katrin Leblond right now.
xoxox
To all my dear far away clients: I DID IT! FINALLY! YOU CAN SHOP FROM AFAR!
This is the beginning of my etsy store and soon you will be able to buy skirts and dresses and even my new raincoat! I will keep it coming. I started with a fresh batch of fascinators and bibis. Enjoy. Shop.
To go and see now, follow this link:
This is a little peek into Gabrielle Adam’s summer vacation travelling Europe. How cute does she look in her Katrin Leblond designs?
I have just a few of this dress left: The flirt dress in stripes $115 (I think, from memory) and I am pretty sure I have M and XL in stock.
The best sweater ever by Maillagogo. Made right here in Montreal. This is a two tone blue cotton knit $140.
Now YOU send me your travel pictures or post them on Facebook on the Katrin Leblond Design page!
Illustrated by Katrin Leblond
screen printed by Studio Big Dog
available at the boutique $60
Katrin Leblond, un arrêt printanier obligé
La belle Katrin m’a fait parvenir plusieurs de ses suggestions, mais j’ai retenu la robe « Princesse corail » que je trouve assez spectaculaire. Une robe 100% soie, pour 345$. Elle est merveilleuse non?
La boutique Katrin Leblond est un must absolut pour votre magasinage de robe de bal. Vous y trouverez un choix très inspirant de modèles, pour toutes les tailles et toutes les bourses, tant par la designer propriétaire que par les nombreux designers québécois qu’elle accueille dans sa boutique. Ne passez pas à côté des joyeux bibis fabriqués par Katrin elle-même, et les crinolines de fabrication locale qui pourront compléter plusieurs modèles de robe.
This cardigan is full of fine detail. Right down to the scalloped edge around the collar, it’s incredible detailed intartia and it’s exceptio0nally high quality 100% cotton yarn.
Petals Pop Cards are made by Montreal mom, Jackie Bassette. She plants, grows, presses and places each petal at her Montreal home near Jean Talon market.
Each card is blank inside leaving you free to pour your heart out in your own words to your friends.
Towers and pyramids of books pressing petals are all over Jackie’s home where she creates these fun and pretty cards. Send a creation from Jackie’s garden to one of your friends.
There is something really magical about popping this great big flower open in the middle of a rain shower. It instantly brings brightness to a gray day. I feel like I am offering a moment of surprise and wonder to the people around me when I pop mine open. I love the quality of the mechanisms: the smooth slide and satisfying pop as it snaps open. I love the feeling of the wooden handle and the scalloped edge finishing. I also love the price. At $37 dollars I think it is a steal for the numerous moments of fantasy it offers and for its fabulous halo of petals. Get yours at the store now! Quantities are limited and the demand is now.
It is time to start planning your veggie patch. Have you bought your seeds yet? Please buy heritage NON GMO seeds from the last remaining independant seed distributers. Here is a link to a local seed distributor from Lanaudiere:
http://www.ecoumene.com/
This is a series of touching personal moments captured in the change rooms of my boutique. The mother and daughter were invited to come and try on clothes together. I love dressing mothers and daughters at the same time. Sisters are really fun too. The interactions that we get to witness are so beautiful and meaningful. It is the gift that our clients give to us.
These photos were taken by artist-photographer Marie Cornellier. She has a gift for getting people to show their most beautiful and touching selves.
This magical dress is the last of it’s kind. The production was a very small run. I think I only made six dresses. One of them was purchased as a wedding dress by a beautiful older woman getting married for the first time in her 50′s. Here is the last dress. If I remember well, it is a small….maybe a medium. If it is meant for you, here it is waiting in the shining spot light.
Kat
Vanessa recently returned from a life-changing trip to India. In her seven weeks there, she experienced sensory awareness on a whole new level. “I felt more alive than I ever had,” she said. Her feeling of being “home” was uncanny.
photo by Vanessa Finnie, available at Boutique Katrin Leblond
She’s been back since November, and is still processing what she learned on that trip. As part of that process, she has started making cards with the photographs she took in India. These stunning cards are now available for sale at the Boutique.
photo by Vanessa Finnie, available at Boutique Katrin Leblond
Her photographs are moving and joyous. They are full of colour and movement, humour and peace. The intensity of her emotions on that trip comes across strongly in her pictures. They are definitely worth a trip to the boutique to see first-hand. And are available for only $6.50 each. Give one to yourself or to someone you are thinking of.
Express your beauty as you are. Dance in your kitchen and sing to the stars.
Sarah Pearson
Beautiful sandals from Israel are now at Boutique Katrin Leblond. The wonderful thing about these new sandals is how comfortable they feel on your feet. They are available in sizes 37 to 40 in black or bronze.
Beautiful amazing Anna. You will be a momma soon. You will be in love. You will be afraid. You will be powerful. You will be you. You are amazing Anna and you will be a great mom.
This is for you in anticipation of all the fun you will have rediscovering everyday things through the eyes of your child.
Your life is your most powerful art. See you at the boutique.
erin
More bibis!
Our creative process has evolved a lot as our team has evolved. This is what our collection boards look like. We move the mini mock ups of the pieces we are designing around on the board and find our matching out fits and plan delivery to store dates so that when the items finally come to you they are ready to pop into your wardrobe as single items or even better as complete outfits.
These are mock ups of our March first delivery group. Lots of black and white accented with roses. Pops of garden green and lime with fuschia and hot pink and peachy rose. Playful pieces to prep you for a great summer ahead.
Your life is your most powerful art. See you at the boutique.
erin
Photos by Madelaine Turgeon
Thank you Colette for another beautiful event. Thank you Montango dancers for your grace and poetry. Thank you everyone who came to this special event.
Your life is your most powerful art. See you at the boutique.
erin
Starting from $8 and ranging all the way up to $390 (item not pictured here) Katrin Leblond Boutique’s bags and totes are colorful fun for your wardrobe. Come by and find the one that is right for you. We also have eco bags for $3.
Your life is your most powerful art. See you at the boutique.
erin
Katrin Leblond’s new spring season was inspired by a wish.
Well, actually, three wishes.
A rack-full of new spring wear!
When it came time to draw up themes for this new collection, Kat was ready to try something new. She sat down her whole creative team, and asked them to write down their three wishes for humanity.
She collected these three wishes, some in English and some in French, and read through them. There were many overlaps – wishes for the health of the oceans, for endangered animals like elephants and monkeys, wishes for clean and safe foods, wishes for the forests. There were wishes for the emancipation of children, for the heart of humanity to be wide open, and for all people to enjoy the warmth of the sun.
“I wanted these wishes to be the inspiration behind the collection,” Kat explained to me, “but I also wanted to make sure that my intent was clear.” She wanted to tap into not just her visual impression of these wishes, but that of the collective consciousness. In today’s world, that means paying a trip to Google.
Kat sat down at her computer and entered every wish, word-for-word, into google-image. She leafed through the images, and absorbed.
Google-image was able to make free associations that no single designer would have been able to make on her own. The wealth of inspiration was overwhelming.
The pattern from a dress inspired by native women
“Images kept coming up of spiritual leaders,” Kat told me, “that I never would have associated with some of these wishes, but there they were. We were talking about using the colour grey, and I had no ideas for that, but then I typed in ‘elephants’ and all this grey imagery came up!”
Little by little, groups of this new collection will appear at the Boutique. One group has already been released, which is inspired by First Nations women and is rich with earth tones and sandy hues.
earth tones abound in the first group of springwear
Other treats we have to look forward to are a Garden Vegetable Skirt, a Planet Earth Skirt, and lots of elephant motifs, leaf appliqués and ocean imagery.
And we’re keeping it close to the source. “The wish that inspired the piece will be tagged on the hanger of each garment, so that people can know what it means,” Kat tells me. “I want to think of each garment as a magic spell that we’re putting out into the world for humanity.”
A magic spell wished for by the women who made these garments with their own hands, no doubt weaving their intentions into each fold of fabric.
It should indeed be a magical spring at Boutique Katrin Leblond.
Express your beauty as you are. Dance in your kitchen and sing to the stars.
Sarah Pearson
Colette van Haaren is a quiet woman with lots of power. The best way she finds to share that power? Through her fingers.
Colette is a yarn artist who’s been knitting and crocheting since childhood. Today, she produces some of the Boutique’s fastest-selling items. From stunning wool ponchos and cardigans to neck warmers and scarves to playful wool jewelry, Colette is an integral part of the Boutique Katrin Leblond Collection.
Having learned the basics of yarn crafts as a young girl, Colette got “hooked” (pun intended!) on the craft in her twenties, when she designed and marketed her own line of knitwear.
Then she stopped. She became a mother. She got busier. “Life got in the way,” she says, and her knitting work went on hiatus.
As any artist who’s ever been on hiatus knows, your art always comes back. In recent years, Colette has returned to her needles and knit machines, and is producing more clothing, accessories, and jewelry than ever before. And Boutique clients clearly can’t get enough of her work.
Many artists and spiritual seekers talk about their way “in” – the thing that connects them to the source. The way Colette describes knitting, it is so clear that this is her way in. “Simple shapes and mindless knitting allow me to get into a meditative state,” she writes. “I get to relax and have lap throws, pillows, hats, shawls, and headbands … to show for it.”
She is not alone in her love for the craft. Thousands of men and women discover the transcendental powers of yarn-art every year. There has been no doubt a knitting revival in the last decade, particularly among young women. “Stitch ‘n Bitch” groups have become increasingly popular, along with other traditionally “grandmotherly” crafts. Canning, bread-making, gardening and crochet are all on the list of reclaimed feminine-domestic arts.
Some theorists say this revival has to do with third-wave feminism. Maybe it also has to do with people wanting to slow down in a world that’s getting faster and faster.
Slowing down is part of the draw for Colette. In her personal statement, she writes:
“yarn crafts, when done by hand, progress slowly. Just doing it can get you to relax or into a meditative state. Practicing these ancient techniques connects me to all the people who have worked these crafts out of necessity, duty, pleasure, and love.”
She continues the tradition this Wednesday night, at Boutique Katrin Leblond, where she will share her line of knitwear through a very special evening of tango. This is not to be missed. Come be a part of the knitting legacy.
Express your beauty as you are. Dance in your kitchen and sing to the stars.
Sarah Pearson
I’m not the kind of gal that ever dreamed of my future wedding dress. I never “played wedding” as a kid, or drew pictures of my ideal gown. It’s only now, as more and more friends walk down the isle dressed in white, that I’m actually thinking about my own future wedding, should I get married.
Or rather, I’m thinking about how differently I would like to do it myself.
Katrin Leblond has designed many a bridal gown – some in white, some in chartreuse, some (for example, her own) in deep magenta. At the heart of her bridal designs is the same philosophy at the heart of all of our styles and designs: wear what feels like you.
Below is a photo from Katrin’s cousins’ wedding. Emilie opted for an ivory strapless dress with chiffon and beading at the bust (that is hidden by the pink mohair shawl she is wearing). Of course you can see the tradition of wearing purple at Leblond functions showcased by many in the clan. I would also like to draw you attention to the fabulous KL handbag in fuchsia on the lap of her Aunt Lucie (front right).
The history of the white wedding dress is actually quite recent. It was Queen Victoria who popularized the white dress in 1840, having built her nuptial getup around some special lace she wanted to show off. Her wedding was widely photographed, and other brides then copied her style. Since then, the white dress has come to represent the bride’s virginity as she prepares to enter matrimony. (Is it not ironic that this fashion should develop in this era, which probably has the lowest bridal-virginity rate in Western history?)
Big white ballgowns look natural on some brides. On others there is nothing better than colour. Shouldn’t it be up to each bride to decide for herself: colour or no?
- Queen Victoria’s White Wedding Dress, circa 1840.
Before the 1800s, it was customary for European brides to wear rich colours and fabrics, to show off the wealth of the family they were marrying from (even if they were poor). In the East, red is the traditional colour for many Indian and Chinese bridal dresses.
A Japanese couple on their wedding day
Traditional Chinese wedding garb
White is a traditional choice for some women – even for those who have been living with their partners for many years, or who already have kids. The tradition of white as representing virginity is fading but the importance of the it’s symbol has not. Personally, if I have the opportunity to dump hundreds or thousands of dollars on a dress I’ll wear once, I want it to be a colour that resonates with me personally, that flatters my skin tone and sends an intimate message about me and my partner.
The plaid wedding dress: a neat take on tradition
That’s just me. On the other hand, I can completely understand the power behind a white wedding dress. It is the archetype of “Bride” in today’s culture. When crafting a meaningful ceremony, having that cultural symbol behind you is powerful.
To all brides-to-be out there: I share this message with you. Wear what you want to wear on your wedding day. If your heart says white, listen to your heart. If swatches of pinks or emerald, yellows or royal blue are pulling at your sleeve, don’t be afraid to explore that magical world of colour either. Bottom line is always the same:
Wear what feels like you.
A bridal headpiece by Katrin Leblond
Express your beauty as you are. Dance in your kitchen and sing to the stars.
Sarah Pearson
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