Rue de Turenne Part I

Part I

Rue de Turenne, Marais

I only first noticed the street when a camera man started following me when I was dressed up to go to work. I was wearing nothing special, just a man in black with black shoes, a casual pin-stripe Mexx jacket, a white shirt, a burgundy tie, and dress pants. So why did he follow me this camera man on the streets of Paris, in the Marais of all places no less? It made no sense — I am neither famous, nor well known, nor well connected and I am not a notorious lawbreaker –I have no scandals to my name so what was happening? They were filming me like story-hungry paparazzi, but why?

It is a not a well-known street in Paris but it is in the Marais district, to be more specific in the old Jewish Quarter of St Paul and the street is called Rue de Turenne. If you went to Wikipedia you would only see a couple of monuments and a few hotels particuliers (old private residences) on the street, but something belies our modern virtual information because this rather unknown street, is very markedly and rampantly home to the largest collection of man’s clothing stores perhaps ON THE PLANET.

In a stretch of three blocks, in less than one mile, you will find the following kaleidoscopic variety of man’s pret-Ã -porter (ready-to-carry/wear), factory outlets, distribution centers, shops, tailors, retail stores, home brand manufacturing & brand name outlets, maisons (house brand stores), and one maison de haute finition, and yes, a single house that CLAIMS to be haute couture — a traditional designer only making individual & personalized collections. There are around 60/65 different outlets MEN ONLY and I listed as many as possible below, however I am sure I have missed some you´ll just have to visit in person.

It is well possible of course that Hong Kong, Milan, London, or New York have a larger collection of man’s clothing stores: But they are never going to be THIS concentrated in one small area; I highly doubt it; not on the stretch of half a mile like this.

On the Rue de Turenne man’s suits go for as low 60 euros even though a more regular price is advertised ubiquitously on the street as between 140 and 200 euros. Again, pret-Ã -porter, ready to carry it away, ready-to-wear, you walk in, give your measurement, and you walk out, and it is a good buy, you walk away content and happy. Clothing repair is possible in every third or fourth store, and what is surprising is the low number of real tailors. There is only one or two and to play a Where-is-Waldo with the list below, I challenge the fashionistas to find the one real tailor on the list. And of course many of the stores are having clothing repair services or in house tailors. Many are just outlets or franchises, and there are two corner-anchor stores on both ends of the mile (Zadig & Voltaire on one side and IZAC on the other), but a large number indeed are original clothing manufacturing maisons houses who most certainly must have attracted all the other stores to come to the street to begin with. They were there first. Yet, no designers, no haute couture, no luxury, just pret-Ã -porter, a great place to be for the average man who likes to dress well, an average guy like me.

So what is it in the end that brought all these stores and outlets together on this small strip in Paris? To be short, I asked one of the store owners, who owned a store with its own brand name, a real clothing manufacturer of manâ€™s clothes. Apparently some centuries ago when there were many Jewish tailors coming to the district from Eastern Europe, this is how it started. The tailors set up shop in the street because this was the heart of the Jewish quarter of the Marais. Later many other brands other than just house brands started to set up shop, attracted by the concentration of quality of man’s clothes. Then came franchises. Corner stores. Flagship stores. Factory outlets. Distribution centers. You get the rest.

What is sad however is that the current economic crisis seems to have severely affected the sales in the street and seems to have sapped the energy and life out of it not completely of course, but the street seems notably affected. A few stores are empty, and a few are closed, I listed below which ones. The majority of the stores seem to be scraping by, you can tell by the faces of the people who work there, and few to zero tourists or others appear to come to the street on a regular basis so that probably most business is done by sales online or distribution to far regions around the globe. However, if you want a local shopping experience, stay away from all the touristy shopping areas, instead help these smaller shops out and visit Rue de Turenne.

So there you have it, the camera crew that one sunny day was doing a shoot for some or one of these brands, and I bet you they were looking for an average guy, dressed up well, while he happened to be walking in front of one of the stores. Probably for some commercial shoot; there are many in Paris all the time.