Arts and Crafts Flourish in Mirvish Village

The air is usually fresh during the spring and summer in Toronto, the temperature seldom stifling. Saturdays and Sundays are lovely for taking a stroll.

During these favorite times of year, Torontonians turn out to promenade along one of the city’s favorite shopping streets. It is Markham Street, otherwise known as Mirvish Village.

The street’s charming collection of quaint Victorian houses was slated for demolition several years ago. Developer Ed Mirvish owned, with one or two exceptions, all the buildings along a block-long stretch. He wanted to raze them and construct in their place a huge parking lot to accommodate patrons at his nearby discount store, the famous and very popular Honest Ed’s.

But conservation-conscious Toronto citizens voiced a resounding protest to the Mirvish plan, and ultimately the government passed zoning regulations to terminate the project. So Ed Mirvish devised a new plan that resulted in the creation of Mirvish Village, and everyone, including Mirvish, seems glad that things were resolved as they were.

The Victorian houses have not only been saved from the steam shovel but many have been renovated. They are painted pretty pastel colors, with white wooden trim and verandas, and have neatly manicured patches of lawn, well-groomed bushes and flower boxes. Some of the flower boxes are old bathtubs, brightly decorated with colorful paints. At dusk, old-fashioned gaslights illuminate this charming scene.

Workshops, Boutiques

The upper floors of the buildings are used as workshops and studios, rented at reasonable cost to Toronto’s talented young painters, potters, printers and other artists and craftspeople. Ground floors--and some second stories--are occupied by a fine assortment of specialty shops, boutiques, galleries and cafes.

Some of the shopkeepers sell items that are made or restored in the street’s workshops, others offer a wide variety of merchandise of interest to shoppers who fancy unusual, well-made and beautiful things. The range of wares includes impressive antique and strikingly contemporary items. You’ll find decorative items and some that are functional.

The street’s clothing boutiques are particularly interesting. At No. 585 is Portfolio, the shop belonging to and featuring the fashions of Franco Mirabella. This talented, young (age 27) Toronto designer worked for Anne Klein in New York before developing his own line of clothes. Mirabella’s designs are high style and beautifully tailored.

The emphasis is on fabrics, ranging from hand-woven silks to fine textured woolens and sturdy linens to hand knits, and on construction for comfort and figure-flattering lines.

Houndstooth suits feature broad-shouldered, wide-lapeled jackets ($210) to be worn with skinny little skirts ($100) or generously pleated slacks ($110). Flowing skirts made from an entire c1769104236black or a variety of other colors to be coordinated with bulky hand-knit sweaters ($150) that are finished off with velvet trim.

Dressier items include wonderful ensembles (about $200) made of exotic gold-flecked wool imported from Italy. Mirabella finishes off his outfits with beautiful belts.

Exotic, Dressy Fashions

Designer Rhondi Palangio offers her exotic ready-to-wear and custom clothes in her shop at No. 590. The designs are unusual, dressy and attention-getting. Take for example the gray-and-fuchsia ensemble (about $750) of a mushroom-shaped pleated skirt to be worn with a high-collared, broad-shouldered, cinch-waisted jacket. The collection has many fanciful gowns and cocktail dresses, in addition to some innovative casual clothing.

Styles, Labels Vary

At No. 601 La Mode de Vija has a tastefully assembled selection of designer and better-quality fashions at discounted prices. Styles and labels vary from week to week, but may include Alfred Sung, Liz Claiborne and other recognizable names with sports and dressier garments. Discounts are sometimes as high as 70% during the shop’s frequent special sales. It’s difficult to predict what bargains you’ll discover on any given day, but the shop is worth a visit.

Mirvish Village has some popular antique shops. Cynthia J. Findlay, at No. 593, specializes in discontinued and hard-to-find porcelain, including pieces by Royal Doulton, Royal Crown Derby, Royal Worcester, Belleek and Moorcroft. The stock ranges from entire sets of antique china to single place settings to individual plates or pitchers.

This is the sort of shop where stock varies from one day to the next and price depends upon what the market (or buyer) will bear. But Findlay has a reputation for fairness and reliability and for helping to find special pieces on a customer’s wish list.

The shop also carries some estate silver, sterling flatware, paintings and jewelry, as well as home accessories and wearables by Suttles & Seawinds, a Nova Scotia-based company that makes colorful patchwork jackets (about $250), vests (about $125), quilted bags and quilts.

Granny’s Boot Antiques and Country Comforts, at No. 597, is a little emporium with a wide variety of collectibles. It has period accessories, including glass objects, furniture throws, old lace, linens and ceramics, attractively displayed on antique chests, bureaus, sideboards and other furnishings.

Rustic Antiques

The place looks like a cross between Granny’s parlor and her attic, and there are items that Granny might well have relegated to either of those rooms. All together, with rustic old antique chests priced from $100 and up and prettily patterned old throws from $45, prices are reasonable.

Journey’s End Antiques, at No. 612, is a large, rambling shop that’s overflowing with a little of everything. Actually, with a lot of everything. The shop buys and sells entire estates, as well as individual pieces, and is a primary source for many Toronto antique dealers and interior decorators.

You’ll find fair prices on reasonably good quality Canadian, French and English furniture from many periods, as well as smaller items, including crystal and glass objets d’art, portrait paintings and landscapes, sterling and silver-plate flatware and serving pieces, and some pretty (mostly costume) jewelry. Some time is required to go through this shop, but a lengthy browse can be quite entertaining.

Memory Lane, at No. 594, offers movie memorabilia of all sorts. There are variously sized posters from Canadian, American and European movies (priced from about $3 and up), a great library of books about cinema and thousands of stills from films both famous and unknown. There are racks of comics, and the shop publishes its own entertaining illustrated magazine (35 cents for one issue; 10 issues for $3), “Captain George’s Whizzbang,” about cinema, TV and popular culture.

At No. 596, David Mirvish (Ed’s son) has an extraordinary bookstore with a vast listing of titles on the arts. He has art, architecture and design magazines from around the globe as well as scholarly texts about art criticism, aesthetics and philosophy, and histories about various artistic movements and schools. Canadian art and artists are well covered.

Standard prices are set at 10% off list for new books and 20% to 80% off remaindered editions. In addition, weekly sales further reduce prices. More expensive items include exquisite Schiele and Klimt facsimile portfolios for $350 (compared to $425 in other shops).

Storytelling for Kids

Mirvish Village is also entertaining for children. On Sundays, there are regularly scheduled readings, storytelling sessions and versifyings at the Children’s Book Store at No. 604. This shop does everything right to encourage kids to enjoy literature.

Shelves are at the correct height; there are chairs and pillows for children to sit on and a play area for them to release energies that build up with too much sitting. In addition to a huge listing of children’s books, the shop has educational records, cassettes, posters and some educational toys. There are some sale items, but most merchandise is sold at list price. Even so, the favorable exchange rate for the U.S. dollar gives Americans about a 20% discount.

Children of all ages enjoy watching craftsmen at work. At Studio 608, at No. 608, three ceramists, Laima, Myrna and Sofija, make and sell their work. Platters cost about $35, masks are about $60 and big ceramic “bags” for flowers are about $50. No charge for watching them work.