A Shop With All the Trimmings
Miki Canddel has some advice for first-time customers at Ruban et Fleur, her ribbon and trim shop: Step outside for a minute, take a deep breath, then come back in.
Not a bad suggestion, considering the store’s head-spinning collection of new and vintage ribbons and trims. Tucked inside the first floor of the Westchester Faire antique mall, Ruban et Fleur (“Ribbon and Flower” in French) isn’t huge, but its stock is impressive: French wired ombre ribbons, organza and Jacquard ribbons in a wide palette of colors, passementerie trims, velvet flowers and leaves, silk hat veiling, real silver and gold-plated metallic cords and ribbons, stuffed velvet fruits and vegetables and tassels.
“It’s overwhelming,” says Canddel, who with partner Dawn Sklar has had this little jewel of a shop here for eight years. They supply not only ribbon-addicted customers, but also milliners, doll makers and designers all over the world.
While their selection of new products is comprehensive, their smaller vintage collection is a rare treat since most fabric and trim shops carry only new products.
Canddel points out a basket filled with rayon ribbon, circa 1920s France, which has a softness and a rich sheen not found in its modern counterparts. She explains: “They were made on looms that were humongous, the size of this room. The new looms are smaller, so the ribbons are thicker. And the dyes were different. There are colors in there you can’t even see, that’s how they get the iridescence.”
A selection of wider, wired French multicolored ribbons from the 1950s were “purchased in France, and I had the honor of meeting the guy who designed them. He’s in his late 70s, a wonderful, happy guy.”
Clusters of old and new velvet flowers, in hues from mauve to lemon to garnet, peek out from the drawers of an antique glass-front cabinet. A vitrine holds elaborate, heavy tassels from the 1800s, their patina dulled to a beautiful burnished gold.
Canddel is sad that her yearly trips to Europe are turning up fewer vintage goods.
“They’re getting harder and harder to find,” she explains. “If [the manufacturers] have it, they don’t want to let go of it. They don’t even want to talk about it.”
Not every customer is a Martha Stewart wannabe with dozens of projects in mind. Some novices are inspired by a particular ribbon or by the collection of delicate handmade ribbon flowers on display. They’re not for sale, but if saleswoman Tressie Crocker is there, she’ll show you how to make them.
Canddel readily admits she’s not into needlework (she paints), but she and her partner have an obvious love and appreciation for these fanciful trims.
“Dawn and I,” she says, “are very passionate about this.”
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Ruban et Fleur, 8655 Sepulveda Blvd., Los Angeles, inside the Westchester Faire antique mall. (310) 641-3466. One-inch-wide, picot-edged, gingham wired ribbon is $1.95 a yard; vintage metallic trim is $1.95 to $6.95 a yard; 1940s-era flowers are $2.25 a stem; 9-inch-wide silk hat veiling is $2.25 a yard.
