In an effort to clean up old information on the site, I am revising old posts, and adding new, relevant information for those seeking what these old businesses once offered.
Paron has since closed. The post below was written on 3/5/08.
Looking for the Paron experience? I suggest Fabrics and Fabrics (for fashionable beauty and variety), B&J (for quality), Metro (for price and unexpected finds) and Elliot Berman Textiles (for designer fabrics).
Paron has since closed. The post below was written on 3/5/08.
Address: 206 West 40th Street, New York, NYC
Phone: 212-768-3266
Hours: Monday -Thursday 8:30 am - 7:00 pm; Friday 8:30 am - 5:45 pm; Saturday 9:00 am - 5:00 pm; Sunday 11 am - 4pm
Online store: Manhattan Fabrics
Best for: the 50%-off deals in the sales annex
Reasons to wander over to 40th Street in the Garment District for a visit to Paron's:
- The staff is a friendly, cheerful bunch. They're eager to help you pull bolts off the shelf, and they quickly came to my aid when they saw me walking around with my hands full. I appreciated that they gave me a little extra fabric with each cut.
- You don't get that claustrophobic feeling you can have in some garment district stores. You know, that any minute you could get swallowed up in an avalanche of falling fabric bolts, never to be heard from again. In the main part of the store there's plenty of room to unravel bolts and play with your fabric.
- The sales annex part of the store features some great bargains. I spent most of my time in here marveling over the wide variety of fabrics and the wallet-friendly prices.
- Paron sells Kwik-Sew and Burda patterns. They also carry the latest BurdaStyle magazine, though while I was there they only had the plus-size edition.
- The assortment of fabric they have per square foot is pretty amazing—there's a little bit of everything, from silks and wools to cottons and knits. Wonderful prints and colors. And I appreciate how their labels identify the fabric content and the RTW company who produced it.
