Phone: 212-840-0555
Hours: Monday - Friday 9 a.m. to 6 p.m.; closed weekends
Online store: n/a
Best for: "Exclusive, one-of-a-kind, hand-beaded French laces, and embroidered fabrics," but they actually have a lot more of ladies-who-lunch type of fabrics, like bouclés, silks and brocades.
Lace Star on W. 40th in NYC is the place to go for special occasion fabrics. Or if you just want to make something drop-dead spectacular.
I've known for awhile that Lace Star is the go-to store in the Garment District if you need fabulous lace for special occasions. But it wasn't until Susan Khalje took me and my sewing classmates there on a field trip that I discovered Lace Star has much more beyond exquisite lace. There are bolts and bolts of wool bouclés, brocades, jacquards, silks and more. And it is all the most splendid stuff. Really top-rate, to-die-for designer fabrics.
I should warn you that this store is pricey. (And I've gotten reports that the sales staff is a little on the snooty side, although the woman who assisted us couldn't have been more helpful.) Most of the fabrics sell for more than $50 a yard, but I did see abundant bolts of silk charmeuse priced at $18 per yard. Keep in mind, however, that anything you make out of fabrics from Lace Star will look five times as expensive as what you actually paid.
