Sutton Clothing Sales at the Catholic Church

Sutton's Haberdasherie - it's ok to bring the BMW

By Nancy Helmuth
For 27 years Suttonites and tourists have shopped for second hand clothes at the basement shop of the Catholic church. For the past eight years the friendly place has been presided over by Gisele Roy (center), flanked by Jacqueline Desautels and Chislaine Pilon, while I am on the right. (OK to crop me out of the pix - Nancy). The array of clothes is amazing, there are hundreds of lovely sweaters, shirts, coats and jackets, a rack of belts, suits and dress pants, dresses and hats.
My husband found a wonderful suede leather jacket for about the price of a bottle of beer, this is the sixth leather jacket he has liberated from this place in the last three years alone. We have been "frequent fliers" here and outside of undergarments, socks and shoes, we have outfitted us to our hearts delight for more than a decade, since we moved to Sutton.
Of course, I also return clothes (mainly due to the "expansion of age" principle), but I can also always find a blouse or jacket just a tad wider then the last one...

There is no great haggling about prices either, the coats are one price, so are the jackets etc. It does not matter if the jacket is plastic or leather - one price for every group of garments. Gisele and her helpers spend hours sorting new donations and keep only the best quality items. Second rate stuff gets collected for shipment to Africa as a donation, unuseable items are set aside for recycling and are being picked up every two weeks by a company which specializes in recycling textile materials. All staff members are volunteers and the proceeds of the store belong to the church. This haberdasherie and the Wed. and Sat. thrift shop across the parking lot, have been instrumental to raise funds for this year's renovation of the church.
It is not surprising to see my friends BMW or Mercedes cars in the parking lot. Even affluent people are not stupid and they either bring stuff, or get more to take home. I recently purchased a Y.S.L jacket and Manfried an ankle deep Australian made all cotton coat which was probably last worn by John Wayne in a spaghetti western (It's ok, he has the wide brimmed hats to go with it...)


So, when in Sutton and in need of a good sweater or a pair of gardening pants, this is the place to go to. It's open every Wednesday and Saturday. See you there!
Pix by Manfried