Britex fabrics

With approximately 12,000 square feet of retail space on four floors, Britex Fabrics offers the largest selection of fine fabrics on the West Coast. The store's four floors are packed to the rafters with exclusive and popular fabrics, notions, accessories, and fabulous home decorating fabrics and finishings.

On a quick tour of the store, one will find the following treasures;

First Floor: Thousands of bolts of woolens, countless silks, couture laces, velvets, brocades, and designer fabrics.

Second Floor: Home decor, European cottons and linens, rayons, polyesters, velvets and sheers .

Third Floor: European trims and ribbons, 30,000 styles of buttons both modern and antique, bridal findings, accessories, notions, patterns.

Fourth Floor: Remnants, imported knits, lycras, fabulous fake furs, nets and tulles, felts and vinyls.

Britex Fabrics has served several generations of visitors from around the world as well as local residents who have found the selection of luxurious and elegant fabrics unmatched anywhere in the world. Many repeat clients first began shopping here as young brides and now bring their own grown daughters and granddaughters to peruse the vast selection of bridal and home decor, fabrics, accessories, and trims. Customers also range from home sewers to fashion designers, from interior designers to Hollywood and theater costumers.

The discriminating clientele of San Francisco's oldest fabric store has come to rely on the unerring eye of matriarch Lucy Spector who visits mills around the world several times a year. Her love of beautiful textures and patterns inspires her to bring home the most exquisite and exclusive fabrics available in the world and offer them under one roof at Britex Fabrics. With daughters Beverly and Sharman growing up in the business, a strong foundation is in place for a future of surprises in the fabric world. We invite you to visit and enjoy the sensory adventure at 146 Geary Street!

Britex at 60: The fabric of our lives in S. F.

Over near the bolts of cotton quilting fabric on the third floor stands Melody Chan Doss. who started at Britex in 1979 as a cashier and learned "from the ground up." She takes pride in the fabric, describing a cheerful new line of organic cottons as "happy family members that all get along."

Not far away is Maya Gorokhovskaya, who was hired at Britex 23 years ago speaking only a few words of English and is now known as the "Button Lady," and loves any button that sparkles.

On the first floor, near the "wall of wool," stands Ina Zholudova, whose eyes well with emotion as she talks about Britex as a place where imagination meets possibility, where the color and richness of America contrasted to the bleakness of all she had known in Ukraine.

Britex, the sewing and fabric emporium opened on Union Square in 1952 by Polish immigrant Martin Spector and his Austrian wife, Lucy, is celebrating 60 years in San Francisco. It has managed to thrive through changing times, from the era of home-economics classes to a time when customers tap their smart phones or tablets to explain fabric and design ideas.

And through it all, the shop has stayed in the family. It is now run by daughter Sharman Spector .

"We are still about good old-fashioned service and old-fashioned charm," Sharman Spector said. "But we are also very modern. We get a lot of do-it-yourselfers and, seasonally, the Burning Man crowd. We are constantly evolving."

Taking a tour of the four floors, starting at the top, Spector showed off the discounted remnants, faux fur, pillow forms, netting and athletic fabric.

"This floor is where you find a lot of the costume makers and the Burning Man people," she said. "Our faux fur is especially popular."

On the third floor, she rhapsodized about the ribbons, from classic grosgrain to the hand-dyed silks and velvets, and the embellishments, including tassels, lace, silk flowers and hairpieces. She showed off the purse handles and the iron-on patches for everyone from military to kids. And, she stopped at the button counter, with 75,000 styles of buttons.

"I started in the ribbons department, then I moved to trim, and now I'm the queen of buttons," laughed Gorokhovskaya. "I walk down the street and people say, 'That's the button lady!' I love all the buttons, though I particularly love anything with rhinestones. The sparklier, the better."

She added, "When I first came to apply for this job, I was afraid to even walk in. But I met Sharman's mom, Lucy, and she was from Austria and she gave me a chance. She really gave me a new life."

Heading to the second floor, Spector passed by the perfectly rolled bolts of cotton and linen, and fabric for upholstery and drapes.

"I love the creativity here, and the way we try to help customers," said Doss. "We do have a lot of people come in with their iPads, and we work with them. But we also tell them this is a human process. We are not barcoded. There is creativity and imagination that goes into this. I love working with customers, whether they are here for a quarter of a yard of fabric, or for thousands of yards of fabric."

Back on the first floor, Spector stood just inside the front door.

"My parents came out to San Francisco on vacation and saw this place and my father said, 'We are taking that store.' One of the first things my dad did was to create a 'wall of wool,' which we have today."

When Martin Spector died in 1966, Lucy Spector set about enlarging the business.

"My mother really introduced the magic of European fabrics," Spector said.

Standing nearby was Zholudova, who landed her first job in America at Britex.

"Twenty-two years here," she said, nodding her head. "It has changed a lot, but it is still a family business. It is a mecca. I look at all of the colors and fabric and feel happy. To me, it is a place where art happens."

Britex

10 a. m.-6 p. m. Mon.-Sat. 146 Geary St. S. F. (415) 392-2910. www. britexfabrics. com .

Твиты

Britex Fabrics @ Britex_Fabrics · 29 окт.

Did you know we get visitors from all over the world? A blogger from Germany featured her visit to Britex! http:// umsaumundkragen. blogspot. de/2014/10/welten bummler. html …

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