The Garment Worker statue
When we were in New York last month (amazing, by the way!), I visited the famous Mood Fabrics on West 37th St. It’s such a huge shop - I was so excited! I’d actually planned to spend some time wandering around the broader garment district - but I spent so long in Mood, I never went to any other fabric shops. So that’s another thing on the to-do list for a repeat trip to NYC!
Here are my tips on how to shop at Mood Fabrics, mashed together with a diary of my own experience.
Finding the store - it’s not at street level. I walked past the shop at first because I was looking for a window display. Turns out you have to go into an office-style foyer, and take the lift to the 3rd floor. You exit the lift directly into the shop.
Needle Threading a Button
Don’t go on a Sunday. It seems the whole garment district is closed on a Sunday! Thankfully, we realised before actually getting there (and we went to MoMA instead, yay).
Give yourself plenty of time. I spent 2 hours in Mood, and I could easily have spent another hour in there if we didn’t have other plans. There are loads of other stores in the garment district, so personally I’d factor in a whole afternoon if you want to explore. By the way, in Mood, the women’s bathroom is on the same floor as the lift, near the silks. Very useful to be able to refresh yourself if you’re planning an extended session!
Fabric
More fabric
Silks
Prepare to see a lot of fabric. Honestly I think I spent about 15 minutes just orienting myself! There are three floors, they’re stacked to the ceiling with fabrics, and they have all sorts of things that I’ve rarely seen elsewhere. Just so much choice.
Fancy fabrics
Brocades
Do a lap of the whole store first. I’m used to much smaller stores that have a few versions of the each of the common types of fabric substrate and weave. In Mood, there were entire aisles dedicated to wool knits, silk twills, etc. Whole racks of just denim. There’s a whole leather section too.
Leather
Wool knits
Getting your fabric cut. I carried my bolt of fabric to the nearest till and asked them to cut it for me. They filled out a little receipt and put a sticker on the fabric, so I could carry on shopping and pay at the end. I’m not totally sure if I was supposed to ask the staff to get the bolt out for me, but it seemed to go OK! There are some areas where it’s clear that you have to go to a specific till, e.g. the denim corner.
Buttons and haberdashery. Just like with the fabrics, you need to take buttons and haberdashery to the haberdashery counter to get a receipt, before you can pay for them. The tills are for purchasing only. Guess how I know :)
Browsing
Overwhelm
What did I buy?
Of course I bought fabric! I took four lengths home with me:
Linen
Linen
Printed linen in a sort of Persian rug style. I told my husband to pick out some fabric for me to make him a shirt, and he chose this - I think it’s a lovely choice!
Garden plants printed linen. This is really rather soft, so I’m going to make a shirt for myself out of it.
Silk
Denim
Bright blue silk satin. I’ve never worked with silk, so this might wait a while until I get gather the courage. But it’s super vibrant and gorgeous. It’ll be a lovely blouse.
Patchwork effect denim. I considered buying a more classic denim, but I just kept coming back to this one. I’m not sure if it’s going to be jeans or a jacket, but either way I think it’s going to be great.