ABSTRACT
Retailing Fashion in Montreal. A Study of Stores,
Merchants and Assortments, 1845-1915
Elizabeth Sifton
1994
In the period covered by this study, Montreal developed
into the largest industrial center in Canada. Dry goods-related industry and trade
represented a high proportion of the commerce of the city, the dry goods merchants of
Montreal supplying the growing nation's needs for textiles as wholesale importers and
distributors. Some of these dry goods merchants concentrated on the developing retail
trade in Montreal, and acquired a reputation for fine quality merchandise. They become
fashion retailers, and by the 1890s some of their shops would become department stores,
offering not only textiles, but a wide variety of manufactured products. Parallel with the
development of merchandise assortments, there were major changes in store buildings.
Technological advances in design and construction were incorporated, as were customer
services of various kinds. By the first decade of the 20th century, store assortments
increasingly featured ready-to-wear fashions. At the same time, advertising, a newly
developing profession, emphasized to the customer the importance of always owning 'the
newest'. By catering to this new type of consumer, merchants changed dry goods retailing
into fashion merchandising.
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