Bohème Friperie - Bohème Vintage

In Montreal’s trendy Mile End neighbourhood you can find a number of thrift stores, but Bohème Friperie was the first one on the block. Lorraine Levesque opened the store in 1997 because it seemed like the natural next stop in a long time passion for good clothing that began during a trip to India in the early 80s. While she was there, she began to experiment with designing and creating her own clothing.

“I had so many ideas because in India there is a tailor at every street corner. I was able to transform my ideas into reality, and having loved the experience I came back home with a collection of my designs and the desire to go to school and actually learn the trade and become a fashion designer," Lorraine says. She enrolled in fashion design at College Lasalle in 1984.

Before opening Bohème Friperie she gave birth to her son and started looking for second hand clothing to dress him. While doing so, she started finding beautiful and interesting second hand clothing and accessories for adults and the idea of making a business out of it started to arise. When her son was old enough to start school, the time was right to open the store and by then she already had a lot of clothing to fill the racks.