Tales from the trenches of fashion: Fiorito

We were strolling along Queen West, peering in all the storefronts when we were arrested.

Not by coppers.

By a coat.

In a small and stylish shop, and when she tried it on you would have thought she had just stepped off the street and into the movies; impeccable fit, perfect tailoring.

As the fairest of them all was looking at the mirror on the wall, I struck up a conversation with the owners of the shop.

Jennifer Halchuk and Richard Lyle are designers as well as shopkeepers; their store, Gaspard, carries a small selection of very smart pieces, including their own. We talked idly about the nature of the fashion business, and of the difficulty of competing with cheap goods made