Hall of Fame baseball player Roberto Alomar has shopped here as has the Canadian hockey icon Don Cherry.Spread over about 7,000 sq.ft, Sultan’s museum of super fine fabric houses 600,000 metres of the world’s best textile suited for the Maharajas, kings and princes
The Canadian Bazaar
TORONTO: Sultan’s Fine Fabrics is Toronto’s best kept secret. It is called the Fabric King of Canada.
Located at 89 Bentworth Avenue, West of Dufferin Street – South of Highway 401– Sultan’s Fine Fabrics is indeed a museum of super fine cloth for men in North America.
If you are looking for the world’s best Italian fabrics for suits, shirts, coats, blazers, jackets, wedding dress, sherwani, pyajama-kurta, dinner jackets, costumes, and interiors, it is your destination for in-store and online shopping.
High-end fabric here comes in all makes – silk, wool, cotton, Cashmere, Cashmere/Wool, Cashmere/Mink, Baby Alpaca and much more.
Sultan’s Fine Fabrics is the choice of celebrities.
Hall of Fame baseball player Roberto Alomar has shopped here as has the Canadian hockey icon Don Cherry.
“Don Cherry has been coming here for years. The Olympic runner Ben Johnson and other celebrities come here for their fabric choice,” says owner Sultan Moosa, pointing to a framed photo of Don Cherry in his front office.
There also hangs a picture of CBC newscaster Suhana Meharchand. “She and many people from TV networks are our clients. Costume designers from many TV network source their fabrics from us,” says Kolkata-born Sultan.
Sultan’s Fine Fabrics may be the choice of celebrities, but its clearance special sales at 80-90 percent of the original price are also the best bang for the buck for regular clients.
Dressing people in the very best fabric is his lifelong passion, says Sultan.
Not surprisingly, top clothing brands and bespoke tailors all over North America are his clients.
Pulling a thick sample book from a pile, he show different varieties of fabrics in them. “All major tailoring brands and bespoke tailors have our sample books to order what their clients want.”
He gets orders from bespoke tailors even from New Zealand.
“For our customers, we recommend Italian bespoke tailors. They come, take your measurements and deliver you the best custom-fitted suits that you will ever wear,” he says.
For his celebrity customers, Sultan also has celebrity tailors.
At Sultan Fine Fabrics, the world’s best fabric is also matched with the best buttons.
He prides himself on carrying exquisite buttons from England. “Feel these bottons. Each one of these costs $5.00. They are the best in the world,” says Sultan, showing a box full of shiny metal buttons for quality suits, jackets and coats.
Spread over about 7,000 sq.ft, Sultan’s museum of super fine fabric houses 600,000 metres of the world’s best textile suited for the Maharajas, kings and princes.
“All our fabric is imported from Italy, Germany, England, Austria and Switzerland. We import only from Europe,” he says, rising from his chair to give you a quick tour of the place.
As you walk through it, you see rolls and rolls of fabric piled up to the ceiling.
Moosa stops after every couple of steps to take out a roll and asking you to feel the fabric. “Touch and feel it. Fabric is all about feeling,” he says.
Indeed, the touch of each piece of fabric piece at Sultan’s Fine Fabrics is divine, silky, smooth and heavenly.
What is his exclusive and costliest fabric?
Pulling out a thick roll from a shelf, Sultan says, “This is it! Our exclusive and costliest fabric. It is called Vicuna. It sells for $5,500 per yard – or $6,000 per metre!”
$5,500 per yard?
“Yes, you got it right. It is $5,500 per yard,” he says.
“This is the world’s most exclusive and rare cloth and it costs more than $40,000 to tailor a coat. Only the Maharajas and the `super’ rich buy it. It is our sales pitch and sells once in a few years. A very wealthy woman bought two yards of it recently. Just feel it.”
Indeed, Vicuna yarn feels irresistible and heavenly.
Why is Vicuna yarn so costly?
“Because it is made of hair of a baby alpaca – an animal native to Peru. Baby alpaca sheds its hair only twice in four years. No more hair shedding after that. This hair is woven into the world’s most expensive wool,” explains Leroy Griffin, Moosa’s manager of 12 years.
The second finest fabric Sultan sells is a blend of Cashmere and Vicuna, and also Cashmere and Mink.
“It is one the world’s top-rated fabrics. It is 98 percent Cashmere and two percent Vicuna fabric. It is for coats and blazers and it sells at $2,250 per yard,” he says.
For top-end dress shirts, Sultan’s Fine Fabrics offers astonishing varieties of cotton made from Egyptian yarn/fabrics and woven in Italy and Switzerland.
“Your shirt defines you. We sell fabric made from Egyptian cotton that exhibits all the properties a man could want from a garment worn close to the body, good heat and moisture conduction, durability, smoothness, and the ability to take shape when ironed. We have over 200 colours,” he says.
“Fabric is in the feel, and what we sell is the Ferrari of fine cloth.”
What has he to offer to his own fast-growing Indo-Canadian community which spends lavishly on clothes?
“Many buy from us. They spend lavishly.”
Those who cannot spend lavishly?
“They can benefit from our clearance section where the last remaining pieces of any lot are sold at 80-90 percent discount,” he says.
“For Indo-Canadians, we also have made-in-Italy cotton kurta-pajamas which need no ironing,” says the man who came to Toronto from Kolkata 45 years ago.
One more thing, he adds. “Our 100% cotton or Cashlo (a blend of cotton and Cashmere) Corduroy that Is very popular among the Indian people. I have the world’s best corduroys which will never fray, never shed even a single thread. These come from Germany.”
Sultan’s love affair with textiles began very early in life.
After finishing his bachelor of commerce degree from St. Xavier’s College, he earned his textile diploma and joined a jute mill where he worked for three years before emigrating to Canada.
Landing in Toronto, Sultan joined men’s clothing shop Archie Fine Woollens on Spadina.
“I worked there for 20 years. Then the Jewish owner who was getting old sold it to me. By God’s grace and through our honesty and straight dealing, we have built a huge customer base.”
Sultan has not looked back since.
“Almost a dozen years ago, we renamed our business to Sultan’s Fine Fabrics,” he signs off.
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