Irma Roman immigrated to Montreal from Mexico City in 1977, but it wasn’t until 2004 that she opened St- Antoine Importations on the cobblestone streets of Duluth Avenue. Here you can find household decorations and fixtures that can’t be found anywhere else in the city because they aren’t even made in Canada. They come straight from the artisans in her home country.
“I noticed there was a lack of really interesting handcrafted pieces from Mexico, especially the quality ones,” says Irma. “So my partner, Gilles Bedard, and I decided to open a store, but at the same time we wanted to have a fair trade with the artisans.”
Every single item at St-Antoine Importations is handcrafted in Mexico, and Irma prides herself on the sound business relationships she maintains with the artisans. She never goes through a middleman, and dealing directly allows her to pay a reasonable price for their wares while also allowing her to charge her customers a reasonable price as well.
Montreal is full of world decorations and artisanal craft shops. These traders will make your nomadic soul relive the Zen of retirement in Bali or the thousand-and-one Marrakesh market smells!