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For over 40 years, Maria has had an invisible hand in hundreds and hundreds of weddings. She is now retiring.
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There is a small local fashion crisis taking place that you may not be aware of. It’s not just restricted to the bridal business, but that’s where it will be most evident.
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This summer, brides may look just a tad less soigné, a smidge less fabulous.
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Oh sure, they’ll still look radiant, but to the trained eye, the hand-beaded bodices may lack a certain “je ne sais quoi”, the lace veils might appear a little short on poetry. You see, the local expert has folded her tent. Folded her tent and gone home for good.
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Maria Fonseca has shut down her business.
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And just who is Maria Fonseca?
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For over 40 years, Maria has had an invisible hand in hundreds and hundreds of weddings. In fact, there’s a good chance that you have seen one of her creations float down the aisle or under the bimah or on the steps at City Hall. If you ask Maria exactly how many brides’ dresses she’s either made or altered, she’ll just shrug and say, “Too many to count.”
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For decades, Maria ran a Vancouver business called Fashion Atelier. She was the absolute go-to for bridal gowns, not to mention mother-of-the-bride dresses. Maria made a good portion of these wedding dresses from scratch, but she also handled countless others purchased at local bridal salons, who ushered eager brides into her capable care.
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The bridal business presents something of an occupational hazard. Wedding dresses eat up a lot of real estate, and brides eat up a lot of patience. If you were to drop by Fashion Atelier you couldn’t help but notice the froth and shimmer of dozens of pale gowns racked around the perimeter of her workspace. Along with being voluminous, wedding gowns are heavy — shifting them around takes considerable upper-body strength.
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Maria did work outside of wedding dresses. She made me a few things, including my own mother-of-the-bride dress. But she was noted for her formal wear, especially bridal gowns. She put a lot into each dress, and her advice combined sagacity along with economy. She would tell you where to blow the budget and where to reign in costs. On occasion, I’d find Maria patiently removing lace from an old gown — usually the mother-of-the-bride’s dress from decades prior — so as to affix it to the current bride’s dress. I don’t know anyone else who performed this sentimental, but labour-intensive work.
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What Maria does (did) is in rare supply in Canada. Couturier-level seamstress skills are a vanishing art. Part engineering, part surgical dexterity, part elevated aesthetics acquired from years of observation — her work spoke of a mastery acquired from a young age and practised daily over a lifetime. This, in a world where, today, few people can even sew on a button.
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Maria’s work was exemplary. Recently, at the Hospice Opportunity Boutique in Kerrisdale, a shop that supports the Vancouver Hospice Society, a dress in the vintage section caught my eye. Even at 20 paces, its construction was noteworthy: precision top-stitching, hand-finished bound button holes, buttons anchored with genuine button twist thread, as well as a proper shank. I had to have a closer look, and there was the label — Fashion Atelier. The dress had been made by Maria. Of course it had.
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So, Maria Fonseca has retired. After working six days a week for almost half a century, while raising a son on her own, she has finally called it quits. The transition isn’t easy. How do you disrupt a lifetime of routine and habit? How do you suddenly eliminate a community of people you’ve spent most of your life amongst? How do you discard all the flotsam and jetsam of a commercial enterprise? Maria’s collection of spools thread alone numbered in the hundreds. And it’s specialty thread, not stuff you can pick up at a dollar store.
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The lure of retirement is immense, but the reality is a series of difficult adjustments, many of them unidentifiable until you’re in the throes of it all. Many of us live in anticipation of that hallowed day in the future when we don’t set the alarm, don’t do the commute, and don’t worry about the details. And then that day arrives, freighted with its own challenges.
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Heaven knows Maria has earned her retirement, but it really is a loss. The professional landscape of the city has lost an artisan and ethical businesswoman. Someone with the mettle to go it alone and to deliver a topflight product to the community. Someone who developed trusted relationships with people.
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Future brides may have to forgo the redeployment of the family lace, but it’s Maria’s rare amalgam of professionalism and thoughtfulness that I’m going to miss.
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Jane Macdougall is a freelance writer and former National Post columnist who lives in Vancouver. She writes The Bookless Club every Saturday online and in The Vancouver Sun. For more of what Jane’s up to, check out her website, janemacdougall.com
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This week’s question for readers:
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Question: How do you view retirement?
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Send your answers by email text, not an attachment, in 100 words or less, along with your full name to Jane at thebooklessclub@gmail.com. We will print some next week in this space.
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Last week’s question for readers:
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Question: Do you cook with alcohol? Any tips?
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• A few years back, my wife and I had an almost four-hour tour of an Italian grappa distillery. At the end of the tour, our guide noted we were from B.C., famous for our salmon. She said that they were trying to pair foods with grappa and gave us a spray bottle of grappa to mist over planked salmon — a wonderful use of grappa.
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Rick Bortolussi
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• One side of our fridge faces the stove. On the exposed portion are a number of magnets with short quotations pertaining to the culinary art. Here’s one that fits your question: “I like cooking with wine. Sometimes I even put some in the food.”
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Peter Zirpke
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• I love finding a recipe and then adding a bit of “life” to it. My go-to is using dark rum in main dishes, and typically a liqueur in a dessert. My children, knowing me so well, gave me my favourite Father’s Day present: a cookbook entitled, “Cooking With Booze”. The best recipe so far is Canadian Club and maple syrup-glazed salmon — a truly Canadian dish. I have to say, though, my favourite recipe is my late sister’s. I have named it “Carole’s Rum Ribs”, made with — of course — dark rum.
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Ed Welters
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• I often use alcohol such as coffee liqueur, brandy or rum when making European-style pastries, tiramisu and tortes. It adds flavour to the sponge part of a cake, making it moist and very yummy. Red wine works well with sauteed trout. I add it together with chopped Italian parsley towards the end of cooking, wait until it is reduced, and serve. The trout needs to be salted and peppered inside and out, then fried in olive oil and butter, with fresh chopped garlic.
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Katarzyna Laskowska
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• I have been trying for 23 years to use up a cupboard full of liqueurs. It is not exactly cooking but marinating: orange slices or strawberries with Cointreau or Grand Marnier, prunes with port, figs with pernod, poached pears with Amaretto, rum on bananas, brandy on peaches, pisco with grapes. All served with whipped cream.
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Brenda Hochachka
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• When making beef stroganoff, add two tablespoons of cognac right at the end of the cooking process. Stir well to combine, then set the pan aside to let the sauce thicken. Adds a lovely flavour to an already delicious dish.
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John Ketteringham
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• Vodka penne is numero uno. Whisky in marmalade, as well as on haggis is a must.
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• I learned through a travel group to carry a 100ml spray bottle filled with vodka on trips. Odourless, it freshens clothes and helps the wrinkles fall out when unpacking on arrival.
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Madeleine Lefebvre
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• My mother used up the “heels” of liquor bottles in her fruit cake. Mind you, if your family and friends don’t like fruitcake, you may just have created something else that sits around.
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Jeanie Parker
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• A knob of butter, a tablespoon of any old liqueur or liquor, plus maybe a teaspoon of sugar, heat till it thickens, then drizzle over just about anything. Delicious.
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F. Yeung
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