A century-old sewing shop reopens as a living exhibit of Montreal’s garment past

For 100 years, H. Fisher & Fils sold sewing supplies to everyone, from Cirque du Soleil to fashion school students pulling all-nighters. Its last owner, Esther Fisher, ran the place like a neighbourhood secret with odd hours and no online presence, only high-quality notions, humour, and a memory like a filing cabinet.

“She was a real force of nature,” says Zev Moses, director and founder of the Museum of Jewish Montreal. “She stayed meaningful to her community and customers for so long.”

Now, thanks to the museum, that time capsule is open to the public. H. Fisher has been revived as a living museum exhibit, complete with guided tours, community storytelling, and rotating art installations in the storefront window. It’s part preservation project, part oral history lab, and part love letter to a Montreal that’s vanishing too fast to archive.