Where to go, what to buy. By Helen Racanelli 

Parpar
Toronto,
649 St Clair Ave W
416-657-3333


Stephanie's Favourites

Boxed set of four dessert plates with a vintage mannequin motif, $25

Art de la Table box of multicolour pencils, $14

Pack of five letterpress office folders labelled Urgent, Ignore, Later, Much Later and Never, $20 - thought you'd never find a filing system to your liking, didn't you? (See "Shopping News," page 33 for more on the letterpress technique.)


insider's view

"It looks like a candy shop on the outside!" owner Stephanie Benaich says of her storefront near Toronto's budding Wychwood neighbourhood. That sugary palette hints at some of the sweet goods inside: French stationery, Victorian chintz rugs, cottage white French country-style furniture, a baby section to knock even itsy-bitsy booties off, and Cake Beauty lotions.


Stephanie's Splurges

Cottage white French country-style armoire, $1,450

A Touch of Ivy's lily-scented ballgown-shape sachet in a Pucci-style print, $86

Mongolian shaggy blanket in pink, white or caramel, $850, with matching pillow, $125


retail savvy

Stephanie has been learning the retail ropes since she was knee-high. Her parents own the clothing store Saint Honore and brother owns Living2 on Avenue Road.


household goodies

Parpar, which means butterfly in Hebrew, has terrific finds, like oversize doormats, $90, Art de la Table menu stationery, $28 per pack of 10, and Good Home Co's laundry detergent, $28.

kid's play

Customers gravitate to the kid's section for painted wooden toy boxes, from $90, and rustic wooden table-and-two-chair sets in pink, green and blue, $350. One of Stephanie's faves: a vintage buffet repurposed to be a girl's dresser, in baby pink, $1,450.


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