Du Jour Boutique and Gallery

Borrow a dress for the night. Sure!
So as it turns out, not many people know about this hidden gem. The concept of borrowing a dress that you know you can’t afford but you would love to wear it or another reason for borrowing because you’re the type that wears dresses & gowns once and stick it back in the closet never to wear it again. This boutique is a one of a kind store where you can borrow a dress or if you love the dress so much, you can buy the dress.
The boutique carries many designers ranging from Sue Wong, Maison to local designers like Carlie Wong which you may have seen her on Project Runway. The boutique also carries dress sizes from 0 – 24. All these dresses are personally hand picked by the owner and most of these dresses are one of a kind. The dresses are gorgeous and have so much detail in them especially if the dress has a lot of beading.
The boutique also carries jewellery, scarves, & clutches. Like the boutique on facebook because the owner will update his followers with new arrivals for customers to buy or borrow.

Okay.
Borrowing clothes that you can’t afford to buy?
Yes. Here.
And if you want to buy something you can too. The crosstown location is in a soon to be very populated area, still a bit shady because of the location but not too bad. They carry a huge array of sizes, 0 – 24 and carry major labels: Betsy Johnson, Thien Le, What Comes Around Goes Around, Tribute by Heni Neman, and Eugenia Designs, and handbags from Mary Frances. It’s also very focused on artful designer goods as well, which is a nice change from the usual.

When I first spotted a construction crew at 628 Abbott Street, my curiosity was peaked. When I walked by the second time and glanced to see zebra print walls and the beginnings of what seemed to be something intriguing, I finally asked someone standing outside the space what was going to be going into the area. Little did I know that the fellow I was speaking with was Klay Kaulbach, the owner of Du Jour Boutique and Gallery.
Du Jour is a jewel in the land of concrete and jackhammers that is this area of town at the moment. Kaulbach revealed to me upon my first visit into the shop that his and his partner’s first idea for the store was a more natural, earthy tone. Upon the vision of the zebra print wall (and very likely, much before then…), their minds were changed and a gilted, shining jewellery box of a store was opened.
Kaulbach also admitted to me that he was nervous about me writing this review but I admitted that I had considered giving it five stars without even fully viewing the inside!!! As the store was on my way to various areas in my immediate neighborhood, I spent far too much time poking my nose in to see how much work had been done, when finally (!!) the day came when I could physically come into the shop!
Stunning, gorgeous, beautiful and simply lovely are a few of a million anecdotes I would use to describe Du Jour and the women’s apparel in the wee shop. Innovative and unique are a couple of other words I would use to describe the idea behind the clothes. That being, there are three different price tags on each of the beautiful gowns by each of the amazing designers. One being the price ‘du jour’, the other is the price to ‘borrow’. Borrow, you ask? I did too and Kaulbach was kind enough to let me know that each dress, gown, jacket and other such fabulous item was available for a three day, four night rental at a fraction of the cost. Once the clothing had been borrowed a few times, the price du jour would subsequently go down. Fabulous, no?! For those of us ladies with champagne taste on a beer budget, this concept is liberating and fantastic! I may not have three hundred dollars to spend on a designer evening gown but I might just have a third (or less!!!) to borrow that same dress.
Du Jour carries mostly stunning and unique dresses and evening wear from international and local designers, including some fabulous one-off’s from Gucci and Dior, amongst others. Kaulbach and his partner make every effort to track down the latest fabulous designers of tantalizing women’s apparel and it shows. The red carpet down the centre of the store and the racks along either side make this every ladies dream closet, especially mine!!!