Mondor’s textile mill in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu
If you're a dancer, a gymnast or a skater, chances are you've slipped on a pair of Mondor's near-indestructible tights, made with yarn knitted in-house and custom-dyed to match your sequined bodysuit or tiered tutu.
Founded 60 years ago by a most unlikely fashion maven—Montreal taxi driver Roger Deslauriers—the company originally produced nylon stockings for Quebec's high-fashion ladies. Today, Mondor's textile mill in Saint-Jean-sur-Richelieu is one of the few still standing in Canada, staffed by seamstresses, cutters and dyers whose skills are quickly dying out in this part of the world.
"If it's not made on a machine, it's made by hand and individually inspected," says Armando Guadagno, Mondor's general manager for the past 14 years. "We oversee all the details, including the tiny pale blue elastic on a child's leotard. It didn't exist in the marketplace, so we made it ourselves."
That attention to detail is why Mondor—which has sales of $12 million a year—is the official clothier of the Royal Academy of Dance in London, England, and sponsor of the organization's Olympics of classical dance, the Genée International Ballet Competition. The less choreographically inclined can find Mondor tights at major retailers across Canada, the United States and Europe