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Sharp dressed man: Shop owner kept Burlington dapper for decades

Bernard Scrivener passed away March 13 at age 86
Chris Arnold
Chris Arnold

Prior to Burlington’s Village Square being finished, a sharp dressed man could be seen working on his own store. 

Bernard Scrivener – Bern to those who knew him – opened Scrivener’s menswear store as the first shop in the square in 1977. After a long career, long life, and lots of adventure, he died March 13. He was three days away from his 87th birthday. 

Bern and his wife Elaine spent 62 years together, moving the business around, raising a family, and collecting mementos from around Canada and the world.

In their apartment in the Port Nelson neighbourhood, Elaine was surrounded by a lifetime’s worth of photos, stories, and quality clothing. She spoke less of the business, and more of the man that she loves. The two met at United College Collegiate in Winnipeg. Elaine went into nursing, and Bern was picked up by Eaton’s – the now defunct department store brand that was as synonymous with Canada as The Bay is now, or was until recently. 

“Bern’s grandfather was in a supervisory position at Eaton’s, and his dad was a manager of several departments,” Elaine said. “He started there as a young man.”

Bern travelled around Europe representing Eaton’s, visiting trade shows and familiarizing himself with what quality clothing looked and felt like. Elaine was by his side every step of the way, leaving the nursing career behind in favour of clothing. 

The two were all but inseparable, aside from Bern’s semi-regular outings that the rest of us would consider the adventure of a lifetime. 

“In the summer of 1986, he and a group of friends flew out of Yellowknife and got dropped off,” Elaine said. “There was this long river, you’d barely put your line in the water and you’d catch a fish. They had a great trip, and one of the people on the trip was Gordon Lightfoot.”

Elaine said a group of Australians were also on the river, and pulled up to Bern’s campsite asking about a rumour that Lightfoot was in the area. He overheard and popped his head out of the tent, surprising the Aussies. 

Elaine did get to join him on occasion, recalling a kayak trip along the arctic coast that saw them driving to Ottawa to catch a plane to Nunavut. She had no idea what she had signed up for when they got married.

“I don’t think either of us knew really,” she said. “In Manitoba, both our families had cottages about 90 minutes from Winnipeg. It’s still a lovely area, and it was easy to get to. I didn’t ever go to his family cottage until we were dating, and he figured if I came to stay, the entertainment would be fishing. After a while, I figured I should take my book.”

When he was not in town, Bern would often be found in the woods. A photo on the mantle of Bern taken in the '70s or '80s shows him remarkably well dressed for being in the wild, more similar to a costume in an old safari movie than what a hiker or backpacker would wear today. He projected an image of someone who was put together, no matter the setting. 

That was Bern’s power, Elaine said. He knew from a quick glance how a person should be dressing depending on the situation. 

“A person would come to the store to say they have a business meeting in England or France, what should I wear?” she said. “He’d just start laying stuff out, pairing jackets with shirts, which go with these kinds of pants. They came back after to say they felt so comfortable, it’s an unspoken thing but it gives you so much more confidence.”

Both Bern’s father and grandfather worked for Eaton's in menswear; fashion was in his blood and he passed that tradition on to his daughter Monica, who worked for Abercrombie and Fitch, and then Harry Rosen in Oakville before joining her dad. Monica passed away in 2010 following a battle with cancer. 

Bern was nearing retirement, and eventually sold the business to three partners who continue to use his name on the building across the street from Burlington city hall. The name was originally supposed to be changed after three years, but both parties came to an agreement that the Scrivener's name was something of an institution in downtown Burlington and should be preserved. 

“He was kind of at a point where he was relaxed,” Dan Bishop, one of the partners who took over Scriveners, said. “He was very aristocratic in his ways, he was a different human being when you were up close and personal with him, having previously known him from a distance. I was greatly impressed actually.”

Bern came in from time to time, either to check in on things or to buy a new shirt or a pair of pants. The new, and current, owners were sure to give him the family and friends discount. 

Bern’s eye for detail and business intuition helped him keep Scrivener's afloat for the better part of 40 years. In that time, the styles changed, employees came and went, but he maintained those relationships. 

“When I came in, there was a women’s store as well, and I did not really know Bern until the two stores merged in the '90s,” Joelle Cooling, a former employee of Bern’s said. 

Cooling worked her way through school at Scrivener's, and stuck around for a while after graduation. The lessons Bern taught her about business stuck with her as she later opened her own store. Her husband also founded a clothing shop here. She remained in contact with the family to this day.

“He taught me the sensibility, the business side,” she said. “He had this blue book, and he would enter every sale into it. We didn’t have computers. He just taught me to be serious about your business but also to be responsible to the community. Have fun, be good to your people. He was stern at times, but for the most part he was fun.”

Bern was involved in the early days of Burlington’s BIA – which both he and Elaine were chairs of at one point – and helped organize the Christmas lights in Spencer Smith Park for the holiday season. He and Elaine helped the Lakeside A La Carte fundraiser. Bern cared just as much for the community as he did for the business that shared his name. After his passing, flags at city hall were lowered to half staff. 

When Bern was not in Burlington, he was likely at the Algonquin cottage in a canoe looking for fish. No matter where he was, he was well dressed.

Visitation for Bern will be held at Smith's Funeral Home, 1167 Guelph Line on Friday, April 25 from 4-7 p.m. Funeral Service will be held at St. Luke's Anglican Church, 1371 Elgin St. on Saturday, April 26, at 1 p.m. Interment at St. Luke's Cemetery. Reception to follow at the Art Gallery of Burlington.