Attention Cool Hunters!

The Proof Designs studio smells slightly toxic, thanks to a combination of the resin pendants that are setting in their moulds and the dental technician's office downstairs.

The space is in an industrial neighbourhood in South Vancouver, but it's convenient for Nicole von Szombathy and Roslind Angus, who together make up Proof.

Von Szombathy's father is the aforementioned dental technician and having a studio above his office allows access to his old tools, which the pair use to finish their pieces.

Von Szombathy and Angus, both in their early twenties, are not unlike many local designers creating unique, handmade pieces. This province has an arsenal of fiercely original up and coming designers who thrive in a fashion market saturated with clothing produced off shore.

Main Street growing up

"I think everyone's getting a little bit sated with Banana Republic and the Gap and those kind of cookie-cutter designs," says Jacqueline Kirby, Executive Director of Apparel BC, who has watched Vancouver's fashion design neighbourhoods sprout and grow.

"The innovative designers at one time had a really hard time and they would go to areas like Main Street where there are low-rent districts and start off themselves," she says.

With stores like The Barefoot Contessa, Welcome Home Eugene Choo, and Life of Riley, Kirby says that neighbourhood is now a shopping destination for people who want beautifully made clothes. A similar cluster of small stores with locally produced clothing have popped up on Cordova Street.

"The majority of people here are small and medium sized owner-operated businesses and they lack the capital to go off shore so we still have quite a thriving production center," she says.

Thanks to the whimsical style of Proof's designs and the support of local shops, Angus and von Szombathy have found it relatively easy to break into the Vancouver market. At the beginning of January, Angus says Proof was sold in only one store. Now, it's sold in eight.

Advantages over Toronto

"Compared to the Toronto market, I think Vancouver people and business owners are really excited for local designers. The market hasn't been flooded with too many local artists," says Angus, who holds an honours degree in business administration from the Richard Ivey School of Business.

"We are in the Toronto market, but trying to get face time there, you pretty much have to plan a year in advance, or two whole seasons in advance, in order to get anywhere with them because they are a much more mature fashion market," says Angus.

Proof's sterling silver-finished necklaces and earrings take at least four days to make and vary in size and shape. Some are imbedded with vintage photographs. Others are stamped with statements reminiscent of Valentine's Day candy hearts such as 'I want you'. Some feature less sugary declarations like 'I would like you if you were mute'.

Proof's designs are as much conversation pieces as accessories and attract the attention of people on the street, on the bus and at parties.

"I started the business because I got approached so much from wearing the jewelry myself," says von Szombathy.

"One girl, before I started, ran up to me with her phone number and said 'If you're ever selling them, give me a call and I'll buy them from you."

And so it was that von Szombathy began Proof.

A designer's Dream

When Wendy de Kruyff was in her mid-twenties, with little business experience and no formal education in design, she opened Dream Apparel in Gastown.

Though the shop began in 1993 by showcasing a lot of de Kruyff's own designs as well as imported pieces, it now almost exclusively carries clothing and accessories from what she calls "the last frontier of independent thought" - British Columbia.

Over the years that she has been paying close attention to designers in this province, de Kruyff says they have only been getting better and better. She believes consumers are taking notice and buying locally designed products for their aesthetic value and practicality, not out of obligation.

"It's not a matter of pity," she says. For years, though, de Kruyff doesn't think that was the case. "There was almost an 'It's local so I'll take a second look' from some people."

But no longer. De Kruyff believes British Columbians embrace the idea of supporting local designers, but won't compromise style.

"We like handmade things here," she says. "And that doesn't mean handmade in that it's poorly made or crudely done or anything like that, but we like the idea of something being unique and special."

'Nowhere to wear them'

A perfect example of the unique and special would be the couture that Jolie Chan drafts, designs, sews and styles.

The Vancouver-born Kwantlen grad, who designs jewelry, headpieces, shoes and, of course, clothing, says she has placed in the top ten in Vancouver Fashion Week since it started. The only exception being when she was on an exchange in Europe and didn't enter the show.

Vancouver is a difficult market for the 22-year-old's bold, colourful and outrageously detailed creations.

"Even if you sell these garments, there's nowhere to wear them," says Chan, who plans to work with the film and theatre industries.

Chan's pieces take a "good week" to create. But exactly how many hours that translates to, Chan couldn't say. Day, night, she says she looses track when sewing.

"This one is my favourite," she says, gesturing to the purple ruffled and feathered dress her mother helps disassemble backstage after a show at Vancouver Fashion Week.

The piece was the last Chan made for the shows, and it matched her outfit, which was no accident - she made it too. Chan's metallic green stilettos complemented her model's sparkly green headpiece. It's all in the details, after all.

The iron needle?

In Chloe Angus' work, which was also on display at Vancouver Fashion Week, the most notable details might be the brooches that pepper many of her garments.

Angus was one of three up-and-coming designers chosen to compete in a Fashion-Television-meets-Iron-Chef episode of Life Network's Making it Big.

After being given what Angus describes as "awful fabrics" and only two hours to make a cocktail dress, contestants presented their work to the scrutinizing eyes of Saks Fifth Avenue's buyers.

Though Angus says the show producers combed North America looking for contestants, all designers were based north of the 49th parallel.

"It says a lot about Canadian designers," she says.

Cool hunting in BC

What says a lot about British Columbian designers are the trend-spotters who de Kruyff noticed have trekked to our corner of the world in search of the next big thing.

"Can they find it in some obscure city on the West Coast of Canada perhaps?" de Kruyff says.

Well, maybe.

De Kruyff cites a Dolce & Gabbana show several seasons ago that featured distinct fabric similar to that which Heather Young, who designs Dust, used in one of her earlier shows. At the same time, the Italian design duo put out a t-shirt emblazoned with 'Vancouver'.

Coincidence? De Kruyff thinks not.

Over the years she has noticed the international fashion scene has been paying attention to us. Not that de Kruyff thinks it's all that important.

"Whatever the world gets out of [BC designers], will be up to them," she says.

"A lot of the designers here are just content to get their stuff done and put it out there and see if they can make a living out of it."

Kelsey Dundon is on staff at The Tyee.