The Canadian fashion fairy tale usually goes something like this: Designer cuts teeth on small and receptive national market, gets spotted on the backs of notable celebrities and thus recognized by international media, then migrates to New York or L.A. to open hip boutique in which most Canadians will never have the opportunity to drop a dime.
So it's refreshing, to say the least, when one of Canada's hottest fashion designers, spotted on stars such as Chantal Kreviazuk, Winona Ryder and Alanis Morissette, gets to step three in the story and decides to open her first shop in Vancouver.
Hajnalka Mandula (that's high-nal-kah man-doo-lah, for the record) is a name that has long been on the lips of industry insiders.
In fact, the Hungarian-born former model joined the rag trade almost eight years ago, creating garments from raw natural fibres, reworked leather and recycled wool.
People who know the line also knew it wasn't available [in Vancouver] any more, and they were almost pissed off, Mandula says. So I thought, why wouldn't I give this to Vancouver?
I live here, it's my home, and it's so important to push the city forward right now because we're getting [global] attention and we want to get away from the comments that it's only casual here.
Her shop lacks pretentiousness: One might even find the lanky designer herself ringing through sales behind the large glass desk that doubles as the checkout counter. Its minimalist storefront is on the cusp of Vancouver's Yaletown neighbourhood; former tenants were an art gallery and Canadian retail celebrity Campbell MacDougall's roving Komakino men's shop.
Mandula has made the space her own, however, adorning the floors with pairs of men's vintage dress shoes, and the whitewashed walls with rusted bolts and equestrian tack from which she has hung her tiny recycled leather purses that fasten with old keys.
Clothing hangs on floating bamboo poles, fastened to the high ceilings with thick rope. Enormous wooden spools are the only flat display units, and spiky vegetation grows from inside grey, rectangular metal boxes that held explosives in the Second World war.
Above three vintage mannequins in the front window dangle five large, 500-watt antique light bulbs. Each antique treasure Mandula found on road trips to Portland. I'm going for heavy metal here, for old and rusty, explains the designer.
I love the mix of organics with it. It gives it an edge and makes it unusual.
Indeed organic was a fundamental concept for Mandula long before it was trendy to meld a fashion agenda with an environmental conscience.
This season's line incorporates pieces of smooth beach glass, which she uses as buttons and fasteners on her recycled and organic fabrics, and boiled wools.
Layering and draping is key in the collection, which has a subtle Victorian flair. Highlights include a leg-of-mutton sleeve, ruffled collar, boiled-wool jacket, a tweed wool skirt layered with cotton gauze and pulled together into a vintage waistband, as well as crumpled silk tanks and bubble-shaped dresses.
Prices aren't cheap (clothing starts around $300 and spikes sharply from there), but neither is obsolescence a concern.
It's precisely her attention to quality that earned Mandula a rave review by Vogue on-line fashion doyenne Barbra Horowitz, who saw the collection when the designer exhibited for the first time at Gen Art's New Garde show at L.A.
Fashion Week for fall/winter 06. Mandula definitely stole the show, Horowitz wrote. Her installation was as polished and professional as you would expect from someone who has been designing her collection for over seven years.
Will Vancouverites get it? The most interesting and expensive piece went the moment I opened my door, Mandula says. I thought people would stay with more simple and casual, but people, local people, are buying the edgiest pieces.
I'm amazed. People are ready for this.
Mandula is at 882 Homer St.
, Vancouver, 604-720-3787, mandula.com.
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