Skip to main content

It's not often that you hear the words "breastplate," "Calgary" and "fashion" in the same sentence.

But then it's not every day that you hear about someone like Kat Marks, the Calgary-bred designer who is causing an international stir with her futuristic breastplates, leather bibs and poufy mantles. Earlier this year, Marks showcased her latest neckpieces in a slick online short called The Karass, produced by fashion-film impresario Nick Knight. In 2012, she will debut her first signature men's-wear collection in London.

At 25 and only seven months after completing her master's degree at the London College of Fashion, Marks has designs on Paris's top couture houses and a master plan to head one as creative director. Surprisingly, though, she's a relative unknown in Canada; the fashion scene she has stormed is Europe's.

And she isn't alone. Marks is one in a growing group of young Canuck designers who are finding a larger, more receptive audience overseas.

"It's just more avantgarde here, more acceptable to push boundaries," Marks says of London from her studio in the city's Marylebone neighbourhood. "There isn't enough eccentricity in Canada. If I produced there what I produce here, it wouldn't be considered valuable."

While Marks recognizes there's an emerging creative class in North America's bigger cities, she finds that the definition of "fashion" at home is typically more commercial. Her peer Thomas Tait, possibly the most lauded young Canadian designer to have recently made London his base, agrees. When he participated recently in LG Fashion Week in Toronto, he says, "all the interns backstage were fashion marketing students, not design students."

A native of Montreal, Tait studied at LaSalle College before transferring to Central Saint Martins, alma mater of John Galliano and Alexander McQueen. "Fashion education in Canada is more focused on technical ability – making, production and marketing," Tait says. "It's definitely a strong industry, but it's more the 'apparel industry.' Then, when you go to the U.K., fashion is taught within an arts context. There's a huge support system in London – especially [for]young designers – and it's kind of a tough system to go up against."

Just as Hollywood became known as Canada West in the nineties, when it began draining talent such as Mike Myers and Jim Carrey – and, later, Rachel and the Ryans – London these days often feels like Canada East, welcoming a growing fashion diaspora that began with footwear designer Patrick Cox in the eighties and was bolstered by style bloggers and editors such as Montreal's Caroline Issa and Oakville, Ont.'s Leith Clark. Issa and Clark, the women behind the highly successful Tank and Lula magazines, respectively, were key in bringing street style to the mainstream.

True, some Canadians who have stayed home are doing their best to shake things up. In fact, British design glossy Wallpaper* dedicated a chunk of its November issue to Canada's homegrown creative talents, including furniture designer Shawn Place of Prince George, B.C., Montreal photographer Jessica Eaton and Bing Thom Architects of Vancouver.

Yet Nick Compton, who edited the issue, admits the magazine has "been more diverted by food trends in Canada than design. Certainly, there are great new restaurants and stores. But I think there has been something of a malaise in North American product design for a while now."

Ironically, the U.K. used to be the last place on Earth you'd want to end up as a student with few dollars to stretch. Now, creative communes are rife in London for post-grads looking for a live-work space. They tend to be clustered in the east end of the city, fostering a sense of community among arty types. The exchange rate, which once felt like a kick to the gut, is more favourable these days. And designers who depend on Europe – whether for manufacturing or markets – are just a train ride away from London.

Besides, a British "youth mobility" program allows Canadians between the ages of 18 and 31 to work in the U.K. for up to two years. The equivalent doesn't exist for New York or L.A., the other obvious choices for young Canucks with international ambitions.

So does the secret to Canadian designerati success require a one-way ticket to the old country?

"There is a lot more of a connection to many foreign markets in London and that includes magazines, trades, design houses, everything you need to make it on an international level," says Marks, whose roommate and fellow London fashion grad, John Brunswick, is from Toronto. Bloggers have deemed Brunswick "one to watch" for his unconventional footwear in primary colours.

B.C.-born Tracey Neuls, a footwear designer known for teaming up with likeminded collaborators on art installations, recently opened her second London boutique. "In my industry, it's next to impossible to do footwear in Canada," she says. "That was my main reason for leaving. It's not supported."

Neuls, whose business relies on Italian leathers and craftsmen, describes an innate curiosity for design in Europe. "You can drive around Italy, through a town with a population of 2,000, and you'll always find a design shop. I see the opposite in Canada."

Furthermore, she suggests, taste in Canada is manipulated by middlemen whose expectations for shoppers are low. "Buyers will come in and say, 'I personally love your shoes, but the Canadian woman will never understand them.' They ruin it for everyone."

Interact with The Globe