FASHION Magazine

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A cold day two of Vancouver’s Eco Fashion Week had attendees sporting last season’s winter coats or shivering in this season’s diaphanous dresses, which was fine by Indigenous Designs, who showed first. The California-based label, which uses fair trade and organic materials, sent out a succession of cozy knits in all nature of rich fall colours and patterns. Topping off every look was a very Spring ’12 Miu Miu-esque red eye.

Next Kreati-Ka, designed by French Seattleite Kathy Sabin-Mensah, brought far dressier fare to the runway. She succeeded most with some wearable yet sexy shifts with sheer insets or overlays. Her last grand, voluminous gown got some oohs and ahhs and then some oh nos as the model wearing it tripped a number of times on its extra length.

Frugalistas everywhere will agree that $50 is the perfect number. Whether it’s a pair of shoes, jeans, a jacket, a sweater, a dress, if you can get it for $50, you know you are paying a very reasonable price. Any more you’ll probably think twice about it, but $50—now that is a nice round number. That can easily be justified.

Buying locally designed clothes from boutiques is something we all probably wish we could do more of, but in reality small labels can often only produce small quantities and boutiques pay high rents—both of which drive up prices.

So what if you could get the best of both worlds—locally designed and boutique items for under $50?