Shannon's recent threads on NAS shopping and her frustration with the hassles of cross-border shopping really struck a chord with me. In Canada, unless you live in a major centre like Toronto or Vancouver, shopping can be discouraging when you are limited to whatever is available in the local mall, since most of the shops tend to focus on the teenage market. Online shopping would seem to be the answer, but with shipping costs, duties, and costly returns, shopping at US sites often means doubling (or even tripling) the online price.

My solution has been to do a bit of digging around to see what was available online from Canadian sites. And, wow, was I surprised. Because the Canadian market is much smaller, most of our Canadian designers don't get the publicity that comes from being associated with larger stores or companies. But the sheer variety of the designs, sizes, and price points amazed me. My dollar goes further and I avoid the shipping hassles of cross-border shopping, but the best part is the boost to my style quotient!

Shopping Canadian does take a bit more effort, because we can't depend on Angie's picks to aim us in the right direction, but the time and effort are totally worth it. Most designers have websites that offer online shopping with prices in Canadian dollars. And almost every site has a sale area where you can get great deals, like a Matt and Nat handbag for $15 (I was a leather snob until I brought home one of their vegan bags!)

I found this website handy when I first started looking around:
http://www.flare.com/fashion/directory

Typing "Canadian designer" in Google after whatever I'm looking for also has helped me come up with new leads.

And for all those non-Canadian YLFers who start lusting after some of the stuff, many of the designers will ship outside of Canada but you may have to endure some of those cross-border hassles. Sorry about that.