Vancouver Fashion eZine - Online Magazine

Sitting down to a casual cup of tea - ice tea to be exact - as Vancouver's summer has finally arrived - Wendy deKruyff looks calm, comfortable and collected; she looks like she has been interviewed many times before. She has an air of assurance and wisdom and that is as it should be for she has been a successful business owner for over a decade.

A Kelowna native, of Dutch heritage, deKruyff moved to the big city of Vancouver just one week after her 18th birthday, simply to get to where she belonged. And although deKruyff is the first to admit that eventually being her own boss was never really part of her plan, she certainly knows how to play the part well. Dressed in her late mother's delicate jewelry and draped beige knit top, she pairs these classics with leather gladiator sandals and funky denim Capri pants, encompassing the essence of her store: wear what you want and feel great doing it.

Her store, The Little Dream Apparel and Articles for People, more affectionately and commonly known as Dream, is located at 311 Cordova Street and opened in 1993. Offering mainly local designs her shoppers are encouraged to mix, match and style as they choose, regardless of trends.

DeKruyff's location and concept have also not followed trends. Always located on Cordova Street, years before the rejuvenation of the now trendy Gastown, she offered local designs when there was a slight stigma around the buying concept. Dream, however, was not started as a pilgrimage to reeducated the local consumer but merely as an outlet for her own creations and those of her colleagues and industry friends. The evolution of Vancouver's shopping scene came second. During this evolution, deKruyff has always maintained that she would prefer someone buy something because they love the garment rather than the added cache that it is locally designed and manufactured. She wants her customer to love their purchases as much as she loves her own wardrobe.

The next evolution of deKruyff's dream is returning to what first brought her to retail; designing. With her child in school and her store running smoothly, deKruyff is looking forward to getting back behind her sewing machine and start creating her own items for the store again. Her inspiration will be drawn from the mounds of fabric collected over the years and a finely tuned emotional 'shoot from the hip' reaction to the world around her. She wants to makes garments that she will still care about and wear in years to come; she wants to create staples not trends.

When you next find yourself in Gastown, and in need of that something special, be sure to pop by Dream to devour the eclectic collection of women's wear and an ever-growing selection of men's wear. With designs ranging from the carefree aesthetic of Alison Wonderland to the aggressive new rave designs of Carney Love; deKruyff's dream world has a little something for everyone.