Man to watch: Byron Peart

Byron Peart, head designer for Want men's wear and owner of the Scandinavian-themed boutique Wantstil in old Montreal, is challenging the way Canadian's look at designer men's wear by Canadians. "Last night I was with another buyer from Edmonton. She owns a store called Gravity Pope and I sell to her. She's been around for more than 10 years. Seventy-five percent of her business is footwear. She does an astounding amount of business in Edmonton bringing in shoes; she brings in shoes that nobody in the country has even heard of. She's willing to take a risk, willing to educate her customer, willing to perhaps take losses on lines to build them for three or four seasons, with the anticipation that at some point the consumers are going to get themselves around it. It's a very, very different approach than anybody's going to take in retail."