Could dowdy Ottawa possibly boast the sort of glamourous fashion boutique and custom-designed garments, that well-to-do women usually jet to New York and Paris to find?

The answer is yes, at least since Jefferson Sukhoo Couture was launched in February 2005 by Ottawa designers James Jefferson and Frank Sukhoo.

The experience the partners offer in their elegant boutique is the polar opposite of shopping at even upscale stores, where the most affluent fashionistas must make do with whatever is hanging on the racks - and then risk the social embarrassment of seeing whatever they choose on someone else.

At Jefferson Sukhoo, customers are attended to one by one, by appointment only, in sumptuous surroundings. Relaxing on a black velvet chaise longue and sipping their beverage of choice, they have one-of-a-kind garments created for them from sketch to meticulous fittings to finished garment - all at price points that are astonishingly low for custom couture.

Ashley Fraser, Business Edge
Frank Sukhoo, left, and James Jefferson provide fashionistas with high-end attire, such as the dress modelled by Elena Nogaeva.

Choosing this niche was a savvy and timely move, says Joel Baum, a professor at the Joseph L. Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto, who lectures on competitive strategies.

What Jefferson Sukhoo is capitalizing on, he says, is a growing demand, in Canada and elsewhere, for luxury items and lavish pampering that makes shoppers feel rich even if they aren't. "In our status-seeking world, offering a low-end version of haute couture is likely to spark high demand."

Baum's theory must be correct, judging by what Sukhoo and Jefferson have achieved during their first 18 months in business. Gross monthly revenue has tripled, albeit to an amount the partners decline to disclose.

Thanks to minimal marketing efforts but ample word-of-mouth buzz, the client base grew to about 60, mostly repeat, customers for whom approximately 120 garments have been completely designed, fitted and hand-sewn by the partners.

The partners went for nearly a year before starting to draw salaries. But well before then, Jefferson Sukhoo had attracted the attention of the Canadian fashion media, plus the l oyalty of high-profile customers in Ottawa, Montreal and Toronto.

Among them is arguably the most glamourous and prominent Canadian woman of all - Gov. Gen. Michaelle Jean - for whom Jefferson Sukhoo has so far designed a black silk organza blouse, a copper-coloured dress and jacket, as well as a chocolate-brown sequined evening gown.

But whether the duo is attending to a vice-regent or a commoner or anyone in between, says client Cheryl Mousseau, "Frank and James are always up for a challenge. I'll say: 'I want this gown to look so good that I turn every single head when I walk in the room.' And they'll say: 'We can do that.' And they do, every time."

As owner of Ottawa's Mousseau & Associates Insurance, Mousseau says looking good is a professional must and the partners make sure she does. "They are meticulous and insist that, whatever (the garment), it's a perfect, perfect fit. They're so serious about their work and so proud of what they create, that they will not let me walk out of their shop unless all three of us are completely happy."

Rochelle Greenberg is equally enthusiastic about Jefferson Sukhoo. The Ottawa resident is the founder of an annual charitable auction called An Evening With Abigail, which has raised more than $500,000 to fight breast cancer.

Greenberg says that "Ottawa is a very small town with lots of events going on, but not too many places to shop for fancy clothing. So it's great to have an alternative to readymade because you know you're not going to see your outfit on anyone else."

She describes Jefferson and Sukhoo as "charming, delightful people whose work ethic is amazing. And they are not divas like some designers, who think they're above everybody else. They're also very good about giving back to charities like ours, so I'm glad to shop with them and tell my friends how wonderful they are."

What makes all of the above particularly impressive is that - despite the high-flying kudos and the big-bucks appearance of their boutique - Jefferson Sukhoo was launched on a shoestring investment of just $15,000.

That's all the partners could scrape together when, after about a decade as friends, they decided the time was right for Ottawa to get a custom-couture boutique, and that they should own and operate it, despite their lack of retail experience.

By then, they were both well-qualified and highly thought of fashion designers with more than 20 years of combined experience in the fashion industry.

Jefferson, now 32, is an Ottawa native, while Sukhoo, 41, was born in Guyana, but raised in the Canadian capital. The duo met in Ottawa when Sukhoo was an instructor and Jefferson a student at what is now known as the Academy of Fashion Design, but was then the Richard Robinson Fashion Academy.

Sukhoo quit teaching after 12 years to become head designer at an Ottawa loungewear design and manufacturing company called Silkware.

Meanwhile, after graduating but staying on at the academy for five years as a designer and Robinson's assistant, Jefferson had become personal designer to well-known socialite and host of the Celebrity Pets TV series, Marlen Cowpland.

"When James and I got together for a chat, we were both feeling the need to have a place to showcase our own work. Six months later, we opened the boutique," Sukhoo says.

That half year was spent researching and writing a business plan and hunting for the ideal location, then having the perspicacity to spot it in a century-old corner building with big windows overlooking both Dalhousie and Cathcart streets - despite the fact, says Jefferson, that the area was a tad seedy at the time.

Today, he says, it's become a trendy magnet for beauty-seekers who can shop at a number of Dalhousie Street's clothing stores, or have their hair styled at an in-demand salon next door to Jefferson Sukhoo.

Sukhoo says another wise choice was not only designing the boutique exclusively in black and white, but sticking with black for the dozen or so sample garments on display. That, he says, "saved us a fortune by not having to keep a lot of different-coloured fabrics in stock, and it also cut down on the distraction of having a lot of colours and patterns around."

The routine process for customers at Jefferson Sukhoo is identical to what happens at even the most expensive haute couture salons elsewhere, Jefferson says.

Most customers come to the boutique, although the partners occasionally tend to time-pressed people in their homes or offices. The first step is for the fashion-conscious woman or man (about 10 per cent of Jefferson Sukhoo's client base is male) to describe their taste and the purpose for which they want a garment created. Then they choose which of the boutique's samples most closely resembles what they have in mind.

One or both of the partners then starts sketching how the design of the sample could be altered to best fit the customer's appearance, personality and requirements. A colour and fabric may be chosen at that stage or later on.

The second step is for Jefferson and Sukhoo to create a facsimile of the finished garment in unbleached cotton. The customer tries that on at the next fitting, when it's easy and inexpensive to alter the fit and details. By the third stage, the one-of-a-kind garment is complete except for any minor alterations that become apparent at the final fitting.

For the same services, a top fashion designer would charge several thousands of dollars per item. At Jefferson Sukhoo, the average price is $1,500 to $2,000, depending on the fabric and degree of construction difficulty. The top price for an evening gown, says Sukhoo, is about $5,000.

For those prices, he says, the customer walks out with a garment concocted in the boutique's signature style of "classic with an edge, very clean but always with an interesting detail or line that makes it different from anything else out there."

(Terry Poulton can be reached at poulton@businessedge.ca)