It's right after graduation and you've still got that glow from peaking on your final project. Your fashion presentation was a success, you've made great friends and allies, and even found a future business partner. Then you are invited to participate in the city's fashion week as a guest in the Up and Comers section of the event. What could come next? That's when the call arrives. It's the Bay and they want to see your line. You've got a nibble from what could be one of the biggest accounts in the country, and they called you.

The ball stops rolling and it's time for reality to take its toll. Matthew Burditt and Kelly Lee are both graduates from the Blanche Macdonald Centre. They completed school this time last year and went on to showcase a joint collection called Manganese (www.manganese.ca/ launches at the end of July, or contact manganesedesigns@shaw .ca) at Vancouver Fashion Week in October. At the time, the pace of success was intense. With only two weeks to prepare their collection for VFW, Lee explains the haphazard origins of the line's name: "Any word would do. It just had to look good on paper, so we looked at the periodic table and it popped out. It looked good when you handwrote it in script."

But that phone call potentially launching their line wasn't as easy to address as a name. Lee is matter-of-fact when she explains, "They didn't know we didn't have investors or a manufacturer. The only thing we had in place was our education. So we started looking into fabric sourcing, sample production, manufacturing, and just everything we needed to show a line to the Bay, and we realized it wasn't realistic without lots of money in place and it was way too risky to do as a first jump into selling." When capital is in scarce supply, look behind door number two.

Burditt takes the marketing machine to heart and has fused inspiration with selling and branding: "I'm a bit of a celebrity hound, and I've been contacting a lot of different places to get into that because I can appreciate having that kind of endorsement or that on your résumé or in your portfolio. Right now we are working on designs for Veda Hille, a local folksinger." Step one of how to make your way without capital.

Step two: find a way for the medium to be the message. "Right now we are still in the design process of the [newest] collection…a very conceptual line. It's difficult to find inspiration or narrow down inspiration when there is so much visual stimulation-music, other designers-so we are taking the persona of strong female performers, musicians, artists, and using that for the basis of one garment in the collection." Muses include Regina Spektor, PJ Harvey, and CocoRosie. Their commonality is music, but each direction is so individual that ultimately the collection's one unifying premise is to create a series of distinct pieces. It's a line for the theatrical woman who is not afraid to wear a non-trend item.

That philosophy fits the design duo as they both explain that they didn't choose fashion design in order to make clothes that are already on the market. A word to the fashion streetwise from Burditt: "Never focus on what is in the stores now because by the time it reaches certain stores, it's done, it was done months ago."

Some of the pieces are one-of-a-kind: a brocade tailcoat with a suede collar that stands away from the face; the brocade is rust and the satin/silk lining is fuchsia to create a touch of dissonance. Or there are the custom-made fabrics, manipulated to fit the spirit of one of the chosen muses.

The plan now is to start small and grow. The pair has the potential and the talent and-more than some-they have faith in each other. "You have such drive, and the potential is there, and we know we are good, and we have the support of each other, and I have all the belief I could have in Kelly's abilities, and others are interested. We've got press and stores that want to carry our line-we just need that little push…" Lee finishes Burditt's thought: "That is that missing piece of the puzzle. It's crappy thinking that your career doesn't depend on your talent but on your wallet." Any takers?