It’s the season for craft mania—and the mother of them all, the Circle Craft Christmas Market, kicks off the preholiday spree.

Back for its 43rd annual rendition next Wednesday to Sunday (November 9 to 13) at the Vancouver Convention Centre West, the event features more than 300 artisans, many of them offering up cool, one-of-a-kind, handmade fashion accessories that you’d never find at the mall.

Below are just a few of this year’s crafted-in-Canada highlights at the market—including woody watches, funky wallets, and hats created by the milliner who helped conjure Gord Downie’s unforgettable look for his recent tour.

Lilliput Hats

Long-time College Street milliner Karyn Gingras was brought in to top off Downie’s outfits for the Tragically Hip’s Man Machine Poem tour by fellow Toronto designer Izzy Camilleri.

The latter created the crazy metallic-leather suits the frontman wore. And, not surprisingly, Downie’s charismatic headwear kicked off a huge demand for artful, feathered hats for men—a bunch of which the Lilliput founder will be showcasing at the market.

“He [Downie] sent me an old photo of Bob Dylan, from the 1970s Desire era,” Gingras tells the Straight over the phone from her eclectic Hogtown shop before heading west for the market. “He was wearing a hat that was similar—it doesn’t have the rustic hippie vibe but it [the brim] turns slightly upward and has a very tall crown with feathers.”

In all, Gingras fashioned four one-of-a-kind hats for the tour, out of black, grey, and off-white rabbit-fur felt to go with the different metallic-leather suits. She played with coloured bands on the looks: “Some are shredded, some are textured, and some look like scarves, with these feather embellishments that spring out of the side.”

Gingras was watching social media during the opening show in Victoria, and saw it explode with reaction to Downie’s dramatically different new look.

“People were blown away. Here’s this guy that could be your next-door neighbour at the cottage coming out in metallic suits and hats,” she says of the project that was deeply moving for her, given Downie’s struggle with brain cancer.

“Now we’re getting businessmen, kids, fans, and other guys wanting to just bust out a little bit. Also people are just curious about how a hat gets made and that’s great for all of us who make things by hand.”

At her booth, look for softer men’s and unisex looks that are variations of the classic fedora or homburg style.

“A lot have interesting natural embellishments like feathers, leather, porcupine quills, and bone—things from nature,” she adds. “We will still have beautiful cold-weather and special-occasion things too, with a lot of beautiful natural colours and fabrics, a lot crossing over between men and women.”

 Lilliput hats range from about $150 to $350.

Majesty Industries

With a degree in intercultural studies, Edmontonian Julie Morrison has backpacked across Europe, taught English in China and Cambodia, and visited Mother Teresa’s humble home in Kolkata.

And her miles in the air and over ground exposed a big need for wallets to carry your foreign currency, your passport, your cards, your phone, and everything else on your journeys.

“There isn’t really cool travel stuff out there that can go gate to gate,” says the artist, who’s crafted her entire, bright-coloured line out of vegan materials like cork and Naugahyde car upholstery.

Emblazoning her Majesty Industries pieces—in vibrant aqua blues, purples, polka-dot reds, and wood-grain looks—are silk-screen prints of her own drawings. Favourites at the upcoming Circle Craft market include a sloth, a “Sasquatch Yeti”, and ever-popular smart-dressed cats. Look also for retro phone booths, skulls, and more.

“I like contrasting colours, and I love bringing the cute,” says Morrison, adding she also has a practical side: “There’s lots of room for cards and a gigantic change purse, and the two small ones come with a wrist strap that’s handy.”

Prices range from about $40 to $50, and no two are the same.

MISTURA

Toronto’s Mistura blends architectural interlocking pieces—carved from pui, teak, ebony, and bamboo, all reclaimed or sustainably sourced—into one-of-a-kind watches that can take up to 85 hours to handcraft.

“All the wood we use is South American, so it’s hard and exotic wood that allows us to deliver a piece that’s very durable and water-resistant and can handle different temperatures,” explains designer and manager Juan David Arbelaez, over the phone from his studio.

As the team has experimented with design and materials in its studios, the looks have become more intricate. “Our focus is always to make a unique, one-of-a-kind piece, with new materials and different combinations of colours to create a different piece every time.”

That means artful touches, like the looks that integrate perfectly preserved hortensia flowers from Colombia on the face.

Mistura means “mixing” in Spanish, and that’s what the designers do best, with both colour and texture: a rich red leather strap plays off the dark-brown pui of a geometric case and multicoloured petals on the face; a bright turquoise strap looks smashing with a light-teak case.

In its debut at the market, Mistura boasts its new cork-strapped collection, juxtaposing the porous material with different wood tones. Elsewhere, scope out the Arkitect collection: instead of wood, the blocky rectangular case is made from black granitelike Corian, playing nicely off a thick black suede strap.

Prices are $189, $239, and $279, with Swiss-movement pieces running $495.