Like others who own businesses on West 10th Avenue, Leanne Dunic is in shock. On the night of March 7, a fire destroyed a number of small, local, long-time businesses, and neighbours are still aching for their fellow shopkeepers. Since she launched the deliberately girlie Miss Coquette (4372 West 10th Avenue) in 2003 as a precocious 20-year-old entrepreneur, Dunic has come to feel at home in a 'hood she knows so well she's just launched a second store. "I love this neighbourhood, and I really want to build it, and my business," she says, interviewed at Miss Coquette. She also wants to put to rest the notion that "Point Grey is so far away." Commuting time from her home near Granville and West 12th: seven minutes.

What prompted her new venture, she says, was hearing customers express the wish that she apply her buying approach to guy stuff and girls' casual wear, hence the just-launched Tenth & Proper (4483 West 10th Avenue), which sells both, with the word proper signalling the classic style of the lines she'll carry. Conceived last summer, the store was due for a fall birth, but the building she leases space in was unfinished. Still, only 24 and with two stores under your belt”¦ "Obviously I don't have money," says Dunic, sanguine about cash flow. "I just took out another really big loan”¦[but] it's a very well calculated risk. I know this neighbourhood. People are waiting for me to open." She calls her two stores "the two sides of Leanne". "This is my store," says Dunic of Miss Coquette's flirty collection of dresses, tops, and accessories. "The other is inspired by my partner in crime [Ryan Ogg]. No sparkly socks." Dunic laughs, looking down at the ones she's wearing. Instead, Tenth & Proper stock will combine "elegance and simplicity. I guess he's taught me to appreciate it over the years."

But just because she's an old hand at shopkeeping doesn't mean opening a second spot was a walk in the park. "Because Tenth & Proper is a totally different store, I wanted it to look really good from the beginning," she says. The first time around, décor was strictly DIY on a budget, with gradual updates and improvements as the money came in. The goal: "To get rid of every bit of IKEA. Let me show you this." Dunic leaps up from the sofa, kills the overhead track lighting, then hits a switch and points at a translucent ceiling panel concealing fluorescent lamps, which were all she had in the beginning. She's amazed that customers actually purchased clothes under such baleful conditions. "In the other store," she says, "my flooring and painting alone cost more than [the cost of decorating] this whole store."

She is having her own line of ProperTy men's and women's T-shirts made in France by people who manufacture for Prada and Jil Sander. Yes, Dunic's will run at around $100 each, but her T-shirts will last you forever, she says. "I don't believe in this disposable-clothing culture," she says. Ask about sizes and she promises a wide range at Tenth & Proper, with tops up to a 16, depending on the label, and pants up to 12 or 14. The topic launches a gentle rant about women who come into Miss Coquette and, eyeing the slender Dunic, walk out believing nothing there will fit them. She wants to tell them that, for instance, a dress from the U.K. label Nougat that says it's a size 4 actually fits a size 14. Dunic's advice: "Don't look at the sizes. Just trust your shopkeeper."

Across the street and a block and a half west is Tenth & Proper, with polished black concrete floor, pearl-grey walls, and red accents. "I don't want the store to be intimidating," says Dunic, indicating whimsical hand-painted leaves and jellyfish and a coat of arms on the wall.

On the racks and still being unpacked are scads of "I want it" clothing. A fervent supporter of Canadian fashion, Dunic has brought in the Iris line from Montreal. A black dress with a crossover bodice, high waist, and swingy flared skirt ($160) is the kind you would slip on for patio sipping or partying, or team with flip-flops for grocery shopping. Ditto the linear black linen pants ($146). Local label Dace is there, along with pieces by Sunja Link, another Vancouverite who taps the power of understatement. Witness her high-necked, pale-blue blouse with slightly puffed short sleeves ($110). If there's a common denominator, it's that everything is simple and effortless, not casual-grungy but casual-classy, the kind of clothing you would wear into the ground.

Tucked away in one corner is a black vinyl 1940s sofa, with a zebra-striped rug in front of it that matches the zebra rocking horse in the kids' corner. Still to arrive is the black chandelier with six speakers instead of candles. "We're having a rock garden in here," says Dunic, one with air plants, branches (courtesy of the recent windstorm), and—a final whimsical note—goldfish. Why? In her view, why not.