The Fashion Design Council of Canada in partnership with Mercedes-Benz Start Up created a program to help rising Canadian designers by giving them support mentorship. And out office semi-finalists, one emerged as the winner who will receive continuous support and of course, recognition and they are Martin Lim.

The brand is a fusion of two cultures as the designers, Danielle Martin and Pao Lim merge to create this label. The company previously worked with big names such as Christian Lacroix and Roland Mouret, and with that experience they bagged the Mercedes-Benz Start up award.

On the other hand, Martin and Lim are very surprised to have received the recognition and they are also very thankful. “It’s really tough to be recognized, first of all, and sometimes it appears that Canadian designers have to go abroad to get other countries to recognize them and then they may return home and then we’ll give them due recognition,” Robert Ott, a judge and Ryerson University school of fashion chair said. He added, “But the other thing is there’s very little funding, it’s difficult to get a designer with business together so it can actually realize their dreams and start manufacturing collections and selling it to retailers.”

Aside from mentoring, the winners of Mercedes-Benz Start Up will have their own fully-produced runway show at the Fashion Week in March and and editorial feature in Fashion Magazine.