The Chmielewski brothers in their Vancouver flagship, located in the city’s Railtown neighbourhood, designed by Heia Studio.

Arthur and Daniel Chmielewski, the brother duo behind Haven, cut a fine figure in their attire, composed almost entirely of clothing from Haven’s eponymous in-house line. They seem almost preternaturally comfortable in the brand’s new storefront in Vancouver’s Railtown neighbourhood. What they wear is simple but striking in a way that conveys their attention to detail. Arthur, the creative director and younger brother, wears a monochromatic outfit of baggy black jeans and an insulated shirt-jacket from Haven, which are complemented by a mossy-green mohair sweater from cult Japanese brand Auralee. And Daniel, who handles operations, mixes things up with black jeans, a white T-shirt, and a many-pocketed khaki overshirt, with Visvim’s iconic kimono shirt rounding things out as a midlayer.

The Chmielewski brothers come by their sense of style honestly and humbly. The sons of a contractor father, they maintain a workmanlike approach to their business even now, after resounding success, and the clothes they design reflect that. “It’s really odd, because we’re totally not fashion guys. We don’t talk about fashion. We don’t necessarily think we’re a part of the fashion circle,” Arthur says. However, even though the Chmielewski brothers don’t lump themselves in with the high-fashion set, Haven’s designs are coveted by that same group, and its ability to combine utilitarianism and luxury has gained it legions of fans. With the street-cred they have, it wouldn’t be surprising for the pair to leverage it to rub shoulders with other trendsetters, but according to Arthur, when they go on buying trips in world fashion capitals, they are more intent on finding a good drink. “When we go to Paris, we just hang out at the pub or something like that.”

Haven opened its first Vancouver location in 2009 (followed by Toronto in 2012), right when the city, along with nearby Seattle, was experiencing a fashion renaissance. After the financial crisis of 2008, consumers were concerned with stretching their dollars further than they had in decades, and clothing was expected to be equally flexible. The Pacific Northwest’s predilection for utilitarian and hardwearing but artisanal clothing primed it for becoming an unexpected fashion capital. Brands like Reigning Champ, Homespun Knitwear, Viberg, and Wings+Horns, stores such as Neighbour and Roden Gray, and even publications like the now-shuttered Inventory magazine, spoke to those who saw fashion not merely as a frivolous hobby but as armour for everyday life, whose functionality connoted class before aesthetics or, perhaps more importantly, price. It was in this context that Haven’s identity began to crystalize.

While they are loath to define Haven’s ready-to-wear line, launched in 2017, as a stereotypically “Vancouver” brand, there is no doubt that the city has greatly influenced their designs. Citing Canada’s multicultural fabric, and their own Polish Vietnamese Canadian heritage, they try to “embody modern Canadiana” with Haven designs, Arthur says.

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“We had this discussion in the early days: ‘Should we lean into Vancouver or kind of Pacific Northwest?’ And we do to a degree, but I have to ensure that we’re thinking from a global perspective.” It just so happens that Canada, and Vancouver especially, is one of the best places for a globally inspired brand to call home.

Perhaps some of their humbleness can be attributed to their Prairie rather than Parisian or West Coast upbringing. Growing up in Edmonton, Arthur and Daniel were always interested in design and the arts, but like many entrepreneurially minded young people, they sequestered the creative parts of their personalities to pursue traditional careers. Both majored in finance at the University of Alberta before moving away—Daniel to Calgary and Arthur to Vancouver—to work in the financial sector. It was work that, although economically sensible, left them unfulfilled professionally. “I pretty much knew I didn’t want to do something like that,” Daniel says, laughing. Throughout these various straightlaced endeavours, the brothers steeped themselves in “street culture from a grassroots level, whether that’s breakdancing or graffiti,” according to Arthur. “And that kind of led us down this path where we started discovering streetwear brands. What I gravitated to were the Japanese ones, because they were doing things on a whole ’nother level from a quality standpoint.”

Only a short while into their financial careers, “we took a trip to Asia and that was pretty eye-opening for us,” Arthur says, “seeing the way retailing was done.” It was then that their already fomenting desire to open a business together began to take form. To make their dream work, the brothers decided to open a shop selling their favourite brands back home in Edmonton, a city with a comparatively accessible real estate market and a built-in support system to fall back on.

Arthur and Daniel Chmielewski, the brother duo behind Haven,

That was 2006, and Haven’s Edmonton outpost was frequented by a small, committed fandom. While the brothers appreciated the patronage of the fashion cognoscenti of YEG (a city that, while nice, is hardly known for its style), within the first year of opening they recognized the need to open an online store. Back then, e-commerce was still emerging, but the brothers had to expand their client base because, as Arthur says, “we were not making any sales in person. So it was out of necessity, which was great because that really propelled us. It was a silver lining.” After opening their online shop, Haven skyrocketed to success. And because they were sourcing hard-to-find brands in places like Japan, and they just so happened to be close to the fore of e-commerce, they became one of the main sources for cult streetwear in Canada and beyond. Though the Edmonton locale has since shuttered, “the design of it held up pretty well, and it could still look relatively on-brand with this store,” Arthur says, gesturing to the light-swathed walls and modular clothing racks of the custom-built Railtown location.

Haven’s ready-to-wear line is intended for true menswear nerds. There’s enough technical complexity to leave the layperson’s head spinning, yet every detail draws from one of the brothers’ personal experiences, often rote in nature, with garments from across the design spectrum. “Our core customer is kind of like us in where they dig for things, and they try to seek information, and they have a perspective of their own and their own interests, but they really go into it, and they try to find out all the information about what that is, whether watches or a pair of jeans or a chore coat from France,” Arthur says. The pair’s obsessive attention to detail informs pieces as simple as the brand’s T-shirts, which are made from Suvin cotton, a luxurious hybrid of the Egyptian variety Sujata and a derivative of Sea Island cotton made in St. Vincent, of which only a couple thousand bales are produced each year. Other influences include extreme sports and outdoor brands such as Eddie Bauer, which Arthur references when pointing out the underarm zippers and diamond puff pattern of the shirt jacket he wears during our interview.

Once a creative playground exclusively for the Chmielewski brothers to explore, Haven has expanded to include a team of designers who assist Arthur with the design process. “We’re thinking about clothing from a utilitarian perspective of building product that removes barriers so that you’re able to go out and do more,” he says, “so that your clothing shouldn’t be something that you have to think about from a day-to-day perspective.”

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