Dressed to the … how many?

[attach]4539[/attach]She’s a busy real estate agent but that hasn’t prevented North York resident Joanna Duong from starting a completely unrelated business and running with it.

As owner of Henkaa — which means change in Japanese — Duong has designed and locally manufactures a dress that can be worn in at least 20 different ways.

It all started a few years ago when a friend asked Duong where she had found a store-bought dress that could be worn different ways. She couldn’t find it at the store she initially bought it, she says — that’s when the idea hit her of forming a company where every thing the business sold changed.

The dress she’s created isn’t a new design, Duong says, but she took what was on the market and made it her own.

At $128 for the short style and $158 for the long version, it’s less expensive than others, she says, as she cut down on the amount of fabric used.

“You can have the same idea but not compromise on the fabric or the look,” she says. “I wanted to make the concept more approachable.”

Duong started working on the design in 2009 during a lull in the real estate market and says she made a conscious effort to make the dress locally even though going offshore would have further reduced the costs. Having control over the design was crucial, she says.

[attach]4540[/attach]She sold the dress online but when the real estate market picked up in 2010, Duong had to put the business on hold. Dresses started piling up in the home she shared with her new husband.

“I got busy and the dresses just sat there,” she says.

After doing some marketing last summer and participating in a few clothing shows at the end of 2010, she started getting more and more requests for fittings.

But running the business from her home was becoming too much. When she saw a vacant storefront a mere seven minutes from her home around Yonge Street near Finch Avenue, she renovated the space and opened in May.

The store is in the perfect area, Duong says, as it’s surrounded by condos owned by those in their 20s and 30s — her target demographic.

So far, her frock trade is booming. A good 70 percent of her business is online and customers buy from around the globe. And what started as a knit jersey fabric dress in just four colours is now available in 18 shades, two lengths, and a regular and plus size.

Though the dress has 20 core styles, Duong says the possibilities are infinite. On the website there’s a gallery where she posts videos of new ways of wearing the dress that customers have created, and she names the styles after the creators.

In the store, a video shows the various ways the dress can be worn.

“It’s like an adult magic show,” Duong says. “I’m trying to make this whole thing into an experience.”

Working from the store, which is open mostly on an appointment basis so far, Duong says she still does real estate.

The company has grown beyond what she thought it would be, she says.

“We went from non-existent last year … now we’ve developed a niche brand.”

Her husband, who is also involved in the business, is happy, she says, as the dresses aren’t all over the house any more.

“We have our home back.”