Ian Cooper], 43, was also raised in Canada - in Edmonton - after his family emigrated from Manchester, England. The two designers met in Toronto in 1975. [Marcel Aucoin] had finished his studies in furniture and textile design at Sheridan College in Oakville and was head of the silk screen printing studio at Harbourfront. Cooper was studying fashion design at Ryerson and when he was accepted at St. Martin's School of Art in London for post-graduate studies in fashion and textiles, the two moved to England. In need of money, Aucoin started handpainting scarves, kimonos and cushions and selling to shops such as Liberty on Regent St. "It grew from there," he explains. The duo did their first collection of dresses for the spring '79 season and sold to a Rodeo Drive boutique in Beverly Hills. One of the outfits wound up on the back of actress Lindsay Wagner on the television mini-series Scruples. "It was one of her favorite outfits," Aucoin says. "Trousers, jacket, camisole and scarf in a blue and purple abstract seascape."