Who defines Toronto fashion these days?

Who defines Toronto fashion these days? Runway designers? Trend forecasters? Merchandisers? Fashion editors? Bloggers? People on the street? Someone else?

Toronto and Canada based fashion brands

Who can define Toronto fashion these days? There is no doubt that these Torontonian and Canadian local fashion retail brands can be the first to talk about. These fashion brands is Roots, Joe Fresh, Club Monaco, Canada Goose etc., they have a deep effect in Toronto fashion.

Let’s talk about one of the Torontonian fashion brand- Joe Fresh. Joe Fresh is a Toronto fashion retailer founded by Joe Mimran in 2006. Known for its brigh orange logo, the semi-eponymous Joes Fresh brand. Joe Fresh now has almost 400 clothing stores including locations in Canadian supermarkets and superstores, as well as standalone locations according by the article What Is Joe Fresh? Canadian Retailer Known For Its On-Trend, Affordable Clothes. (CITATION) Why Torontonian love Joe Fresh? Joe Fresh is a much-loved in Canada, and is one of the few budget-friendly brands that has legitimate street cred. To keep up its high profile, Joe Fresh puts on Toronto runway fashion show in these years. (Tejada, 2013) Why Torontonian so in love with Joe Fresh? Joe Fresh is a fashion retail chain to provide stylish and affordable men’s, women’s and chicken’s wear and accessories. It always located with Canadian supermarkets and superstores. There are some standalone locations as well.

Not only Joe Fresh, but also other fashion retail chain such as Roots, Club Monaco, Aritzia have high popularity and reputation in Toronto fashion scene.  Most of Torontonian tend to buy Canada and Toronto based fashion brands instead of other brands from other regions. It is obvious to see that Torontonian tend to follow Toronto and Canada local brands according by these brands’ popularity and reputation in Toronto. These fashion brands can actually define Toronto fashion these days instead of the runway designers.

Why runway designers cannot be the fashion definer in Toronto? Toronto has fashion show in every two seasons of the year, and there are enough runway designers present their collection in Toronto fashion show. However, the list of Canadian designers not on the official calendar includes long-time supporters of Toronto fashion week such as Comrags, Arthur Mendonça, Joeffer Caoc and Evan Biddell. (CITATION) Many Canadian designers are moved to New York City, Paris or London instead of staying in Toronto. So we cannot say that these Canadian runway designers can actually define Toronto fashion scene, don’t even Canada fashion scene. Most of the designers are moving to the “better place” to let the world to know them.

From the article Toronto Fashion Week promises a new beginning, for example, Jeremy Laing, the Greta Constantine label by Kirk Pickersgill and Stephen Wong, are more comfortable previewing their collections in New York or Paris. (Manzocco, 2015) These runway designers can affect the cities’ or regions’ fashion scene but not in Toronto. And there are few left in Toronto probably can define Toronto fashion scene, but it will be little.

People live in Toronto

Why and how Torontonian define Toronto fashion scene?  There are some evidences to indicate that people who live in Toronto are the one of the fashion definers in Toronto.          

The interview called Culturalite Interview | Thelonius Poon of NOZO Toronto from Josephine Le, she had interviewed Thelonius Poon, who is the co-founder and lead designer of the Toronto based hip-pop street wear store called NOZO Toronto.  When JL(Josephine Le) asked about to introduce about Thelonius Poon himself and how he interested in fashion, TP(  Thelonius Poon) stated that he had met David Forteau, the president of NOZO Toronto. David Forteau also is a professional dancer, choreographer and motivational speaker for Unity Charity. David had introduced fashion and NOZO Toronto to him. He started interested in fashion when he went to a school where people were dressed as if they were competing for the top slot on lookbook.nu each day. And now he’d achieve the top spot, because he is supplying the lookbook.nu leaders with their gear now. (Le, 2015)

JL is curious about how TP to define Toronto’s fashion scene, and ask him the question. TP said that within the realm of hip-pop street fashion in the past few years it has been quite sparse, but steadily growing. Toronto is ready for it’s fashion renaissance now.  It is lucky because everyone contributing artwork to theirs studio base in Toronto right now, it is hungry to make theirs mark on the city. And they are all in this together. (Le, 2015)

JP is not a professional expert from the fashion industry, but he created his own brand and logo. His store and studio is affecting lots of youth to have inspiration and create art works in Toronto. These people are not fashion experts as well. They are random people who live in Toronto. In most cases we 100% sure fashion scene of a place are runway designers, trend forecasters or fashion editor. However, the masses had defined the fashion scene quietly and frequently. The publicity should be the “runway designers” because all the inspirations from fashion designers and fashion brands are given from them.

And now we have a new identification the definer of Toronto fashion scene, they are Toronto and Canada based fashion retail brands and Torontonian. These fashion brands are the supply, and we all know that supply can always determine demand. The other definer is absolutely the Torontonian. They are the group of providing most inspiration and trend of the Toronto fashion scene and they are always affecting the fashion world in Toronto.