Toronto Fashion Week (TFW), held in February (for fall/winter collections) and September (for spring/summer collections) of each year, is a semi-annual event celebrating fashion, arts and culture where

Canadian Canadians () are people identified with the country of Canada. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Canadians, many (or all) of these connections exist and are collectively the source of their being ''C ...

and international fashion collections are shown to buyers, the press, and the general public. It is the largest fashion week held in Canada and the second largest fashion week in

North America North America is a continent in the Northern Hemisphere, Northern and Western Hemisphere, Western hemispheres. North America is bordered to the north by the Arctic Ocean, to the east by the Atlantic Ocean, to the southeast by South Ameri ...

, following the well known

New York Fashion Week New York Fashion Week (NYFW), held in February and September of each year, is a semi-annual series of events in Manhattan typically spanning seven to nine days when international Fashion design, fashion collections are shown to buyers, the pres ...

. The event is currently held within Toronto's exclusive luxury retail and brand neighbourhood, Yorkville, along Hazelton Avenue and Yorkville Avenue. Toronto Fashion Week draws considerable media attention, nationally and internationally. In 2012, it attracted 40,000 guests over 5 days, showcased over 100 designers, and left over 877 million media impressions worldwide. It has helped propel Canadian designers and fashion brands, such as

Joe Fresh Joe Fresh is a Canadian fashion brand and retail chain created by designer Joe Mimran for Canadian food distributor Loblaw Companies, Loblaw Companies Limited. It was formed in 2006. The label includes adult and children's wear, shoes, handbags, ...

, to international recognition.

Origin

Toronto Fashion Week was founded in 1999 by the Fashion Design Council of Canada under designers Robin Kay and Pat McDonagh. The goal for the event was to prepare Canadian designers for the international stage, bringing together media, industry, buyers and consumers to give Toronto international recognition. The

City of Toronto government The municipal government of Toronto ( incorporated as the City of Toronto) is the local government responsible for administering the city of Toronto in the Canadian province of Ontario. Its structure and powers are set out in the ''City of Toron ...

and

Holt Renfrew Holt, Renfrew & Co., Limited (Trade name, doing business as Holt Renfrew and Colloquialism, colloquially Holt's) is a Economy of Canada, Canadian luxury department store chain founded in 1837 by William S. Henderson. The original William Ashton ...

were initial sponsors. The event was small initially. Its first show was held at the Windsor Arms Hotel and showcased six designers and attracted approximately 200 audience members.

Ownership history

Between 1999 and 2012, Toronto Fashion Week was owned by Robin Kay and the Fashion Design Council of Canada. Its first title sponsor was Beauty by L'Oréal Paris in 2002; from 2002 to 2008, the event was thus called L'Oréal Fashion Week. Its title changed to LG Fashion Week in 2008, after LG (Life's Good) Electronics Canada became the event's top sponsor, in conjunction with L'Oréal. In early 2012, the event was again renamed to World MasterCard Fashion Week after taking on World MasterCard as a new title sponsor. On August 8, 2012, it was reported that Robin Kay and the Fashion Design Council of Canada sold the Toronto Fashion Week brand to

IMG img or IMG is an abbreviation for image. img or IMG may also refer to: Science, technology, and mathematics *IMG (file format), file that stores a complete and uncompressed copy of the contents of a storage device * IMG, a prefix for camera ima ...

, the same organisation responsible for operating New York Fashion Week. In February 2016, after World MasterCard and L'Oréal withdrew as sponsors, the event's title returned to Toronto Fashion Week. On July 7, 2016, IMG, citing lack of local commercial funding, announced it was closing down Toronto Fashion Week, prompting national media speculation about the demise of the event reflecting global changes in the fashion industry. In December 2016, Peter Freed announced the purchase of Toronto Fashion Week from IMG. Freed, President of Freed Developments, spearheaded the ownership group, composed of several of the country's top executives in real estate, media and finance. The founding sponsors, aside from Freed Developments, included The Hazelton Hotel, Hill & Gertner Capital Corporation and

Yorkville Village Yorkville Village is a shopping mall in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is located in the Yorkville neighbourhood, along Avenue Road, north of Bloor Street. Prior to its redevelopment which concluded on January 25, 2016, it was known as Hazelton La ...

. Under the new ownership, Toronto Fashion Week has been revived, although the event has been contracted from a bi-annual 7-day event to a bi-annual 3-day event.

Other notable events

2004

Italian fashion label

Missoni Missoni is an Italian luxury fashion house based in Varese, Italy, Varese, and known for its colourful knitwear designs. The company was founded by Ottavio Missoni, Ottavio ("Tai") and Rosita Missoni in 1953. History Early beginnings The busin ...

celebrated its 50-year anniversary by showcasing a retrospective at the event. Toronto was chosen to commemorate a partnership with

Milan Milan ( , , ; ) is a city in northern Italy, regional capital of Lombardy, the largest city in Italy by urban area and the List of cities in Italy, second-most-populous city proper in Italy after Rome. The city proper has a population of nea ...

and to endorse trade relations in the area of fashion, after the two cities signed a formal international alliance agreement to strengthen economic and cultural links in 2003.

2011

American reality television show

America's Next Top Model ''America's Next Top Model'' (abbreviated ''ANTM'' and ''Top Model'') is an American reality television series and interactive competition in which a number of aspiring models compete for the title of "America's Next Top Model" and a chance to b ...

featured Toronto Fashion Week after show creator

Tyra Banks Tyra Lynne Banks (born December 4, 1973), also known as BanX, is an American model, television personality, producer, writer, and actress. Born in Inglewood, California, she began her career as a model at the age of 15 and was the first Black A ...

sent models to the event for the Mercedes-Benz Start Up Challenge, a national fashion competition launched by

Mercedes-Benz Mercedes-Benz (), commonly referred to simply as Mercedes and occasionally as Benz, is a German automotive brand that was founded in 1926. Mercedes-Benz AG (a subsidiary of the Mercedes-Benz Group, established in 2019) is based in Stuttgart, ...

and IMG, then owner of Toronto Fashion Week, to discover Canada's newest design talent. America's Next Top Model also promoted the line 'Attitude', which had been launched at Toronto Fashion Week in February 2011 by Jay Manuel, Creative Director of America's Next Top Model and host of

Canada's Next Top Model ''Canada's Next Top Model'' (sometimes abbreviated as ''CNTM'') is a Canadian reality television series in which female contestants compete for the title "Canada's Next Top Model" and a chance to start their career in the modeling industry. The ...

, on behalf of

Sears Canada Sears Canada Inc. was a publicly-traded Canadian company affiliated with the American-based Sears department store chain. In operation from September 18, 1952 until January 14, 2018, and headquartered in Toronto, Ontario, the company began as S ...

2017

Model Rachel Romu attracted national media attention when she became the first model to walk the Toronto Fashion Week runway with a mobility aid, presenting designer Hayley Elsaesser's fashion collection while using a cane.

Management

As of 2020, Carolyn Quinn was TFW's Executive Director. Suzanne Cohon is currently Toronto Fashion Week's Fashion, Arts and Cultural Ambassador.

References

External links

Toronto Fashion Week Official Site
{{Fashion weeks Events in Toronto Fashion events in Canada Annual events in Toronto Fashion weeks