Toronto Fashion Incubator provides information on how to get great press for starting designers.

* National Post
* NOW Magazine
* METRO
* blogTO
* The TFI News team

* Final Fashion www.finalfashion.ca

Tip: There’s something to be said for knowing the difference between self-confidence and overbearing. When approaching anyone with your product, make sure that you don’t get too pushy or obnoxious.

BLOG TO

Blog TO has a section called Fashion Bites, which is a weekly round-up of fashion news in Toronto. Bloggers were press-worthy during fashion week thanks to Eye Weekly and Media in Canada.

The Toronto Street Fashion crew had extensive coverage of fashion week from the shows to the parties and, of course, street fashion. Canadian and Makeup Junkie were backstage at fashion week getting all the beauty secrets. Susan Langdon of the TFI was on Steve and Chris, watch the clip. Zinc Magazine launched during fashion week, it is an editorial magazine

]]> http://malarcon.wordpress.com/2008/04/09/how-to-get-great-press/feed/ 0 malarcon mald1.jpg http://malarcon.wordpress.com/2008/04/08/highlights-of-new-york-fashion-week/ http://malarcon.wordpress.com/2008/04/08/highlights-of-new-york-fashion-week/#comments Tue, 08 Apr 2008 02:27:18 +0000 malarcon http://malarcon.wordpress.com/?p=47 Continue reading →]]>

February 1 -8, 2008

One of the most important events in the fashion world, Jeanne Beker was there to mingle with celebrities and other fashion journalists. She was able to see the latest and greatest in fashion featuring huge design labels such as: Oscar de la Renta, Marc Jacobs, Michael Kors, and Zac Posen showing at this event.

It is important for an emerging fashion industry from Toronto to understand New York’s strengths on its ability to gather and support its designers along with the help of associations and partnerships. The most anticipated moment of New York Fashion Week was the resurrection of the legendary Halston label. It was resurrected by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein and a team of investors, some Toronto-based.

Proenza Schouler is predicted to become an influential American brand, adding to its roster. The label boasts financial backing from the Valentino Fashion Group, respect from style cognoscenti, a line at Target that raised mass awareness – and one of the week’s best collections. Canada’s it-model, Coco Rocha shone as she peered out from horn-rimmed glasses in a cheetah-print suit that looked like it came off some campy film set.

What New York Fashion Week achieves and what Toronto Fashion Week does not, is relevance. The buying season is in full force during the beginning of February, big names as well as, smaller label names are mixed to provide attention to the show and add a fresh perspective from the latter.

To listen to my podcast regarding the GTA Fashion Industry, click here.

To see the complete list of productions currently filming in Toronto, click here.

Fabric Swap Benefit

April 4, 2008, 7:00 – 9:00pm
2156 Yonge Street, South of Eglinton

Sew Be It Studios will be hosting a fabric swap to benefit the Queen Street West Fire Trust Fund. Come on out and help raise funds for the fire victims.

Ryerson Fashion Week
April 6 – 10, 2008
A five-day event featuring fashion shows and exhibits.

The Lisa Corbo Designer Sale Event
April 7 – 8, 2008
Fabulous designer clothing, accessory, shoes and jewelry sale.

Luggage, Leathergoods,Handbags & Accessories Show
April 13 – 15, 2008
Accessories trade show targeted to retailers from North America

FGI Night of Stars
April 17, 2008
Honoring Outstanding Canadians who have made an impact in the world of fashion, beauty and design.

Absolutely Vintage Sale
April 19, 2008
Men’s and women’s vintage clothing sale.

The ELLE Show Opening Night GALA
April 24, 2008
Come to the FASHION GALA of the YEAR!

The ELLE Show
April 24 – 27, 2008
The pages of ELLE Canada come to life at this fabulous fashion and beauty event.

DX Summer Design Camp
July 7 – August 29, 2008
Designed for young designers aged 7 to 16.

FGI Student Forum
October 18,2008
Annual career day forum for fashion students.

Ever since we could post our pictures online and share them with other communities, fashion designers, including Toronto fashion designers have become inspired by what “regular” people are wearing. Now there’s a website called Torontostreetfashion.com. It is deemed as the first and only fashion site with street fashion photos, designer features, fashion event listings and coverage, trend reports, competition listings and photo editorials. Toronto Street Fashion’s goal is to provide a place for the fashion industry to connect, learn and grow.

Designers or non-designers can communicate regarding design, fabrications and trends is a very intimate platform.

They also feature some very interesting emerging trends such as “green fashion”. This topic was raised in a recent show sponsored by the Fur Council of Canada. Many reporters remarked on the discomfort they felt watching an entire show focusing on fur. Others were repulsed at the use of fur and would rather have seen designers using vintage or recycled furs.

“One style veteran irritated by appropriation of the green movement, remarked, “This is not a perspective – its a marketing spin.” A photographer who lived in an Innu community was more comfortable with the fur saying, “This is how the Inuit make their living – how else are they supposed to support themselves?”

To continue reading the article, click here.

D-Squared is another Canadian designer success story. The fashion line was created by two Canadian brothers, Dean and Dan Caten. In 1989, after finishing fashion school in New York, they moved to Milan, Italy to pursue their dreams of fashion. However, they soon discovered it was harder that they thought. Struggling to make a name for themselves, they became party hosts and began networking within influential society in Italy.

They decided to participate at a Parisian tradeshow and paid their friends to pretend to make orders in order to create a buzz around their table. As a result, they received $ 500,000 worth of orders and secured accounts. In 1995 they debuted their very first men’s collection, and followed that in 2003 with their very first women’s collection.

Since then, DSquared’s fashion lines have been worn by celebrities such as Justin Timberlake, Lenny Kravitz, and Madonna. In 2000–2001, the brothers designed over 150 pieces for Madonna’s Drowned World Tour 2001.

Dean and Dan Caten are also designing the new official uniforms for football team Juventus.

The Toronto Fashion Incubator (TFI) began as a proposal from the Fashion Industry Liaison Committee, an organization supported by the City of Toronto’s Economic Development Division. They believed by creating an incubator it would stimulate growth and job opportunities. In 1987, the TFI was finally formed.

They began with the help of a two-year grant provided by the Federal Innovations Program of Employment and Immigration Canada. In December 1989, the centre was granted official “incubator” status through an Order-in-Council of the Ministry of Municipal Affairs. In February 1990, an operating grant and some administrative support were provided by TEDCO (The City of Toronto Economic Development Corporation) through its Business Incubation program. Since then, TEDCO has continued its generosity by providing the TFI with a yearly grant. Through corporate sponsorships, fundraising, workshops, consulting, membership fees, rental fees for studio space, equipment and facilities we are able to generate additional revenues.

For over two decades, they have helped nurture and develop innovative talent while encouraging small business growth. Cities like London, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles, Melbourne, Auckland and Dunedin have looked to Toronto’s Fashion Incubator as a model of innovation, excellence and leadership.

MEMBERS

TFI offers two types of memberships: Outreach and Resident.

OUTREACH MEMBERS form the foundation of the TFI, coming together for events and seminars, while making invaluable industry connections in the process. Anyone can join the TFI as an Outreach member.

RESIDENT MEMBERS are the designers starting their businesses, or completing their first collections.

RESOURCES

Resources and Information regarding the following subjects, offered by TFI:

▪ Becoming a designer

▪ Starting your own business

▪ Developing, producing, promoting, and selling

▪ Working in fashion

▪ Canadian Associations and organizations

▪ Canadian Textile Manufacturers

▪ Web Media Links

▪ Marketing Agencies

Ryerson University

FASHION DESIGN

Students who qualify for Fashion Design begin specialization in the second year. Within the third and fourth year there are core courses in computer aided design, tailoring, production management, international marketing, grading and materials management. In addition students may further focus on such subjects as contour and knitwear design, theatre/historical costume and surface (textile) design through the selection of elective courses in second, third and fourth year..

FASHION COMMUNICATION

Specialization in Fashion Communication also begins in second year. Business-related courses in areas such as marketing, business, communication, typography, fashion in international markets and new venture start-ups are combined with professional studies in communication design, illustration, photography, video production and fashion journalism to produce a graduate who can work in all areas of fashion communication.

RETAIL MANAGEMENT

The Bachelor of Commerce in Retail Management prepares students for professional careers in the retail/distribution sector and/or to engage in postgraduate studies in this or related areas. Graduates of the Retail Management program may pursue a variety of career options within the industry:

• store operations management positions in single-unit or multi-unit organizations which specialize in soft goods, hard goods or food retailing;
• buying and supply chain management positions in a retailer’s or manufacturer’s head office including: trend identification, assortment planning, selection and procurement, supply chain management and logistics functions;
• manufacturer’s or sales agency’s sales representative;
• strategic planning positions for retailers who must analyze rapidly changing consumer needs, the global retail environment and the impact of technology on changing retail formats;
• new venture start-up and management;
• shopping centre development.

George Brown

FASHION TECHNIQUES AND DESIGN

The Fashion Techniques and Design program at George Brown College provides students with a thorough foundation in the technical skills needed to design and produce a variety of garments. The program simulates as closely as possible the fashion industry’s standards, practices and facilities. Students learn sewing and garment assembly skills and then progress to pattern making, pattern grading, and garment construction. This program focuses on the sewing and drafting techniques used in the industry. An annual fashion show highlights successful individual student projects.

FASHION MANAGEMENT

Students are introduced to the concepts of developing, producing and marketing a product from initial concept through to retail sale. Through various courses, students analyze and test garments in our textile lab, create private-label fashion lines on storyboards, examine and choose the most effective and efficient manufacturing processes, and assess essential marketing and merchandising principles. Students also obtain first-hand experience in the student-operated fashion stores on campus.

FASHION BUSINESS INDUSTRY

The Fashion Business Industry two-year diploma program at George Brown College is an introduction to the fashion industry for students with no prior fashion, sewing or business experience. The program will give students an introduction to all aspects of the fashion industry from product design and development to marketing and small business management.

INTERNATIONAL FASHION DEVELOPMENT AND MANAGEMENT

International Fashion Development and Management at George Brown College is a one-year postgraduate program designed for the student or industry professional with a serious interest in international work.

The program provides students with the essential skills to successfully navigate the complex waters of the current global marketplace. As new communications technologies have made the world a smaller place, more possibilities for the fashion industry have emerged on an international scale, along with many exciting related career opportunities.

Seneca

FASHION ARTS DESIGN AND PRODUCTION

Fashion Arts design and production is a three-year program which offers students career-oriented education in the fashion industry. Graduates are qualified to enter careers in design, production management, quality control, product development and pattern making in both men’s and women’s wear.

FASHION BUSINESS

This program takes a multi-dimensional approach to educating students for careers in the fashion retail industry by combining studies in business fundamentals with fashion theory. Curriculum is delivered from both a theoretical and practical perspective depending on subject content. Students gain real store management experience at the program’s on-campus clothing store in their second year of the program.

Kimberley Newport-Mimran is the designer behind the fashion line Pink Tartan. She is a George Brown graduate from the Fashion Merchandising and Manufacturing diploma in 1988.

From 1988-90, Kimberley worked in the buying office of the Hudson Bay Company. In 1990 she joined Club Monaco in Canada, where she was senior director for the team that launched the Canadian lifestyle company Caban.

She started Pink Tartan in 2002 with business partner and husband, Joe Mimran. He has conceptualized Club Monaco, Alfred Sung and most recently Joe Fresh.

Pink Tartan is best described as a contemporary sportswear collection. Currently, the line is sold to over 170 specialty boutiques across North America. Celebrities who wear Pink Tartan: Kate Hudson, Nelly Furtado and Kim Catrall.

Learn more about Pink Tartan, by reading the National Post review, “L’Oreal Fashion Week: Pink Tartan”.

I came across an interesting blog that disputes the legitimacy of valid fashion and the exploitation of good design. Rather, Scott Klinker argues that fashion takes the trends of design and transforms them into more malleable and mainstream designs. For example, Tiffany’s partnership with Frank Gehry, who designed the newly renovated Royal Ontario Museum, or the well- know industrial designer Karim Rashid’s partnership with Dirt Devil.

 

We come back to the same question, what came first design or fashion? Some may argue that design is quintessential to human society starting off with the greatest invention ever, the wheel. Fashion is a product of established society that provides the vanities of extra cloth and flamboyant colours and design.

However, this is not the case in the Fashion/Apparel GTA Cluster. Fashion came years before accredited design schools began popping up in the GTA. In fact, Fashion/Apparel industry was one of the first industries established in Toronto. Fashion enabled the Design Cluster of Toronto to develop and grow. The two clusters are intertwined; creative artists are attracted to these mediums. Both require very specialized post-secondary education and require a lot of association and organizational support.

Today, Toronto boasts a strong and thriving Design Cluster supplied by talent from the Ontario College of Art and Design, Ryerson University, and George Brown. You can’t have great clothes without great design.