Happy Canada Day! In the spirit of this day of independence from the North, I bring you some of Canada's top independent fashion designers. I discovered some great indie fashion labels at World Mastercard Fashion Week in Toronto this past spring and hope they invade the borders soon!
The design team of Shawn Hewson and Ruth Promislow behind the BUSTLE label comes to represent what I love about Canada. The collection is bright, good natured and has a sense of humor. Menswear dominated their runway with well cut separates and suits in unexpected colors. A few women's looks made their in as well. The designers started off in law practice, but their stylish collaborations soon came to include everyone from Vespa, Hotel St. Germain to the city of Las Vegas.
Golnaz Ashtiani won the TFI fashion award and quickly racked up press coverage from all of Canada's top fashion magazines. Her collection, Ashtiani at Toronto Fashion week had sharp, architectural seams with clean cut tailoring. I loved the mix of contrast fabrications and cool attitude.
MATIS is an award-winning collection from designer Lucian Matis. He got his fashion design roots growing up in his mother's tailor shop before having is work grace the covers of the country's top publications. His fall 2013 collection had simple silhouettes populated with complex and beautiful prints.
Photos by David TW Leung
