Just Opened: the Style Box designer showroom

Pretty young things who find their names in boldface on the society pages can look forward to a fresh shopping destination for their fall wardrobes: the newly opened Style Box.

More rental service and designer showroom than boutique, Style Box is the brainchild of actor Amanda Brugel and agent Gail McInnes, who are hoping to increase the profiles of Canadian designers—no international labels will be carried—by getting them on some of the city’s most photographed women. (Regular people need not apply.)

Big-name personalities, including actors, musicians and politicians, can visit the petite showroom at the Toronto Fashion Incubator and borrow or purchase pieces from 20 clothing and accessory lines. “We’re not pressuring people to wear Canadian, but we are making it easy,” says Brugel. “We’re also providing a comfortable and accessible space for designers.”

Part of their mandate is to represent designers outside of the country’s two major fashion cities, Toronto and Montreal. That stable includes jewellery from Gatineau’s Mizdragonfly and Regina’s Hillberg and Burk, and womenswear from Montreal’s Nadya Toto, Toronto’s Fashion Crimes and Project Runway contestant Jason Meyers.

The pair say there’s plenty of people who want to wear Canadian designers but aren’t sure where to find them, and even more designers who want celebs to wear their clothes, but aren’t sure how to make it happen. The role of the Style Box is to link the two groups. So far, socialite Ainsley Kerr, Fashion Television’s Mary Kitchen and actors Kristin Booth, Sarian Boylan and Helene Joy have used the service, and with TIFF a month away, expect to see more Canadian-made threads on the red carpet this year.

The Style Box, Toronto Fashion Incubator, 285 Manitoba Dr., 647-283-1931, thestylebox.ca.