Stylish Toronto guys, take note: this summer, the city will launch the eighth fashion week in the world devoted solely to menswear, joining style capitals like Paris, London and Los Angeles. TOM (Toronto’s Official Men’s Fashion Week), will run from August 11 to 15, with runway shows and presentations at the Evergreen Brick Works. Though select menswear designers have been able to show at Toronto Fashion Week alongside womenswear collections and unisex brands like Joe Fresh, TOM founder Jeff Rustia (who also started the first Canada Philippine Fashion Week) explains why it’s important for the guys to have a separate event: “Logistically, it doesn’t make sense to lump the men in with the women, because [the labels] have their own buyers, editors and audience.”
Show-goers can expect to see collections from top Canadian designers and brands, including Toronto-based Christopher Bates, Sons of Odin, Hussein Dhalla of HD Homme and Montreal’s Pedram Karimi. There will also be a series on the latest in suitwear, as well as profiles on international designers and an Avant Garde presentation focused on designers who are breaking the typical menswear mold. The ultimate goal of the festival? To stimulate the Canadian menswear scene, which, thanks to guys spending more cash than ever on clothes, is perfectly poised for takeoff.
This is the second event Toronto has launched this year that draws attention to the country’s fashion industry: the inaugural Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards received a tonne of praise for paying tribute to top talent like Coco Rocha and Jeanne Beker. Events like these not only put Toronto on the map, they’re a decent way to encourage local designers to stay put (instead of migrating to New York or London to make it big). Tickets will be available for purchase next week.
Aug. 11-15. Toronto Men’s Fashion Week, tomfw.com
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