Fashion

Canadian Fashion

Keeping up with trends is one thing. Creating trends is quite another. Canadian fashion has come a long way to establish itself in a very competitive global environment.

Historically, aesthetics were not the first consideration in the production of the goods that surround us in Canada. Our homes and clothing were designed with practical objectives in mind – to stay warm and help produce the necessities of life. Without having foregone function in favour of aesthetics, the Canadian fashion industry has gone through its own evolution.

Fashion designers like Claire Haddad, Alfred Sung, Michel Robichaud, Gabriel Levy, and more recently, Jean-Claude Poitras and Simon Chang became international figures of the clothing industry in the 1970s. D’Arcy Moses, Dorothy Grant and Linda Lundström are successfully inserting Native traditions into modern trends. And in other sectors like household products, Canadian designers have established a solid position on international markets. For instance, Canada is the second largest exporter of furniture in the world.

Fashion is a fast-paced business; trend cycles are increasingly short; and predicting what the next cool thing will be, is a high wire act. Supported by a number of Canadian schools that offer fashion design programs, our fashion people not only respond to consumers’ wishes – they shape those wishes.

If fashion is a window into the identity of people, then Canada is staying ahead of its time.