Early in February I was very lucky to fly to Toronto and attend the CAFA awards. I was also honoured to be part of the nominating committee of this incredible event. I\u2019m dedicating a week of blog posts to this, as I think that Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards are an an important, exciting event in Canadian fashion and something we really need to nurture. Let\u2019s call it Canadian Fashion Week here at Searching for Style, and let\u2019s start with a list about why we really, really need a body like CAFA sorting out the Canadian fashion industry. Here are 5 Reasons Why the Canadian Fashion Industry Isn\u2019t Thriving. (P.S. Notice lack of talent isn\u2019t on this list\u2026because we have a ton of it.)<\/p>\n
1. There\u2019s no official governing body. All countries with successful fashion industries have a central governing body, that is non-profit, who manages the industry and its events with the goal of ensuring the brands are properly promoted. For example, there\u2019s the CFDA and the BFC. Canada doesn\u2019t have this, and as a result, there\u2019s no one truly supporting the brands. I am hoping that CAFA will become this missing link.<\/p>\n
CAFA, canadian fashion, made in canada, buy local, vancouver fashion week
\nVancouver Fashion Week is a company that runs shows to make money \u2013 with hardly any buyers or press in attendance.<\/p>\n
2. Most fashion weeks are about making profit. When I moved to Vancouver from London, I was confused about the number of people who pay to go to a fashion show. Why would someone do that? Fashion shows are overrated, and I suggest you consult this article to understand why. Anyway, the fact that a lot of these fashion weeks were about making money from ticket sales meant two really annoying things. Firstly, it means that people expect a SHOW. When you pay $25 for a glass of cheap bubbly and a fashion show, you don\u2019t want it to be over in fifteen minutes. So, they do ridiculous things like hire dancers in between \u201csets\u201d (yes, sometimes there are sets) and stretch out the show to last an hour. Guess what? For those of us who actually HAVE to be at the show, it is work. And I like my work to be done as quickly as possible.<\/p>\n
Secondly, there\u2019s the issue of timing. People who buy tickets to a fashion show are usually not free to attend them at 11am on a Tuesday. The \u201cfor profit\u201d shows are usually on in the evening, sometimes at 8pm, and sometimes even at 8pm on a Saturday. There are a lot of places I would like to be at 8pm on a Saturday: in the pub with my friends, eating dinner in a nice restaurant, or lying on the sofa watching Family Guy. Note that \u201cbeing at a fashion show that I am covering for work\u201d is not on that list. Hence why I hardly ever attended a fashion week in Vancouver, because the last thing I want to do on a Saturday night is watch a ninety minute fashion show.<\/p>\n
CAFA, canadian fashion, made in canada, buy local
\nA photo from a Malene Grotrian fashion show in Vancouver, which charges customers for entry. It makes for a fun night out, but not great for attracting industry. Photo by Rick Chung.<\/p>\n
I\u2019d also like to point out that this obsession with fashion shows isn\u2019t doing much good for our industry, either. International buyers and media rarely attend Canadian fashion weeks because it is far and they are already sick of going to fashion month in the US and Europe. There\u2019s simply no point for brands to spend masses of money on a fashion show if the right people aren\u2019t going to be in attendance. If we had a governing body, and some financial support (see point 4) then maybe we could have showrooms and events showcasing Canadian fashion brands in the places where there is an audience. I\u2019m suggesting a showroom in New York or Paris so that the world can see some of the best Canadian fashion, without having to schlep to Vancouver. The BFC does this for British designers in Paris, and I\u2019ve seen Brazilian brands showcased like this in Paris, too. This would be an effective way to promote our brands to an influential audience.<\/p>\n
CAFA, canadian fashion, made in canada, buy local
\nNicole Bridger does a show at Vancouver Eco Fashion Week which involves \u201creal women\u201d models who dance. Sigh. Photo by Christina Luo.<\/p>\n
3. Canadian brands don\u2019t work together enough to get the word out. Again, this relates back to point 1, which is the lack of a body organizing them all. But I\u2019ve also noticed that there doesn\u2019t seem to be a \u201cwe\u2019re all in this together\u201d attitude in Canada. I noticed this when I arrived in Vancouver, and realized that people were a lot less open to networking than London (that really came as a surprise) and people are a lot more protective of their businesses. Remember that old saying, \u201cthere\u2019s safety in numbers\u201d? That doesn\u2019t seem to apply here.<\/p>\n
CAFA, canadian fashion, made in canada, buy local
\nOne of the big names at Toronto Fashion Week is Joe Fresh, which really sucks as it is a supermarket fashion brand underserving of catwalk attention.<\/p>\n
4. There aren\u2019t enough grants or government funding for fashion brands. It costs a lot of money to start a fashion company and keep it going, and it would be nice for the government to lend a helping hand. The apparel industry is worth 2,560 trillion USD globally, so there\u2019s the potential to make some money for Canada. (I must note that the Quebecois government DOES support the fashion industry, just not the other provinces. Go Quebec!) And if the government doesn\u2019t want to spend the cash (they\u2019d probably rather use it hiring more people to promote and sell oil, right?) then why not create some initiatives that will force people to buy Canadian? Canadian radio stations are forced, by law, to play 20% Canadian music, hence why our music industry does quite well. What if stores were forced to buy 10% products made or designed in Canada? I\u2019m pretty sure putting something like that in place would not only do wonders for our fashion fashion brands, but would be a major boost to the Canadian economy in general.<\/p>\n
CAFA, canadian fashion, made in canada, buy local<\/p>\n
5. We don\u2019t value our Canadian brands enough. Yes, we love buying our lettuce local, but I don\u2019t feel we put in the same effort when it comes to buying Canadian fashion. The movement is growing, but I feel like people still place too much value on foreign brands, this has to change. And while we are on the subject, I thought I\u2019d introduce you to the 100 Mile Outfit, which is a really cool site that aims to connect designers to consumers and rebuild a local retail culture. (And p.s. \u2013 they are based in Vancouver.)<\/p>\n
Tune in on Wednesday for an interview with Vicky Milner, the founder of CAFA<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Early in February I was very lucky to fly to Toronto and attend the CAFA awards. I was also honoured to be part of the nominating committee of this incredible event. I\u2019m dedicating a week of blog posts to this, as I think that Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards are an an important, exciting event […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":10640,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1115,1121,1114,988,1116,793,861,587,517,722,1119,1120,714,1100,1095,516,1118,475,1117],"class_list":["post-10638","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-bfa","tag-bfc","tag-cafa","tag-canada","tag-canadian","tag-cfda","tag-elmer-olsen","tag-fashion-month","tag-fashion-week","tag-guide","tag-joe-fresh","tag-john-cherkas","tag-market-guide","tag-montreal","tag-north-america","tag-runway","tag-taryn-davidson","tag-toronto","tag-vancouver"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10638","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10638"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10638\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10641,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10638\/revisions\/10641"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/10640"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10638"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10638"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/map.model.world\/directory\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10638"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}