Toronto Speaks Fashion Week

The first Toronto Men’s Fashion Week plans on shaping the menswear landscape with a range of models of all ages, races, and body types outfitted in 20 established and emerging Canadian menswear designers.

The announcement began with a teaser campaign on human billboards at Pride week that read: Who Is TOM? That was displayed on a vast range of Canadian male models. The TOM in question is not a person, but Toronto Men’s Fashion Week, which just happens to have an easy-to-remember human nickname. The premiere of the TOMFW Spring-Summer 2015 will take place at the Fairmont Royal York hotel from August 12th to the 15th.

Since 1998, the overall menswear market has grown 70 percent, and the credit mostly goes to the pop cultural world that has invaded all worlds. Modern men now dress up to stand out or look like their favorite celebrities.

Fashion for men today is neither gay nor straight. “These days, fashion is not about sexuality,” says Jeff Rustia, founder of TOMFW. “If you want to wear pink pants, it doesn’t mean you are a homosexual. Menswear is no longer a tagalong to womenswear, and it is not longer boring.”

The TOMFW will showcase lines of 20 Canadian designers. The headliners are Christopher Bates, Benji WZW, Pedram Karimi, Sons of Odin and HD Homme. Plus there is a slate of New Lab presentations, and the $10,000 Emerging Menswear Designer Awards for designers with less than three years in business.

The TOMFW events will be open to the public, another part of Rustia’s democratic vision. “I want to be accessible to everyone, to the enthusiast, to the consumer.”