Toronto is a city of almost, but not quite, world-class things. Our fashion industry is no exception. It’s not easy for a designer to make it in Canada, let alone Toronto. For one, the market is small, and the general public’s fashion consciousness is light-years behind that of NYC or Europe, especially when it comes to local talent. And so we’re left with a flock of fledging artists whose operations look more Antiques Roadshow than Project Runway, and others who skip town for the aforementioned promised lands. But have we reached a point where designers can – and should – start “making it” back home? What does it take?
Fashion awards and competitions are the trendy answers du jour. The Mercedes-Benz Startup (MBSU) competition and, most recently, the Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards (CAFA) promise to spotlight emerging designers and offer national – perhaps international – platforms to show off their work.
As the name would suggest, MBSU is sponsored by Mercedes-Benz, which ranks 16th on Forbes’ list of the world’s most valuable brands with a worth of $23.5 billion. The competition awards winners with a spread in Fashion magazine, a free show at Toronto Fashion Week and access to a team of lawyers and financial consultants – but no hard cash.
“The problem with Mercedes-Benz is that there’s no prize. When you’re starting, you need money. There’s no money,” says 2012 winner Duy Nguyen. “I never pay to do Toronto Fashion Week anyways I always get sponsored. So, really, I didn’t get anything.”
Just over a year after winning the ‘big award,’ Nguyen tells me that he is quitting fashion. “I got offered a decent salary. I’m tired. I’m not 20 years old anymore and I only make minimum wage.”
It’s little surprise Canadian label after Canadian label goes bust (albeit in a blaze of media glory).
CAFA, which held its inaugural event this weekend, aims to “shine a spotlight on these artists… so that Canadian talent can afford to remain on Canadian soil.”
The awards ceremony itself was beautiful– an indisputable PR triumph. The sold-out gala welcomed internationally celebrated Canadians like Coco Rocha and Dean and Dan Caten (DSQUARED2), who were greeted on the red carpet by a sea of cameras.
When it comes to nurturing Canadian talent and strengthening our industry, it’s not about the rare juggernauts like the Catens who’ve already found success outside our borders. It’s about the new class of homegrown designers who struggle to make a living wage.
CAFA pledges to support these designers in several ways. For starters, CAFA will make a donation to OCAD’s Social Body Lab based on gala ticket sales. There’s also an after party, sponsored by Sephora, that promises “proceeds to be donated to the Toronto Fashion Incubator (TFI).”
But what might appear at first glance to be a non-profit venture is actually a for-profit corporation. The CAFA website and press materials fail to mention that a relatively small portion of proceeds actually go to these organizations.
CAFA organizers could not confirm the amount being donated to OCAD, saying that it would be worked out after the event. The amount going to TFI is also up in the air although they tell me it will likely ring in at around 15 to 20 per cent of after party proceeds.
Meanwhile, CAFA has solicited numerous big corporate sponsors including Rogers and the Mantella Corporation. According to information available on the CAFA website, sponsorships cost $50,000 for gold sponsors, $30,000 for silver sponsors, $35,000 for award category sponsors, and $40,000 for the after party’s presenting sponsor.
If you add up the sponsors listed on the CAFA site, that’s just short of $300,000. In addition, the awards have non-monetary sponsors including hotel, airline, alcohol, valet, graphic arts, and floral arrangement donors.
Further to that, sold-out tables went for $10,000 individual tickets for $650 each. Tickets for the after party rang in at $100.
We contacted CAFA but, at the time this piece was published, we’ve not received the total sales generated from these tickets. The event is now two days old and their team can’t confirm how much money the event made, or how much is being donated to any of the organizations they’re supporting.
There’s also CAFA’s Emerging Talent award, which includes a $10,000 prize – the cost of just one table and $25,000 less than what Swarovski apparently paid to sponsor the award category.
Any amount of money donated to OCAD, TFI or a young designer is a great thing. No one’s turning down $10,000 or more exposure for Canadian talent. But if we’re truly serious about taking Canada’s fashion industry to the next level, shouldn’t we be more critical of who actually benefits from these types of events?
Like the overly branded Toronto Fashion Week tents, it often seems big corporations and event organizers reap far more from these endeavors than young designers. Can’t we do better?
I don’t purport to know all the answers, but if you ask Canada’s designers -a pretty good place to start – it’s clear they need more than what’s currently available.
Ten thousand dollars, while a nice round figure, actually doesn’t go very far. Sunny Fong, who won 10 times that – $100,000 – from season two of Project Runway Canada says the money goes fast.
“Winning that prize was great, but when you break it down in terms of all the money you have to put towards shows, sampling and employees, it’s really nothing,” says Fong. When I asked him how far he thought $10,000 would go for a young designer, he said that it would likely help pay for the debts they’ve accumulated.
By way of comparison, the CFDA/Vogue Fashion Fund in the U.S., a registered non-profit organization, awards $300,000 to an emerging designer and $100,000 to two runners-up each year.
Beyond cold hard cash, Canadian designers need to get their clothes into stores. “Business is the biggest problem for Canadian designers. We aren’t making enough sales,” says local designer Golnaz Ashtiani.
Golnaz is a past winner of the TFI New Labels competition. While the TFI prize has changed slightly over the years, it currently includes a $25,000 cash award, opportunities for mentorship, a spread in Flare magazine and free studio space at TFI headquarters-something designers find especially valuable as it creates a stable home base from where a business can grow.
TFI seems to have the best track record when it comes to designer competitions, likely due to its well-rounded prize package and the fact that it keeps the focus on young designers, not brands. But even TFI can only carry designers so far.
“So far, Canadian retailers don’t really care about press coverage. Retailer support is missing right now,” says Sid Neigum, another former New Labels winner and one of the nominees for CAFA’s Emerging Talent award.
When asked what their ideal prizes would be, Neigum cites a mentorship with somebody from an internationally successful fashion powerhouse like LVMH. Fong says designers, similar to talent in any other industry, need business managers and Nguyen wants to see collaborations with retailers.
What’s clear from the excitement surrounding MSBU and CAFA is that Canadians are hungrier than ever for our fashion industry to succeed. Corporations have capitalized on this energy with wild success, making it far too easy to get sucked into the glitz and glam of big, branded events with little thought as to what they actually mean for designers.
Is it so much to ask that the scales be a little more balanced?
