Just in time for Toronto Fashion Week, Joe Fresh and Ryerson University announced the creation of The Joe Fresh Centre for Fashion Innovation, which includes a $1 million investment from the clothing brand. The centre aims to support and grow emerging fashion-related businesses through Ryersons Fashion Zone.
Of course, any initiative that gives desperately needed funds and mentorship to Canadas fledging fashion community should be applauded (is this possibly the initiative that was teased, then mysteriously never announced last fashion week?). But, in the companys habitual quest to shine a spotlight on themselves, they made a big faux pas when they referred to the project as Canada’s first fashion innovation centre.
Theyre a few words in a press release, but words matter and these ones show a surprising disregard for one of Canadas oldest and most effective fashion institutions: the Toronto Fashion Incubator (TFI).
For almost three decades, TFI has supported and fostered young homegrown talent. Its team helmed by executive director Susan Langdon rarely gets the credit it truly deserves, but has played major roles in the careers of designers like David Dixon, Joeffer Caoc, Line Knitwear, Smythe, Sunny Fong and Sid Neigum. TFI reports that it and its members have created 18,000 Canadian jobs since 1987. Its done all this as a non-profit organization, relying mostly on donor support.
I’m glad that TFI’s stellar track record of almost 30 years nurturing innovative talent has inspired Ryerson and Joe Fresh, writes Langdon in an e-mail. As you know, TFI was the world’s first fashion incubator that’s also inspired New York, London, Paris and Milan.
Theres also the question of whether Joe Freshs newest project is too little, too late. The brand has had plenty of opportunities to financially support emerging talent throughout the years and has been called on by media several times to do so but neglected to support TFI or other organizations as local label after local label disappeared. It seems the brand is only interested in investing in Canadian fashion when it can smack a big orange label on the whole thing.
Joe Fresh is Canadian in the same way Paulina Gretzky is Canadian. They both have tenuous ties to the Great White North, but only feign to embrace their identity when it serves in their own self-interest whether that be a Flare magazine cover or the chance to brand something in ones own name. In the next breath, Paulina tells Maxim magazine shes not Canadian, meanwhile Joe Fresh continues to house its design team in New York and manufacturing process in Bangladesh.
sabrinam@nowtoronto.com | @sabrinamaddeaux
