Toronto Fashion Week is no more.
Organizers are pulling the plug on the semi-annual event, citing a lack of local support.
IMG Canada had operated Toronto Fashion Week in collaboration with IMG Fashion since 2012.
They took the reins of the event from the Fashion Design Council of Canada, which had previously owned and produced Toronto’s fashion week for 13 years.
Catherine Bennett of IMG Fashion Events & Properties says partnerships and sponsorships play important roles in staging fashion events.
Bennett says they weren’t seeing the local support for the industry in Toronto that they do in other markets.
Toronto Fashion Week was part of a sizable roster of other international fashion weeks owned or commercially represented by IMG, including those staged in New York, London, Berlin, Sydney and Tokyo.
Scrapping Toronto Fashion Week is ‘shocking and disappointing’ but chance for new approach
Susan Langdon is the executive director of the Toronto Fashion Incubator, an organization that works with young designers to develop their brands. It has held fashion shows at the glitzy event every year for the past five years.
“It’s definitely shocking and disappointing news,” she told CBC News. “It will mean more financial burden for designers since they will have to each produce their own fashion show.”
