The news that IMG has pulled the plug on Toronto Fashion Week might be shocking. But it shouldn’t be upsetting.
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Canadian designers, and the local Toronto industry more specifically, have certainly been in crisis mode before.
The once popular Festival of Canadian Fashion, which launched in 1985 and won a spot in the Guinness Book of World Records for largest fashion show (Alfred Sung, 8,000 guests), fell apart after the City of Toronto purchased it in 1989. Then something called the Toronto Ready-to-wear Collections was born, with low key shows over a couple of days in hotel ballrooms. That limped along until Fashion Design Council of Canada president Robin Kay started building tents and ramping up sponsorships.
Most recently, IMG purchased Toronto Fashion Week in 2012, commercializing the event even further. But in a world of belt-tightening pretty much everywhere, a title sponsor proved tough to secure for the shows last March. This season, the decision was made to kill the event.
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