For decades, Toronto’s fashion scene has occupied an uneasy position within the global industry. The city produces a steady stream of designers, stylists, and photographers, yet its infrastructure has historically lagged behind the scale of its creative talent. Fashion weeks have appeared and disappeared, institutions have struggled to sustain momentum, and many of the city’s most promising designers have ultimately relocated abroad. Against this backdrop, Toronto’s Own Fashion Week (TOFW) has begun positioning itself as something more structural: an attempt to build the cultural scaffolding necessary for a fashion ecosystem to actually take root within the city.
For Spring/Summer 2026, the organization enters a new chapter. Running from May 15 to May 17, the upcoming season will take place inside the Church of the Holy Trinity, a Gothic Revival landmark in downtown Toronto dating back to 1847. The decision to stage a runway inside a historic church signals a deliberate shift in tone. Rather than emphasizing spectacle or digital theatrics, the setting frames fashion within a space traditionally associated with ritual, structure, and contemplation.
The theme for the season is “sacred craftsmanship.” According to TOFW Director Sadaf Emami, the intention is to foreground construction and tailoring rather than spectacle. “We are building an organization focused on the true and professional representation of our designers,” Emami said in a statement. “Our goal is to strengthen this industry so designers no longer feel they must leave the city to find success.”
Across three days, 15 Canadian designers will present collections in a traditional runway format. Each show will host approximately 250 guests, with over 4,000 attendees expected across the weekend. In only four seasons, TOFW has begun positioning itself as a piece of cultural infrastructure within Toronto’s fashion landscape. The platform has already produced several tangible outcomes: a designer discovered during the SS25 season was later recruited by Simons, multiple models have secured opportunities at New York and Milan Fashion Week, and venues utilized by TOFW, including Lower Bay Station and Billy Bishop Airport, have since been adopted for larger cultural productions such as Project Runway, Reitmans activations, and TIFF programming. The ambition is clear: to make Toronto not merely a city that produces designers, but a city where they can remain.
Event Information: Toronto’s Own Fashion Week (TOFW) S/S 2026, May 15–17, 2026, Church of the Holy Trinity, 10 Trinity Square, Toronto
Public tickets are now available at tofw.ca
Cody Rooney is the Editor in Chief and senior contributor at LIMINUL.
He is a PhD candidate, digital content specialist, writer, editor, multi-media artist, and photographer.