Fresh faces of fashion
Meet the first class of fashion entrepreneurs at Ryerson’s Joe Fresh Centre
Fashion is an industry that eats its young. Thus the competition to get into the first “class” of six residencies for fashion entrepreneurs at the Joe Fresh Centre for Fashion Innovation at Ryerson University was fierce. The $1-million program, announced in March 2015, took in its first cohort in October.
“This first group is remarkably diverse,” says Mario Grauso, president of Joe Fresh. “It includes designers, tech startups, a skin-care line and a fashion brand that aims to raise our collective social conscience.”
Winners receive 18 months of co-working space at Yonge and Dundas Sts., with access to mentorship from Joe Fresh, Loblaw Corporation and Shoppers Drug Mart executives. It includes access to the Ryerson Fashion Zone, a maker space with sewing machines, 3D printers, boardrooms and a show room. Innovators can apply for capital investment. And there is academic credit at completion of the program.
“What is emerging is social awareness and social consciousness and how fashion plays a role in that,” says Robert Ott, chair of the School of Fashion at Ryerson and executive and academic director of the Fashion Zone.
“This is a place for fashion-inspired ideas thought up by people with no fashion background, as well as traditional design talent.”
Applications for the next round of Innovator residencies are being accepted now until Feb. 26. Details at JoeFreshCentre.com.
House of Formen
Andrew Grella is a 24-year-old graduate of the Ryerson Commerce program on a mission to encourage men to “cloak their imperfections.” He launched his first male grooming line at 19; Formen is what he calls a “pivot,” or refinement of the concept. Grella’s original skin-care line was featured on Dragons’ Den and The Steven and Chris Show, as well as Maclean’s magazine. This new iteration is a professional line of skin care and cosmetics based on a “problem-solution-based approach to male skin,” that Grella says takes about 30 seconds to apply.
The certified organic skin-care products (hydration, treatment, toner and cleaner) range from $28 to $40; and complexion products (multi-tone concealer kits, a brightening CC cream, which is basically a tinted moisturizer) range from $28 to $34, at formenmakeup.com, amazon.com and shop.ca.
“If anyone active on social media would like to review our products they can email club@formens.ca and we’ll ship them out a product.” Grella also invites Torontonians interested to come down to the JFC.
They will also feel the energy, says Grella. “The atmosphere at the JFC is clean and crisp. The final design of the space is warm yet clean. It fits the profile of a co-working environment filled with a start-up mentality, taking notes from Canada’s top incubator, the Digital Media Zone.”
Style ID
Sarah Juma, CEO, 35, and Rachel Nicolea, public relations, 29, cofounded Style ID in 2012. It is a free app (styleid.ca) that helps fans identify styles worn on television shows and purchase them. Shows pegged range from Scandal and Modern Family to Elementary, Girls and Pretty Little Liars.
The company, which now has six employees, has been a part of other startup communities, including Communitech in Kitchener and Google for Entrepreneurs at the Google Hub Waterloo. The app launched for Android and Black Berry in June 2014 and on iOS in January 2015. The tipping point is nigh, says Juma: “Style ID is teetering on the edge of start-up heading into the growth phase.”
Juma says they hope the Joe Fresh Centre will help them make the transition smoothly. “Being surrounded by other entrepreneurs who understand the ins and outs of what it’s like to be a business owner, in the world of fashion, is both helpful and encouraging. Entrepreneurship is about finding your own path . . . this just happens to be ours.”
Blanc de Noir
Blanc de Noir is a gender-neutral leather goods (bags and shoes) and knitwear company. The principals met at OCAD studying industrial design: Gonzalo de Cárdenas, 38, a bespoke shoe designer, also studied architecture in Peru; Miah Mills, 33, who makes bespoke bags, also studied fashion business at George Brown. The duo debuted their line at the TFI press and buyers breakfast at World MasterCard Fashion Week in 2014.
The goods are available at blancdenoir.ca, as well as at Model Citizen in Kensington Market, the Men’s Room on Church St. and Elle & Co. plus a first shop in SoHo, New York City. The current collection is named for Toronto streets: the slouchy Lansdowne boot, the fringed Wellington balaclava, the Ossington thneed (yes, that is a word, here the meaning is a hooded scarf ). The minimalist styles are meant to be beyond trends; each collection is inspired by a global city and makes use of historical regional materials and crafting techniques. The knitwear (from $75) is crafted in Lima, Peru, by a social collective of “unemployable” (cancer survivors and older women who have been shut out of Peru’s workforce). The footwear (from $225) is made in Lima by a small family business. And the leather goods ($45 to $500) are crafted by the designers in their Toronto studio near Bloor and Sherbourne Sts.
“We’re really starting to get a feel for each other,” Mills says, of the shared workspace with the other innovators. “A lot of us work really late so it’s been great to have other people across the table who are experiencing similar struggles and triumphs with their startups.”
Klothed
Klothed is a personalized, mobile apparel shopping and style-planning app for men. “Most people don’t look like the images typically used in fashion advertising,” says co-founder Barry Fogerty, 56. “The vast majority of people are larger, or older, or an ethnicity other than white — and this disconnect . . . contributes to a high return rate for clothing bought online (up to 30 or 40 per cent). Klothed enables users to quickly and easily create a personalized model that includes a selfie of their face, and a body shape and skin tone that resembles their own.”
Consumers virtually try-on clothes, share outfits for feedback with their social networks, buy items and plan their wardrobes.
Fogarty has teamed once again with Paul Nykamp, 58, a software developer. The pair also founded Octopz Inc., “an award-winning, venture-financed, synchronous collaboration platform that was sold in 2011.” The third founder of Klothed is Bhupinder Randhawa, 47, an intellectual property lawyer with whom they had worked on Octopz.
While the co-founders had solid software development knowledge, they “weren’t particularly knowledgeable about fashion.” and so felt the application and vetting process were rigorous.
Other key team members include Kimberley Kirby, 26, director of content development; Leesa Butler, 43, an adviser and the program co-ordinator of the Fashion Business and Management Program at Centennial College. And Jason Hsu, 31, who is in charge of photography for the company. Consumers can sign up for the public beta launch in January at klothed.com. The app will initially be released free on iOS.
Love Winter
While designer Polina Roufanova, 27, is off in Dubai this year, her socialmedia-savvy team, including her mother and managing director Svetlana Roufanova and social media director Aimerance Nsangu, are ensconced at the Joe Fresh lab.
The younger Roufanova was born in Saratov, Russia, on the Volga River. Raised in Richmond Hill, she completed her degree at Ryerson’s Commerce program. She went on to pursue an MBA at HULT international business school in the UAE (she is working remotely from there).
She came up with the idea of a product that would encourage people to embrace the cold while in Hong Kong. Her design — inspired by the Valenki boot from Siberia — consists of neon-bright, water-repellent galoshes paired with felt boots. The basic boot is $190; additional colours of galoshes can shake up the look for an additional $40 a pair. They are available at lovewinter.com. Popup shops are at Tuck Shop Trading, Blue Mountain and Creedscollective.com on Crosby St. in New York City. “We have worked with two PR firms, one in Toronto and the other in New York,” says Roufanova on publicizing the product. “As well as many bloggers who have helped us along the way.”
Wear Your Label
Wear Your Label is “about clothing to create conversations about mental health,” says Kyle MacNevin, 23, one of the social enterprise’s cofounders, who goes by the title chief stigma officer and lead designer. The other is Kayley Reed, 22, who has the more traditional title of CEO. The friends, from New Brunswick where their business is based, bonded when they shared their own battles with mental illness.
The line is gender neutral and made in North America. The idea is to use “positive reinforced messaging” such as “It’s OK Not to Be OK,” “Sad but Rad” and “Self Care Is Not Selfish” on T-shirts available at Wearyourlabel.com. There is also a bracelet project, which offers bracelets colour-coded for various mental health labels, from $4 to $20.
“We wanted to encourage individuals to take ownership over their mental health, rather than fear the labels that so often define us. What started as a side project in university grew slowly in our small city of Fredericton, New Brunswick. In May 2014, we began to make international headlines: fashion tackling the stigma surrounding mental illness,” says MacNevin. Moving to Toronto to be part of the JFC was a leap forward. “We are still in our honeymoon phase . . . It’s nice to be in a room with people who have the same determination, passion and goals for success as you.”
The designers partner with nonprofit, charitable and for-profit institutions across North America and speak at university campuses, conferences or other events.