CAFA 2017: 'Something exciting happening here in the land of ice and snow'

Canadian designers might be favourites of influential fashion plates like KateMiddleton, MichelleObamaand Jennifer Lopez, but the industry still has a way to go toward global recognition.

Enterthe Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards.

CAFAorganizers conceived theglitzyannual event, which trumpetsoutstanding achievement and emerging fashion talent, as a sort ofAcademy Awards of Canadian fashion or yearly celebration along the lines of New York's famed Met Gala.

Now, in its fourth year and after impressive exponential growth, it's poised to become just that.

• CAFA|Nominees for the 2017 Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards

"Every year, it just keeps getting better and better.... It's a great opportunity to get the public aware that there is a Canadian fashion industry, that we have thecalibreof talent that we do in this country, coast to coast," SusanLangdon, executive director of the Toronto Fashion Incubator, told CBC News on Friday.

"For those of us slogging it out, it's a wonderful night of recognition, especially for the designers. Who doesn't want to be lauded by their peers and recognized?"

According toLangdon, an earlyCAFAadviser who also serves as a juror for the awards, the annual event has been an "astounding" success for a variety of reasonsfrom its celebration of Canadian talent to organizers courting and nurturing relationships with major retailer sponsors to strategic outreach with international fashion-world movers andshakers.

"We can't be insulated. We don't live in a world that's just Canadian any moreor just France or just U.K. It doesn't work that way. With social media and theinternet, everybody is connected."

Canadians gaining recognition

It's no secret that a host of Canadians have made a splash on the international scene in the past decade.

London-based Canadian designerErdemMoraliogluis a favourite of Kate, theDutchessof Cambridge, as well as actors such asKeiraKnightleyand NicoleKidman.

In the U.S., New York-based Taiwanese-Canadian designer Jason Wu counts Michelle Obama, Reece Witherspoon, KerryWashington and Jaime King among his famous devotees.

Moraliogluand Wubothexpected to attend this year's red-carpetCAFAgalaare past winners of the Canadian fashion honour.

CAFAlaureates also include designers JoeMimran, Dean and DanCaten(DSquared2), SidNeigumand JeremyLaing, modelCocoRochaand labels such as Greta Constantine andBeaufille.

Meanwhile, the future also looks promising: Canadian up-and-comers Thomas Taitand VejasKruszewski have been honoured with the LVMHPrize for young fashion designers in the past three years.

Not unlike peers in other creative industries, Canadian fashion designers have long looked beyond our borders towards a global audience.

Getting beyond big brands, stereotypes

However, with megawatt international brand namesor ultra-low price points being the key drivers of consumer purchases today, it's an uphill battle for most Canadian creators, who typically fall into a middle category,Langdonsaid.

"They're not a big name brand like Chanel or Louis Vuitton or Gucci or Michael Kors ... and yet they're not dirt cheap, too. They're not Zara," she explained.Still, she continued, it's not impossible to succeed.

There are Canadians innovating by leveraging social media and new technologies and otherswinning over major players with vervemeeting retailers and style decision-makers on their own turf.Moregovernment export and development grants and financial support like the Fashion Canada fund from the days of Pierre Trudeau, which helped boost the industry in tthe pastcould help,Langdonsaid.

Another challenge is dispelling the perception many fashion followers worldwide still have of Canada as simply "the land of ice and snow, the great outdoors and lumberjacks," despite our domestic industry going back to the 1960s.

"We're still on the brink of recognition and acknowledgement by the international fashion community, but we're making inroads. And every event that happens here in Canada [likeCAFA] helps to build that type of international recognition," she explained.

"There is something exciting happening here in the land of ice and snow."

The 2017 Canadian Arts & FashionAwards (CAFA) take place in Toronto Friday evening, hosted by CBC-TV personality Jessi Cruickshank.