Official Toronto Men's Fashion Week (#TOM*) Launches in August 2014

TORONTO, June 19, 2014 /CNW/ - Introducing TOM*, the Official Toronto Men's Fashion Week and the 8^th Men's Fashion Week in the world, joining the ranks of London, Paris, Florence, Milan, Singapore, Vancouver and Los Angeles. Toronto Men's Fashion Week, or TOM* will be a celebration of the best in menswear design, showcasing established and pioneering Canadian and international menswear designers and brands. TOM* premieres August 11-15^th, 2014 with main runway presentations on the 12^th, 13^th and 14^th, 2014 at the Evergreen Brick Works, Toronto, Canada.

"The time is NOW to celebrate and support Canadian menswear. Toronto Men's Fashion Week will absolutely stimulate the industry from every angle, from nurturing menswear design itself to growing the male modeling industry, to increasing buying and spending on men's products and brands and increasing the overall image and profile of menswear in Canada. It will show that creativity and business in this country are not mutually exclusive." Says Jeff Rustia, Founder and Executive Director of TOM*.

TOM* aims to increase the profile and visibility of menswear while stimulating the fashion industry and boosting tourism. TOM* is designed to create a huge economic impact on Toronto through increased spending in men-focused products, brands and services.

Among the many exciting highlights of Toronto Men's Fashion Week, TOM* will include The Menswear Collections, by the Canada's most iconic and innovative designers such as Christopher Bates, Sons of Odin, Hussein Dhalla (HD Homme), Pedram Karimi and many more.  The event will also feature top menswear brands and men's shops in TOM* Presents. Other highlights will include Suits & Styles, featuring the latest in suit designs; The International Spotlight Series will showcase notable menswear designers from around the world and the Avant Garde series will feature the collections of designers who are breaking the mold and setting the course for modern men's style.

As a Canadian brand, TOM* is pleased to present EMDA - Emerging Menswear Design Award, which is a part of the Designer Menswear Fund, an initiative with the Toronto Fashion Incubator, to promote and nurture home grown design talent, and to inspire young designers to specialize in menswear. The EMDA grand prize winner will be selected from a group of five finalists by a distinguished panel of judges. All five finalists will present their collections at the grand finale on the last night of TOM*. Each collection will be scored based on visual appearance, style, communication and marketability.

The first ever menswear-dedicated fashion week in Toronto, TOM* Fashion Week, is produced by the same visionary fashion group that produced CPFW (Canada Philippine Fashion Week) also founded by Jeff Rustia. The inaugural CPFW was a highly successful six-day cultural fashion week, held in Toronto in June 2013, which brought an estimated economic impact of $5.5 million dollars to Toronto, attracted over 10,000 unique attendees, and over 31,000 visitors. (Enigma Research, Canada and FEO, Festival Events Ontario)

Toronto Men's Fashion Week is proud to be a member of Festival Events Ontario. Part of the proceeds of TOM* will go to Men's Fashion 4 Hope, a special initiative that brings fashion and charity together in support of the Kol Hope Foundation for Children, to help young people with disabilities at SickKids Hospital in Toronto.

Historically, menswear has taken a back seat to women's global fashion weeks often showing their collections alongside women's wear or tagged into the end of women's fashion weeks. Finally, menswear will have it's own well deserved spotlight in North America.

"It's time that menswear designers have their own platform and runway to showcase their innovation, creativity and talent here in Toronto," says Jeff Rustia. "Logistically, it doesn't make sense to lump the men with the women, because it is its own entity, it has its own set of buyers and editors, and audience"

Toronto Men's Fashion Week and TOM* and I AM TOM* and TOMFW.COM are registered trademarks of Toronto Men's Fashion Week Inc., (1902525) a registered Canadian non profit organization aimed at promoting Canadian menswear designs and businesses embedded in a cultural program.

SOURCE: TOM, Toronto Men's Fashion Week

Please contact [email protected], call the TOM* Hotline at 416 467 6676, or Log on to WWW.TOMFW.COM. For sponsorship, please contact [email protected]. Twitter @TOM_FW #iamtom #tomfw