Canada’s best-dressed 2025: Meet the creative types | Canada Voices

“My friends call me ‘Peacock’,” Toronto-based costume designer and stylist Charlene Akuamoah says on a call from Vancouver, where she’s working on an upcoming streaming series called Off Campus.

When she and Kahmeelia Smith recently won a Canadian Alliance of Film and Television Costume Art and Design award for the short, On a Sunday at Eleven, Akuamoah donned a sparkling dress procured from Toronto rental service The Fitzroy. Akuamoah also seeks out blockbuster finds at VSP Consignment and Mama Loves You Vintage, as well as treating herself to wrap gifts at Absolutely Fabrics on Toronto’s Queen Street West.

But when she’s working or during days off, Akuamoah leans toward low-key, comfort-driven ensembles. Unsurprisingly for the costume designer of the chic Netflix teen thriller, Bet, her fits still “end up being stylish to some degree, because I’m playing with textures, shapes and colours.” She name-checks a similarly adventurous dresser, actor Tracee Ellis Ross, as a favourite fashionista, and the Toronto-based brand Spencer Badu as a go-to for creating a “great uniform” of garments.

Digital creator Amanda Murray, who posts many magnificently silhouetted outfits, is Akuamoah’s ultimate style icon, and she channels a similar proclivity for bold proportions into the celebrities she dresses, including writer and musician Vivek Shraya.

“There is nobody else right now that I can say is giving me effortless fashion,” she says of Murray. “It’s in a way that doesn’t feel forced.” The same can be said for Akuamoah’s own ability to transform the grandest garment into something distinctly wearable.

Growing up, Toronto-based freelance creative director Tomás Acevedo says he was surrounded by creativity. “My father painted when I was young, and my mom was into florals and textiles,” he says. “There were always a lot of materials and colours around me.”

He was also active in sports and says that, sartorially, he was drawn to Andre Agassi and Pete Sampras on the tennis side, and David Beckham and Ronaldo on the soccer side. Today, Acevedo finds the tunnel walks of basketball stars a fashion feast for the eyes.

Beyond art and athletics, Acevedo’s fashion influences also include unexpected talents that mimic a creative director’s love of experimenting with silhouettes and accessories. “Robin Williams was so iconic for me,” he says, noting the legendary comedian “played such wacky characters, but was also able to somehow source crazy Issey Miyake jackets for red carpet events.”

Miyake and his cohort of lauded Japanese designers, such as Rei Kawakubo, remain Acevedo’s design heroes. “My closet has a mix of cool Japanese pieces and distinctive vintage pieces that I’ve sourced from Los Angeles flea markets or various cities around North America. It’s pretty eclectic.”

Professionally, Acevedo – who most recently held a role at Canada Goose – says he’s excited to spread his wings, and is currently working with a musician to see her creative vision through. “I’m looking forward to working more slowly with different clients,” he says. “And also trying to focus on developing an art practice.”

As a jet-setting hairstylist, Toronto-based Janet Jackson has plenty of opportunities to show off her sartorial flair. She notes that while she has classic pieces that have been in her closet for years, her way of dressing has changed as it’s been influenced by her mounting social media following.

“My look has mirrored my career growth,” says Jackson, winner of the 2024 Contessa Session Hairstylist of the Year award. The accolade acknowledges her prowess in crafting hairstyles for fashion editorials and runways.

To reflect these lofty opportunities, Jackson says she favours an aesthetic she calls “refined power.” “I wear more structured silhouettes and clean, monochromatic looks – l’m always in black, but I do wear some colour every now and then.”

One example is the cheery printed jumpsuits sold by Toronto’s Ofuure. “It’s a brand I deeply admire for its dedication to craftsmanship and cultural storytelling through design,” Jackson says. “Wearing Ofuure isn’t just about the garment – it’s about representing a lineage, a voice, and a vision that aligns with mine as a creative, and a woman of colour in the industry.”

Jackson’s confidence is her best accessory, but good hair is up there too. The JouJou Hair Studio owner says winning the Trailblazer Award at the Black Fashion & Beauty Gala last December was especially meaningful, as it makes her think of the legacy of Black women throughout Canadian history who owned beauty businesses, including civil rights activist Viola Desmond.

“Black hair is now front and centre in editorial spreads, on runways, and in campaigns,” Jackson says. “Not just as a trend, but as a subject of cultural reverence.”

Photographer Ted Belton lives between Portugal and Canada and recently spent time in Paris capturing locals stylishly going about their days. To achieve a sense of unstudied composition and in-the-moment intimacy, Belton – who also photographed this magazine’s cover feature on designer Erdem Moralioglu – says he utilizes his style to help him assimilate.

“Of course, you have to dress well if you’re out photographing the streets of Paris,” says Belton, a fan of Patti Smith’s unstudied but savvy style. “But you also don’t want to look conspicuous to the point that everybody’s noticing you or staring at you. I try to dress in a nice, understated way, and that would consist of wearing big floppy pants and a smart blazer.”

He leans towards loose-fitting pieces in packable fabrics like wool gabardine and linen, and sticks to timeless styles like Superga running shoes for hours spent meandering. These are decidedly muted clothing choices compared to the tastes of some of the flamboyant luminaries he’s made portraits of, such as actor Tilda Swinton, musician Lido Pimienta and jewellery designer and artist Andrew Logan.

That’s not to say Belton doesn’t have sartorial savoir-faire. He refers to his cache of outsized trousers and natty jackets as being his wardrobe workhorses, with designer Yohji Yamamoto cropping up continually during our conversation.

“I have a great Yohji jacket, which is the first luxury thing I ever bought when I was around 19 from Tokio7 [a consignment and second-hand shop] in New York,” he says. “It’s still my favourite jacket.”

While starting her career as a freelance makeup artist a decade ago, makeup and hair artist Ronnie Tremblay says she was motivated to dig into one of her defining style characteristics: wearing glasses.

“In the spirit of being on set and working around artistic people and creating exciting things all the time, I began to create a little character for myself,” she says. As well as blooming into a sneakerhead – a passion stoked by the necessity of wearing sensible shoes on set – Tremblay says she now has a “multitude of fun glasses,” pairing them with patterned sets.

Tremblay, who works primarily between Montreal and Toronto, says she’s fond of sourcing second-hand frames from the many vintage shops in both cities and adding prescription lenses to them. This yen for making personalized modifications extends to her wardrobe as well. Her sources range from ASOS to slow-fashion brand Big Bud Press ­(Tremblay owns several of its vibrant jumpsuits) but she admits that the landscape of inclusive clothing remains bewilderingly barren.

“There have been times when I’ve brought two dress shirts to a local seamstress to have them sewn together to give me something new,” Tremblay says about a graphic sense of style inspired by rap and R&B stars such as Missy Elliott, TLC and Run-DMC.

Today, Tremblay works with celebs who are also paving their own ways sartorially, such as Elliot Page, Devery Jacobs and Jenna Ortega. She says that each of her professional opportunities is another chance to further refine her own art of living.

“I’m a never-ending perfectionist, so I have a drive in me that says I can keep going, keep doing better – that I can keep discovering things,” Tremblay says. “And lately, I’m leaning into understanding how my work seeps into different aspects of my life.”

The images that Amanda Lee Shirreffs styles always seem cloaked in a reverence for the decadent dressing of days gone by.

Case in point: her Elle Quebec cover with French-Canadian Mélissa Désormeaux-Poulin, which sees the actor sporting a pair of saucy red latex gloves and a gamine striped bodysuit. There’s a certain sentimental energy to the look, yet it doesn’t read as a mere throwback. The same can be said for Shirreffs’ personal style (after she swaps her stalwart on-set Solomons for a pair of kitten heels).

The Montreal-based stylist can often be spied on social media in a kicky vintage piece by Missoni or Pucci. She has a penchant for the latter’s printed tights, too, and old-school accessories like impactful hosiery, outré hats and glamorous gloves are often finishing touches alongside contemporary wares from local lines including Waves of Hydra and Rightful Owner.

Her deft layering of eras and an ability to sweeten up boudoir-ish outfits has served Shirreffs well. “I’ve been able to do more creative direction for shoots, and that’s because I’ve become better known through social media for my style,” she says. “The team knows what they’re going to get.”

Shirreffs says that she notices professional opportunities increase after she’s posted a photo of herself in one of her nostalgic get-ups. Shirreffs also time-travels through fashion in the other direction via her work with LaSalle College’s graduating fashion students, and her use of designs by futuristic labels like Ying Gao. “Researching is so fun for me,” Shirriefs says. “I think that’s the best part of my job.”

Lucy Yun, the founder of the production design agency Lucky Lucy Creative, moved from Changwon, South Korea, to Vancouver in her mid-20s. While she left behind one of the most unique sartorial scenes in the world, Yun says the relocation was a catalyst for her to flex her fashion muscles with full force.

“Growing up in Korea, there was a dynamic fashion world that I could pull inspiration from, but it also came with a lot of restrictions based on gender roles and age,” Yun says. “It felt kind of stuffy growing up there. So, when I first came to Vancouver, I felt very liberated and was like, ‘Okay, I can finally be myself.’”

For Yun, that means gravitating towards the showy wares of Simone Rocha and sporting her favourite local designer Alex S. Yu for a presentation she gave during the Vancouver Design Festival last spring: a confectionery colour-blocked frock that was perfect for the stage.

For being on set with clients such as Pinterest and Lenovo, Yun says that functionality is key. Though that doesn’t mean she forgoes the special touches that make her a memorable member of a creative team.

“My partner gave me a beautiful apron that was handmade on Granville Island,” she says. “I use that, or a little tool belt, for all the items I need to have on set with me.”

It’s gestures like this that keep Yun catching the eye of others, and she says she often thinks back to her days in marketing school, which crystallized the importance of personal differentiation as much as the peppy work in her agency’s portfolio.