How a small group of Montreal designers are fighting for made-in-Canada fashion | Canada Voices

Despite the push to buy Canadian, 2025 was a challenging year for many independent fashion labels across Canada.

Tariffs, Canada Post disruptions and a public transportation strike in Montreal have all taken their toll, particularly on brands such as Selfish Swimwear, which is smaller and manufactures its products in-house.

“Because of everything that is going on, people are more scared to spend money,” said Naomie Caron, the brand’s designer. “Everything has been affecting small businesses, and I just feel like we’re left alone to deal with all that.” Many government initiatives such as protections for tariff-impacted workers and businesses seem to be more geared toward larger companies or other industries entirely.

Caron, working alongside a small group of peers in Montreal, is ready to push for change – and more industry support. The newly-founded Association of Independent Fashion Designers, which is so nascent it doesn’t yet have a website, is focused on both collaboration and advocacy. Membership is limited to designers who manufacture the majority of their collections in Canada.

The organization’s scope is intentionally narrow. The broader mandate of established non-profits like Mmode, which supports fashion designers, manufacturers, wholesaler-distributors and retailers in Quebec, means they can’t always meet the needs of independent designers, said Caron.

“Mmode is really good…but it represents every company that is in fashion, the big guys and the small guys,” added Mélissa Bolduc, designer of fashion brand Melow and an AIFD co-founder. “We just have a different reality with the production being here.”

Designing and producing her womenswear label in Montreal, and mostly in-house, requires investments of both time and money and adds layers of work. For example, after Bolduc sketches a garment, it can take her and a pattern maker up to five samples – or iterations – to perfect the fit and design for production. “All these steps are done here by hand, and then…each piece of fabric is cut by hand and then sewn by our sample maker,” she said.

Still, she’s happy to be able to work with talented local pattern and sample makers and seamstresses. “We want to keep producing here in Canada,” she said, adding that being in the same location as tradespeople “changes everything.”

AIFD is there to help amplify members’ voices and concerns while raising awareness about local brands, she said. Bolduc also sees an opportunity for more designers to share information and resources with one another, whether it’s on topics like contracting or copyright infringement. “We all basically are kind of colleagues, we all have the same problem, we also all deal with the same people,” she said.

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Eventually, AIFD hopes to sit down with government and policymakers to advocate for recognition as well as increased investment in made-in-Canada fashion. “I just feel like the government is taking us for granted when we’re such a big part of the local economy,” said Caron. “There are so many loans and grants given to so many industries. But for us, there are limited funds.”

While noting that fashion designers in Quebec have access to more government support than those in other parts of Canada, Katie Frappier, co-owner of Victoire, an Ottawa-based boutique focused on Canadian-made fashion, agrees that there is room for improvement.

“One of the things that’s really lacking is our municipal and provincial and national governments thinking of Canadian-made as something that’s important to them,” said Frappier. This is despite the fact that the fashion industry affects everything from culture to the environment. “One of the big gaps is understanding just how far-reaching Canadian fashion really can be in our society and in our economy,” she said.