Meet the Toronto designers disrupting the Canadian fashion scene 

When Fashion Art Toronto (FAT) descends upon the city in November, it will be disrupting the fashion scene even more than usual — thanks to a few local creatives. Two Toronto designers, Danny Welsh of Suburban Deviant and Ramone Ramsay of Vveyago, are recipients of FAT’s inaugural Fashn Disrptr awards, launched this year to support emerging Canadian designers. 

Each creative carved their path to fashion design in their own right, and hopes to see more platforms and funding opportunities for Canadian designers getting their start. For them, the award is a milestone at the onset of their own respective journeys, and a sign that they’re headed in the right direction. Ahead of their showcases at FAT’s upcoming fall/winter event, they spoke with Streets of Toronto about how they got to where they are now, and what it means to be a fashion disruptor in Canada. 

Suburban Deviant

Suburban Deviant’s Danny Welsh completed their Master of Fine Arts in Interdisciplinary Art, Media and Design from OCAD University in 2020, with a thesis project that focused on performance and gender expression, particularly in relation to how people express themselves through clothing. It was 2021 when Welsh pivoted their multidisciplinary studio practice to clothing design and launched the Suburban Deviant label. 

“It was kind of a passion project that I’d put on the back burner,” they admitted. The label produces sustainable, small batch, one-of-one collections that are delivered in 100 per cent compostable packaging and shipped through eco-couriers. Welsh describes the garments as wearable artwork made from pre-existing and pre-loved materials.

Since launching, Welsh has been named on the Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards’ 2023 New Gen List, showcased at the AGO 2023 Art Bash! fundraiser, held two fashion presentations at FAT, along with a sold out showcase in FAT’s retail space and was featured as an installation look at Fashion Canada’s 2024 Cake Mix party this past June. Welsh also worked with viral fashion influencer and notorious maximalist Sara Camposarcone to launch the label’s sixth collection “Alter Ego.” 

“As an interdisciplinary artist, being able to showcase Suburban Deviant in these different ways — in exhibition, on models in the fashion presentation space, and also a visual merchandising display in the retail space — it’s a profound reality. It’s amazing to continuously create the Suburban Deviant dream world and show people what the brand is really about,” says Welsh. 

As for the Fashn Disrptr award, Welsh says the through line is evident in the Suburban Deviant name.

“Suburban Deviant is a metaphor for the outsider, and we empathize with those who feel out of place in the environment they exist in,” they say. “But also, I feel being a fashion disruptor really comes from embodying the slow fashion ideology. Nothing is made new, everything is made from sustainably sourced, pre-existing materials [and] it’s a matter of looking to what exists already around us and creating work from there.”

Welsh hopes awards like this allow more artists to collaborate with big brands and find exposure in public media. “Bigger brands collaborating with smaller artists or independent artists in the realm of sustainability would definitely be a step in the right direction, instead of just adopting eco-conscious buzzwords in their marketing.” 

Vveyago

Vveyago’s Ramone Ramsay started working in fashion as a model and developed the inspiration to start a design label after walking in FAT’s 2022 fall/winter event season.

“I used to hand sew my own garments as a teenager, but I hadn’t done it in a long time, ” he says. “Then when I got into modeling, I started making my own garments to go to events and the response from people around me was so positive, I became convinced that it was a passion I should focus on.”

After walking the runway in November 2022, he resolved that he liked the design aspect of the industry more than modeling, and so he began crowdsourcing insights from his peers about how to launch a fashion label. By February, he had a new sewing machine and was building his collection for FAT’s upcoming spring/summer season, where Vveyago officially debuted in April. Only a year later, he was named on CAFA’s 2024 NewGen List celebrating Canadian creatives. 

Now having been awarded Fashn Disrptr, Ramsay says it means he’s doing the right thing. “It proves to me that a passion I’ve been stifling for so long is exactly what I should be doing. I am here to make changes in the industry for younger designers like myself, and prove that we’re here to stay.” 

Similar to Welsh, Ramsay hopes that more emerging designers are given opportunities to showcase their creations so that the true breadth of talent in Canada is visible in the fashion scene. “It’s not easy, financially,” he says. “So for artists to get to a level where our garments can be seen by a wider audience, especially if the financial backing isn’t there, that’s so important.” 

Suburban Deviant will debut its eight collection “Antagonist” during the label’s debut runway appearance at FAT, on Nov. 14 at 8 p.m. Vveyago will appear the following evening, Nov. 15 at 9 p.m. Both designers will also be featured on-site in an experiential atelier pop-up that will offer a behind-the-scenes look into their newest collections. The pair are joined by Montreal’s Process Visual in receiving the inaugural Fashn Disrptr awards.