The New Generation of Toronto Fashion Scene are Performing 4 NoOne – On The Record

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“Toronto’s fashion week is not built for you,” said Performing 4 NoOne founder and creative director Anir Malik. “We only have FAT and RCHIVE representing us and if you analyse them, it goes back to consumerism and making a profit.”

To fill that void, Malik created this new addition to Toronto’s bustling fashion week as a collaborative, youth-led project aimed at uplifting independent artists through a no-cost, hands-on learning experience. Performing 4 NoOne, also known as P4NO, put on a fashion and theatre showcase at Trinity-St Paul’s United Church on Nov. 14.

The showcase took place during Toronto’s unofficial fashion week, alongside more established events like Fashion Art Toronto (FAT) and RCHIVE Fashion Club’s Toronto Fashion Week — a decision Malik says was deliberate, stemming from dissatisfaction with the current state of Toronto’s fashion scene.

To curate a fashion show from the ground up might sound to be a difficult task to some, but to do so on a competing schedule against other well-established and well-funded fashion events would be unfathomable to most. For 19-year-old Malik, however, that decision came easy to him. 

P4NO is a collaborative production between over 65 creatives across the city. Malik said what distinguishes P4NO from the other established fashion events is their commitment to uplift independent creatives instead of feeding into the commercialization of Toronto’s fashion landscape. 

“The thing is, RCHIVE and FAT, they already have the recipe of how to do it. What we did this time was, say, learn the recipe ourselves.”

“Big corporations want to charge you $3,000 – $4,000 just to enter the fashion show. We’ve made a really big emphasis on doing things independently,” said Malik. 

Going against the standard practice in most major fashion events, Malik said there was no entry fee or participation cost for any designer or creatives involved in P4NO. 

“Most of our designers are getting internship hours. We decided to work with students and not professionals because we want them to come and actually experience what it’s like. We wanted it to be a learning experience for everyone involved.”

Arin Kim and Asa Shad are TMU fashion students and were both asked by Malik to help in the P4NO production. With their involvement they were rewarded internship hours and had the opportunity to showcase their work. 

“A lot of the other fashion shows that I hear about, people are complaining, ‘Oh, I had to pay to be part of it. I had to pay to hand in my modeling application fee. I had to pay to showcase my designs.’ For this, truly all of the designers and performers have their own little moments without having a monetary [tie] attached to it,” said Kim. 

“I would 100 per cent say this event stands out amongst other fashion events,” said Shad. 

This first installment of P4NO, named Fashion Fantasia, was a two-hour show featuring three sequential acts — a live poetry and musical performance, a theatrical play written by playwright Jesse Roman and a fashion exhibit showcasing a tangible collection of garments made by local designers. 

The cast for each sequence of the show was noticeably diverse, something that is emphasised on the P4NO website.  

Malik said the unique formatting of the show was further inspired by his discontentment with the fast pace nature of the existing fashion events, like FAT or RCHIVE, which often feature a rigid runway schedule that gives each designer the same designated amount of time to showcase their entire collection. 

“Do you think 15 minutes is OK for art to be told and for you to absorb everything? It feeds into consumerism,” said Malik. “We are already used to quick, quick, quick, ‘Oh, hey, I spent the whole year on this, and here is 15 minutes for you,’ and now you go and watch the next person.”

Malik said P4NO as a project has been a long time coming, the idea perpetuated by a shift in his career when he quit his job sometime last year. Being involved in another fashion collective around the same time inspired the idea for a collaborative project — one created by independent creatives, to empower other independent creatives. 

“Who I am is really tied up to what Performing 4 NoOne is, and that’s what my identity has become for the past seven months,” said Malik. “The whole point of this is to really just showcase that we can do it — why are we not giving the power to the independent artists?”

The two hour showcase came to a close as nearly all 65 participants gathered on the church stage to extend their gratitude for all those in attendance. Malik, who was brought nearly to tears in the sight of the full-house audience and his dream team, struggled to piece together words in this emotional moment. But the takeaway he wanted to leave with us was clear — and concluded by the helping words of P4NO’s Head of Operation, Tahrik Rodriguez. 

“All of you here tonight are really a testament to our own dedication and commitment to our respective crafts. We see a lot of individuals here tonight, from musicians, theatre team, poets, models, stylists…  everybody has something to share, and maybe those spaces were just not the platform for us, so we chose to do something that was much closer to our heart,” said Rodriguez.

Going forward, Malik said he considers breaking away from the schedule of the unofficial Toronto fashion week but P4NO will continue raising the bar for what fashion events in the city should stand for. 

“We need to be more judgmental of the art that we’re pushing out in the city, because we’re representing the entire city to the entire world,” said Malik. “I think it’s a good thing that we do have more fashion coming from the city, it opens up for more conversation. Hopefully in the future we can double down and represent real art.”