Highlighting Fashion Zone Awards: David and Anna Winner & Future Makers Recipients!

Get to Know Xinyu

Xinyu is a third-year Ryerson student currently studying the Fashion Design program. This little girl was born in Dalian, a beautiful seaside city located in the northeast of China. At sixteen, she moved to Canada and attended Evan Hardy High collegiate in Saskatchewan. She was selected for an art exhibition at Alice Turner Branch Library, and she received an award of Art when she graduated. In 2019, Xinyu came to Toronto and finally became a part of Ryerson. Talking about fashion, Xinyu has developed her love of styles since a young age. She liked to select clothing in her mother’s closet in primary school, spending hours and hours playing with the outfits. Since then, she has dreamed of being a fashion designer. Later, she attended sewing classes and art courses in High school and chose the fashion design program at Ryerson. In the future, she decides to be a costume designer and hopes to work on Broadway someday. She would like to develop her clothing style and combine Asian elements and western fashion. The world needs more diversity, and that is why she is here.

To Xinyu, fashion is her passion. She will keep working on finding her voice in the fashion world in the future.

What is the most significant success you've had with your brand/project to date?

In the summer of 2020, the founder of the Toronto Film Industry Arts and Entertainment Foundation, Mr. Gavin Downes, was looking for a Ryerson Student to design an evening suit and dress for him and his partner, and that piece would be worn in 2020’s Toronto Film Industries Event. After reviewing my Butterfly portfolio, Mr. Downes and his partner chose me as the top 5 students and invited me to interview. I was amongst the top 5 students who won the opportunity, and I was the only first-year student. Additionally, My high school classmates and I held a successful art exhibition at Alice Turner Branch Library in 2019. Finally, in 2021, I was shortlisted for the DiShang Cup (Uniform design) competition.

What is the biggest challenge you've faced, and how will this award enhance your current work?

The biggest challenge I have is producing designs for my portfolio and creating a brand. It requires a lot of budget and production knowledge. The award allowed me to enhance my dream design and production costs. Also, I started developing my brand with the Fashion Zone. Therefore, I can make my dreams come true with the financial and technical support provided by the Fashion Zone.

What was your main motivation for applying for the award?

I always want to learn from the people working in the fashion industry, know how the industry works, study from their experience, and find support for my portfolio. So, to be a part of the fashion industry network, I applied for the awards. And thanks to it, I had significant progress on my projects.

What are your next steps?

My next step is to produce my first series of garments, there are six in this series, and I have four series to do. When I finish all the series in nine months, I will shoot for the portfolio and build my brand. Thanks to the direction of Fashion Zone, I feel confident about my future career plan.

Aille Design (pronounced: eye) is an emerging designer brand that works alongside the blind and visually impaired community to create a fashion statement you can feel. Their clothing, which is created through a co-design process, features intricate beadwork in the form of braille to communicate clothing characteristics (such as a garment’s colour, fit, textile and care content) to blind individuals. All of the braille beadwork is fully legible, customizable, and applied using premium crystal pearls. Products are made sustainably in North America and 5% of profits are donated to the American Foundation for the Blind (AFB), who we are honoured to have a long-term partnership with. 

What’s unique about braille fashion is that the functionality is highlighted through an innovative design element and focal point that is created to appeal to both sighted and non-sighted consumers. This intrigue elevates our products from a functional niche market for blind consumers to mainstream fashion for everyone. Together, we’re making accessibility an expectation not an exception. Select press includes Vogue, BlogTO, eTalk and Able Zine (UK), and our braille mask design is on display in the Royal Ontario Museum (ROM).

BLANK Magazine is a digital collective of fashion haters and lovers that seek to provoke critical dialogue within the fashion industry. Their goal is to amplify the creative work of communities that are often erased in traditional fashion spaces. They strive to: Make space for all fashion enthusiasts to engage with fashion in a meaningful way. Center the voices of those who are underrepresented in ‘mainstream’ fashion. They prioritize the perspectives of folks belonging to racialized, Black, Indigenous, queer, and disabled communities. Critique the fashion industry while also acknowledging that they are active participants in the existing system. Engage with perspectives that may conflict with their own preconceived notions. Collaborate with the creative community to achieve dialogue that goes beyond the screen.

We want to extend a huge congratulations to Xinyu, our David and Anna award winner, as well as Aille Design and BLANK Magazine, our Future Makers Recipients. We are so proud of you and cannot wait to see what more you will accomplish throughout your entrepreneurial journeys!