15 years ago there were just a handful of Canadian designers invested and passionate about sustainable fashion. We featured 20 of them in our Green Gala events, which is where FTA all began first in 2007 at Evergreen Brick Works, and then again in 2008 at The Distillery District. And since then, FTA has worked with 2000+ designers and brands from across Canada, and internationally.
Our mission is to advance sustainability, ethics and circularity across the entire fashion system. To achieve this, FTA works – both with industry and citizens – to identify and remove the barriers to sustainability by:
- Building awareness – through 200+ events such as marketplaces, networking, clothing swaps, trade shows, runway shows, award shows, roundtables, conferences, webinars; and speaking engagements at colleges and universities as well as Think 2030 and TEDx Climate Countdown
- Educating both the general public via social media and our youth program, My Clothes My World, AND the industry, through WEAR (World Ethical Apparel Roundtable), webinars and more.
- Collaborations and partnerships (both local and global) – including Environment & Climate Change Canada, INLAND, Fashion Industry Advisory Panel to the City of Toronto, Circular Economy Leadership Canada, Canadian Standards Association, Retail Council of Canada, Accelerating Circularity, Textile Exchange, Fashion For Good, Fashion Revolution, Good on You, the UN Fashion Alliance and more
- Conducting leading research to accelerate change such as our textile recycling feasibility study and pilot.
