Anyone acquainted with Toronto’s fashionable indie boutiques has probably come across the stylings of Adrienne Butikofer. Her cozy and practical Caninja is sold in stores throughout Canada and beyond –– not to mention her ‘urban prairie’ sensibilities that won her NOW Magazines title of Toronto’s Up and Coming Designer Award for 2007. Despite being voted Toronto’s number one, the lady that rocks a leather jacket like no other, took the time to show me her new studio, and chat over some lemon tea.
VL: So, now that you’ve got this new studio space, what are you working on these days?
AB: Right now I am working on outfits for the New Label Competition. It’s stressful because I have to come up with 15 outfits that are juried by some big names like Rita Sullivan, and most of Canada’s big name designers were made through this competition. It’s challenging and there’s a lot of pressure, but it’s a good way to get feedback and to get my name out there.
VL: Are competitions a big part of what you do?
AB: It seems that way. My friends are always telling me that I always seem to be in one competition or another, but I see it as a really good way to get my name and my business out there.
VL: I think it was last August you won NOW magazines award for Toronto’s Up and Coming Designer, how did that feel?
AB: It’s funny, because I really didn’t do much. I was getting married around the same time and all my attention was on getting everything ready for that. So when I got the call that I had won, it really came as a surprise.
VL: I did some reading up on you, and I noticed that you talk a lot about the influence of prairie themes on your work, and I wondered how living in Toronto, such an urban setting, has affected that?
AB: I like to think of my work as being sort of ‘urban prairie’, sort of rock and roll with some hard and soft elements. When I say prairie, I don’t mean some hippy aesthetic, it’s about the strong women that I watched growing up in Winnipeg who worked so hard and strained themselves everyday. I like to think that my work combines the two.
VL: With such a strong connection to these rural themes, why did you decide to move to Toronto?
AB: Well I studied fashion design at Fanshawe in London, and Toronto seemed like the next step. And I have always thought of it as the place where you either ‘make it or break it’.
VL: How important do you think going to school for fashion is, if someone wanted to someday be a designer?
AB: Very. Fanshawe was great. Very skills based, I can sew some pretty wonderful things, but sometimes it felt like I was working in a factory. I had initially studied science, but I don’t think that was for me. I realized that I was different from the cookie-cutter mould of fashion that I found there. And I had always been making my own clothes, all throughout highschool. Reconstructing old clothes.
VL: Tell me about the Caninja, I’m sure there must be a good story behind that.
AB: Uhm. Not really. I think it was my first year in Toronto, and it was snowy and cold, and I wanted to wear something that would be warm. Practical design is key. And people just started asking me to make one for them. I also have a few new designs coming out soon.
VL: So what advise do you have for those of us out there who hope to one day have a future in the industry?
AB: I know that I have made a lot of mistakes, but the most important thing to remember, is that you have to treat this as a serious business. You have to understand it as a business, things like making sure you get a receipt from the store when you drop things off. Paying attention to your details and keeping things organized. This has always been about my business, not about my ego. I’ve always wanted to have a strong business. Not necessarily to see my name up in lights. For those on the marketing side of things, what independent designers could really use is some sort of agency that represented them. That way designers weren’t faced with having to do everything. The designers could let go of the sales aspect and focus more on their work.
Check out Adrienne’s website at www.butikofer.com, for a list of independent boutiques that carry her line.
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