Toronto Fashion Academy Spotlights Moscato Pink In Its Selection of Summer Runway Shows
“I’ve always loved fashion, I’ve always wanted to be involved in some way in fashion but didn’t quite know which way I wanted to go with it,” said Hayles. Prior to Moscato Pink, Hayles and King worked in the event planning industry.
Since Toronto entered Stage 3 of Ontario’s COVID-19 reopening plan, the Toronto Fashion Academy (TFA) hosted fashion shows every weekend at Grand Bizarre Beachclub Restaurant. For its third runway show on August 13, TFA selected Moscato Pink. Launched in June 2018, Moscato Pink is a trendy Toronto-based brand that features evening, fitness, lounge, and swim wear. It’s founders, Ashley King and Emerald Hayles met TFA through a mutual friend who loved their brand and clothes. Shortly, the duo was offered an opportunity to work with TFA and have been partners with them for over a year.
Doors opened at 8pm and guests enjoyed music, drinks, and food at the Club’s poolside patio prior to show commencement. Models walked across the Club’s patio and around its two swimming pools. The patio was adorned with pink and white balloons that matched Moscato Pink’s brand. During the event, TFA displayed a pop-up collection of various designers such as Austen Dor, Rhowan James, FURA, Eyegasmic and Marcuse. “We also want to show a different variety, different expertise of designers from emerging brands to student designers to well established, mega big designers, and everything in between,” said Basil Waris, Director of Operations at Toronto Fashion Academy.
Undoubtedly, the Canadian fashion industry took a hit from the COVID-19 pandemic. Many brands have had to pivot their operations online or come up with innovative ways to remain profitable. For Moscato Pink, it was a period of planning and calculating their next best moves and where they would like to take their brand. “For us it [COVID-19] was a blessing in disguise because it just gave us an opportunity to slow down and refocus on where we wanted the brand to go and what we wanted to do next,” said Hayles.
During this period, Moscato Pink launched their latest INTIMACY collection. The inspiration behind its piece were comfort, being at home and looking good. King and Hayles started this collection with active wear pieces and quickly expanded with lounge wear. “What makes our brand, our brand is the relationship between the two of us. If you know Moscato Pink, Emerald and I have completely different personalities and that conveys in the pieces that are part of our collections,” said King. “What we carry is very much who we are. We don’t try to follow trends.” Right now, and for the next couple of months the designers are working on their fall collection and its corresponding campaign.
