Toronto-based fashion lawyer and trademark agent Anjli Patel has launched a petition to the Ontario government, requesting that fashion designers be given access to the same cultural grants as other artists. It only takes moments to sign, and it can be found here: www.fashionfunding.ca.

Ms. Patel is specifically petitioning the Ontario government to:

List fashion under Culture on the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport website, and
Introduce funding for fashion designers.

Ms. Patel says that recently, some of Ontario’s leading museums and galleries have hosted fashion exhibitions of equal quality to traditional exhibitions in fine art and natural history, including the following:

-Christian Louboutin at the Design Exchange,
-Viktor & Rolf Dolls at the Royal Ontario Museum,
-Marimekko, With Love at the Textile Museum of Canada,
-Roger Vivier: Process to Perfection at the Bata Shoe Museum,
-A Bit of Clay on the Skin: New Ceramic Jewellery at the Gardiner Museum, and
-David Bowie is at the Art Gallery of Ontario, which celebrated “the groundbreaking artist’s collaborations in the fields of fashion, sound, theatre, art and film”.

Given that these institutions recognize the cultural importance of fashion, the Ontario government should do so, as well, said Ms. Patel. The Culture on the Ministry of Tourism, Culture and Sport website features the following:

aboriginal communities
archaeology
arts and artists
cemeteries
creative cluster
cultural planning
heritage
libraries, and
museums.

It is the opinion of Ms. Patel, as well as many others, that fashion designers should be able to apply for government funding alongside artists. Without proper funding, Ontario fashion designers cannot be expected to develop successful fashion businesses and museum-quality fashion exhibits.

Please take a moment and register your vote here: www.fashionfunding.ca

As well, you can also register a separate 'thumbs up' to the initiative here: https://talk.ontario.ca/culture/idea/fashion-funding.