Winners from Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards

The 2018 Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards honoured Marie Saint Pierre as its Womenswear Designer of the Year. The fifth annual Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards ceremony, which celebrates established as well as emerging, took place last Friday in Toronto. Among the winners were Atelier New Regime, who was named Best Menswear Designer and Ela, who was awarded Best Accessory Designer.

This year's ceremony included a number of new categories, such as the first-ever outerwear award which was presented to Canada Goose together with a 20,000 US dollar designer grant for international development, which was awarded to Greta Constantine.

A handful of the awards were already announced before the ceremony, including the Outstanding Achievement Award, which went to the founder of The Aldo Group, Also Bensadoun, the Style Icon Award, which was given to Celine Dion and the Global Fashion Business Leader Award, which was awarded to Nadja Swarovski.

10,000 US dollar cash prize

Markoo took home the prize for Emerging Talent in Fashion, while the Emerging Talent in Accessories went to Sofia Zakia. The awards were accompanied by 10,000 US dollar cash prize in addition to year-long mentorships with leading companies in their field.

The Fresh Face Award went to Aleece Wilson, a Breakthrough Model, and Simon Nessman took home the Model of the Year Award.

Meanwhile, ShopShops received an Innovation Award, an annual prize that is presented to a company that seeks to innovate how consumers experience, consume or interact with fashion through technology.

Renowned celebrity stylist Karla Welch, who has dressed some of the biggest names on the red carpet, was named Stylist of the Year and Petra Collins, the young artist, image-maker, and curator received the Image Maker Award.

The Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards were created in 2014 with the goal of honoring designers, models, stylists and influencers. CAFA has become a premiere event within the Canadian Fashion Industry.

Photo credit: Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards / courtesy of George Pimentel