BY AINSLEY GRAHAM, FW Writer

Susan Langdon comes from humble beginnings.
She is third generation Japanese, and born a
native Torontonian. Langdon’s mother is a fabric
store owner and her father, worked at a dry
cleaner. It was at her father’s workplace, where
she first realized her love for garments, always
admiring the crumpled up 50’s-style dresses that
were at the store and playing dress up in them
with her sister and other neighbourhood kids.
This was when Langdon knew she wanted to get
into the world of fashion.

In 1977, she graduated from Ryerson
University’s Fashion Design program. Having
experienced being a head designer at a fashion
house and pursuing her own line, she ultimately
settled with a teaching position at her old alma
mater – but there was still something missing.

During Toronto’s Fashion Week, Langdon
attended one of the shows that a designer from
Toronto Fashion Incubator (TFI) had to promote
their new line. TFI, a non-profit and innovative
organization dedicated to helping new fashion
entrepreneurs and students, teaches new designers
skills, such as how to market themselves, making
business plans and giving them networking
opportunities that can help them become
successful in the industry. After watching the
show Langdon was not thrilled with how TFI
was representing themselves. She thought that
for the kind of generous work that they did for
new designers, they were representing themselves
inadequately and needed to re-invent themselvesthere
was just too much potential in the company
to let it go to waste.

Shortly after, she contacted TFI and after
much persistence Langdon was invited to attend
a meeting with some of the head members of
the company. She instantly dazzled them with
her new and fresh ideas, such as bringing in new
designers to give it a much more updated feel, and
captivated them with her upbeat, positive
attitude. She was then later approached by one
of TFI’s head members and asked if she would
like to take the position as TFI’s new Executive
Director.

Langdon has been working for the Toronto
Fashion Incubator since 1994, and has been in
the fashion industry for 17 years. In that time,
she has received some very prestigious awards
such as the Concours Design Award and the
Woolmark Award of Distinction, in recognition
for all the hard work that she has done over the
last decade.

Being involved in Toronto’s Art and Design
industry is important to Langdon; she is an
active member of the Royal Ontario Museum
(ROM) and Design: Green, which is a innovative
company that helps businesses become more
“earth friendly” by focusing on making their
products, packaging and energy consumption
more eco-friendly, so in return they can boost
their marketability.

Langdon is a very positive influence on the
fashion industry and is a breath of fresh air
for an otherwise competitive and sometimes
repetitive industry.

If you are a designer and are interested in
starting your own business or line, check out
Toronto Fashion Incubator’s website at www.
fashionincubator.com.