We round up highlights and standout style moments from the biggest night in Canadian fashion.

The fashion industry, and its related events, can get a bad rap for being cold, competitive and exclusive. This was decidedly not the case at the 2023 Canadian Arts and Fashion Awards on October 14. Hosted by drag superstar (and friend of FASHION) Brooke Lynne Hytes, the CAFA Awards 2023 gala was everything movies about fashion tell us the industry isn’t: loving, encouraging, inclusive. And really, really fun.

Marking its 10-year anniversary, the 2023 CAFAs celebrated the best talent in Canadian fashion design, styling and more, and what the attendees observed was a room full of colleagues and peers cheering each other on with unabashed pride. From Jully Black’s stirring speech to present a Changemaker Award to Knix founder Joanna Griffiths (which prompted a ballroom-wide standing ovation) to Heather Diamond Strongarm’s emotional win for the Fresh Face of the Year Award bestowed upon an up-and-coming Canadian model, we loved to see the camaraderie and genuine emotion that permeated the room. (And the Canadian fashion, of course.) Read on for some of