Toronto’s fashion community was dealt a bit of a blow today with the news that IMG is pulling the plug on Toronto Fashion Week. Citing a lack of local support, IMG (who also stages fashion weeks in Berlin, Sydney, Tokyo, New York and London) will no longer sponsor the biannual event. It’s sad to see this setback, especially as the local fashion scene steadily gains momentum. 18-year-old Toronto-based Vejas Kruszewski just won a special LVMH prize for his talents, Sid Neigum, who has has shown at TFW for years, just returned from a buzzy showing of his fall collection in London and Beaufille was one of the first Canadian labels to land a M’oda Operandi trunk show. Clearly, Toronto and its designers have much more to show – work must be underway on the spring collections as we speak.

Fashion designer Matthew Gallagher, who did not show at Toronto Fashion Week last season, had this to say: “I think that a drastic change was long overdue. As an industry, we were disconnected from the rest of the international calendar and therefore not generating as much worldwide press other fashion weeks. This could either be the death of Toronto fashion or the wake up call the Toronto industry needed to start taking it seriously.”

We’ve reached out to IMG for comment. Stay tuned for updates.