Changing the Face of Fashion Together

Ben and Liis

With the relaunch of our site including our Model Gallery filled with diverse women who are beautiful inside and out, and our Marketing Lab, we are very proud to announce that we are officially joining forces. We have been on similar paths for years, pushing for diversity in fashion, creating change one interview, project, fashion shoot and runway show at a time. Ben was in Ottawa having created his diverse agency at the age of 14. Liis was living and working across North America modelling. Finally, as luck would have it, our paths brought us both to Toronto at the same time.

In early 2007, Liis was promoting Walk the Catwalk, an initiative she founded to encourage fashion schools, designers and fashion houses to create a variety of sample sizes, thus allowing more size diversity in fashion. Ben had completed his studies at the University of Toronto and was reaching out to the media and general public with his empowering message that fashion needed to be more inclusive rather than exclusive. While Liis was trying to get fashion insiders on board with her initiative, she heard about Ben in the media, fondly remembering reading years before about the 14 year old kid who started his own agency in the basement of his family home. She heard he would be lecturing at an event in Toronto. She knew she had to meet him.  They had to collaborate!

Liis battled her way through the crowd wanting to speak with Ben after his lecture, shoved her email address at him and said,” We have to talk!” Several excited coffee-shop-brainstorming-meetings later, we realized we had the same goals in common and a great friendship began, with a business relationship naturally falling into place. We realized we could accomplish more together than apart.

We have been unofficial partners since that time working on projects and initating change often times behind the closed doors of fashion. With our updated website and the goal to change the fashion industry one shoot and one runway show at a time, we will be the change we wish to see in the fashion world. We will include others in our vision – women from all walks of life. Our goal is to carve a space in fashion where there was not one before. We don’t believe all models need to be a certain height and weight and if there aren’t projects for them right now we will create them. We will create the new norm. We aim to change fashion with a positive outlook, pushing forward with a smile and creative solutions. When others say no, we say, “How about this?” We will continue to approach companies with creative ways to promote diversity – powerfully, creatively, fashionably!

We hope to bring about many positive changes together. Please join us on this journey!

Ben & Liis