Cradled by a Couturier: Nadya Toto was Born into Fashion and Makes it Her Own

By Paddy Kamen

The hum of a sewing machine and the crisp click of scissors cutting fabric were pleasant first sounds in the life of Nadya Toto, who, from the time she was an infant was cared for in her grandmother’s sewing room in the St. Leonard area of Montreal.

“My grandmother had a couturier house in Italy, before she moved to Canada. She remained an active designer and had a particular affinity for lace. My parents both worked outside of the home, so my grandmother raised me while sewing,” she explains.

The strict Catholic girls’ school, Nadya attended expected girls to be demure and modest. But from the age of thirteen, Toto gave them something to think about. “I was a bit of a punk, with my hair shaved at the back, and since I hated wearing a uniform I would dress in my own clothes to take the bus to school and then put on my uniform when I arrived. Lipstick wasn’t allowed and more than once I was sent to the washroom to clean off my bright red mouth.”

She also created her first collection at age 13, influenced by the New Wave / alternative music scene. “I really loved alternative styles. And I started selling my handmade bags and t-shirts to a shop on rue St-Denis at about the same age. Their shoppers were largely tourists and so I had women wearing my creations in Paris, London and New York. This was exciting for me and I developed a vision for my life as a fashion designer that saw quite far into the future.”

After high school, Toto went on to study fashion at Montreal’s Marie-Victorin College. She graduated in 1989, launching her first ready-to-wear collection the same year. But she still had to make a living, and so, when offered the only two jobs she applied for upon graduation, Toto took the one that paid less. “That job offered me really poor pay but I was responsible for everything, including design. I knew I wouldn’t stay forever so I took the opportunity to learn more, rather than make more money.”

An artist with a shrewd sense of business, Toto realized early on that she didn’t want to go into partnership. Instead she worked her first job for one year and taught piano in the evenings to make money to buy the fabrics and other supplies for her collections. While she might appear to be an overnight success to others, it was ten years before she began to gain recognition. Today, she enjoys world-renown, with her work featured in Vogue Italia, Vogue USA, InStyle, Elle and Madame Figaro. She also has dressed some of Hollywood’s most glamorous actresses including Angelina Jolie and Drew Barrymore.

When Toto was first approached by Ruben Cohen of Optique Cerem to design eyewear, she was incredulous. “I couldn’t see what on earth I could bring to eyewear when I was so caught up in the world of ultra-feminine fashion,” she admits. “But I said, O.K, let’s give it a try, and it didn’t take long before I was very impressed. Now I just love eyewear. It is so much fun to design and it opens up my label to a lot more women, many of whom cannot afford my apparel. Now I see Nadya Toto eyeglass frames on women everywhere. I even had the experience of talking to a woman from the phone company who, when I told her my name, said she was wearing my frames. It is very exciting to see the reach that eyewear has.”

Working in acetate is Toto’s greatest pleasure. “I love the fact that acetate is warm, and I am warm-hearted. One of my favourite pieces was a wood-look in plastic. This was an innovation at the time. I also thought of doing a lace-look in metal, influenced by my grandmother, and when we came out with our lace-filigreed temples I wasn’t aware of anything like it on the market. That’s not to say I was the first, but it was an original idea.”

Toto doesn’t go to fashion shows, except her own, nor to eyewear shows, preferring instead to find inspiration in her own imagination, or from objects like cars, buildings and art. “I’m never short of ideas and I don’t want to be influenced by trends. I prefer to set them.”

Ruben Cohen enjoys the fashion sensibilities that Toto brings to eyewear design. “We work closely together and nothing goes forward without her full agreement and according to her vision. We work with acetates from Italy, titanium from Japan and European Monel or stainless steel. The collection started in Quebec but is now available across the country and into the U.S. She is doing really marvelous things.”

As a designer and business woman who owns 100 per cent of her brand, Nadya Toto is incredibly busy. Not to mention the fact that she has a delightful two-year-old daughter, who is a constant source of love and inspiration. Her long range plans are a tightly kept secret, but for now she is doing what she loves. This author has no doubt that the personal drive that motivated Nadya Toto to begin designing apparel collections at age 13 is still figuring large in her future. Stand by to be further impressed and delighted!