Toronto-based Miik Has Designs on A Better Fashion Industry

In an age of fast-fashion and ever-changing trends, it can be difficult to fill your closet with clothes that you feel good about buying and wearing. Enter Miik: the Toronto-based brand committed to sustainability, timelessness, and empowering their clients. Miik prioritizes producing in Canada — from fabric sourcing to garment manufacturing; designing classic garments that will be just as stylish in ten years as they are today; and custom-milling fabrics that are as soft as they are beautiful. Creating sustainability in fashion isn’t an abstract, unattainable goal, and we sent Char Kelly, a fashion student in Toronto, to sit down with Donna Smith, founder of Miik, to figure out exactly how she does it. (Miik has kindly offered a discount to Bluedot readers. Use the code BLUEDOT15 for 15% off your order on regular priced items). 

Char Kelly: How familiar were you with sustainable fashion before you started Miik? 

Donna Smith: Not. Literally zero. I already had a graphic design company that I was running, and quite happily. It was my husband who started the whole thing, really, he just got right into the whole slow fashion movement, so he is the one who sort of opened my eyes to it. And once you start to learn more about it, you cannot unknow all of that stuff. I’m a graphic designer by trade, that’s what I went to school for, so I didn’t know anything about fashion, to be honest. But I’d always loved fashion, and I’d always been very creative. I also do a lot of interior design, and I’m an illustrator and a photographer, so there’s lots of creative things that kind of all weave together. 

CK:What do you think of fast fashion brands trying to create “sustainable” options for consumers?

DS: Fast fashion brands offering “sustainable” options can raise awareness and improve accessibility, but their efforts often feel a little superficial rather than transformative. Many engage in greenwashing, using sustainability as a marketing tool without addressing core issues like overproduction, waste, and unethical labor practices. Sustainable fashion isn’t just about using an eco-friendly fabric. Introducing a small sustainable line does little to offset the harm caused by their high-volume, low-cost business model. True sustainability requires systemic change, not just surface-level offerings. Ultimately, true sustainability in fashion isn’t just about adding a “green” collection; fast fashion brands have the scale to drive meaningful impact if they commit to transforming their entire business model to prioritize ethical practices, quality over quantity, and environmental stewardship. Done with integrity, they could educate consumers, innovate sustainable practices, and make eco-friendly fashion more accessible. Until fast fashion brands commit to this level of change, their “sustainable” options remain a starting point, not a solution.

CK: Why did you start a sustainable fashion brand?

DS: My husband kept talking about it and then he came home with this skirt, and it was a skirt made out of bamboo, and it was a skirt that I didn’t like at all — it was orange. And at the time  thought, what are you doing? — he doesn’t buy me clothes … But he came home with the skirt, and I put the skirt on, and I can still envision exactly where I was in the kitchen — because I put it on in the kitchen — and I remember just walking around our island with this skirt on and feeling that fabric against my legs. And I went: I don’t even like this skirt, but I’m gonna wear it. And I thought about how whenever I went shopping, I was at the mall, and I was overwhelmed. I would get to the mall, and it was either clothing for teenagers, or clothing for grandmothers, and I was just like where are the clothes for me? And at the time I was fifty and I just thought, I don’t want to wear these stuffy, uncomfortable clothes, and I don’t want to wear stuff that goes to [above my waist] either. So yeah, once I got that skirt, he kinda got me. I couldn’t stop thinking about it, and I thought, if I wore a skirt I don’t even like the look of for a whole summer because it felt so good, then what happens if I could design clothes that were as comfortable as that skirt, and soft, and that looked amazing. And I was like that would be a thing. 

And that’s exactly what Miik is, weirdly enough, that is why people buy Miik. It’s not cheap, because we produce everything here, and our fabric is not cheap. You can go anywhere else and find stuff that’s half the price, but that is what I found, is that people were used to going to a store and finding clothes that were synthetic, itchy, not stretchy, or all the things … So I thought, if I can do all of that, if I can make something someone can feel good about, because it uses sustainably sourced fabrics, and everything is right here, produced locally… okay now we have something. So it started right from the beginning, with all of that, not like oh we might produce offshore. If we’re not [producing locally], I don’t wanna be a part of it. 

CK: What do you wish the average consumer understood about the fashion industry as a whole and your approach in particular?

DS: We wish the average consumer understood the true impact of the fashion industry — not just on their wallets, but on the environment and the people behind the scenes. Fast fashion’s low prices often hide a troubling reality of exploitative labor, environmental degradation, and products designed to fall apart quickly. At Miik, our focus is on redefining what fashion can be. We are committed to ethical practices, sustainable materials, and creating pieces that last. It’s not about churning out endless trends, but about fostering a deeper connection between consumers and the clothes they wear. We wish more people realized that every purchase is a choice — a vote for the kind of industry we want to support. By choosing consciously, they’re not just investing in better clothing but contributing to a more ethical, sustainable world.

CK: How has the Miik team changed and expanded since it started?

DS: So, before COVID, we were five [team members], and we’re now at eighteen. So our company has changed — we had to really pivot. We were in stores, we were doing a few ads — just literally starting to do a few ads. And then COVID hit, and when we were in the lockdown, all the things we used to do, we couldn’t do anymore … All our stores were really struggling [because of COVID], and we realized that the only way we were going to survive is if we were selling online. And then we could have the full freedom to run whatever ads we want without feeling we were competing with our stores, which was a big issue. That was the biggest change, when we started to do everything ourselves. 

CK: I understand a big part of that change was when you started hosting ‘Happy Hours.’ What are these?

DS: So we started doing these ‘Happy Hours’ — we were calling them ‘Virtual Happy Hours’ — during COVID because we had no way to sort of communicate to people, and to show people what the clothes look like and everything, because stores were all closed. So we said we’ll try it. So we did the first one, and it was just me, I would come out and say this is what I’m wearing, and then I’d run off and change quickly and come back on. They were an hour long, and they would show what we were launching, and that was the beginning of, honestly, I think probably the smartest thing we’ve ever done — the biggest idea that actually worked. Because we ended up where we had — during COVID — we had like twelve-hundred women who would watch religiously every single two weeks. The night of the Lives [the live virtual events] they would buy things, because they could see them. I would describe the piece, then they would see it on Bree who’s XL, and they would see it on someone else who is five foot one, they would see it on somebody else who is more pear, or apple, or whatever, all the things. They could actually find their fit model, and they could see how, not only the clothes looked on that body type, they could see how to style it. And then those that had already bought the clothes, most of them, they already know the brand is going to last.

CK: How did having the freedom to run your own ads, as well as host your Virtual Happy Hours, change things for Miik? 

DS: As soon as our customers started to see the clothes on us [modelled in ads and Happy Hours], we were able to show who we really are, personality-wise. Because before that they didn’t know who we were, they just sort of knew that we were called Miik and our clothing was soft and stretchy and you could buy a blazer that feels like a sweatshirt, but nobody really knew who we were. So COVID kind of opened those doors, and then, weirdly enough, that’s when everything kind of exploded for us. Once we were able to do those ads, that’s what got us the huge growth, and I think also a lot of small businesses like ours really did well during COVID…I kept thinking no one is going to want clothes because no one’s going anywhere. A lot of high-end brands that were fancier stuff were really struggling, but we were already making the right clothes, so we were lucky that way, too. 

CK: You tend to stick to the classics when it comes to your products, and a lot of fast fashion brands tend to release new products at least once a month. How often do you release new designs and why has that timeline worked for you?

DS: For a small brand to be producing — we are producing everything locally, like right all in the Toronto area, so we’re using these [small-scale] contractors. To have them … have the whole collection done in one — it’s impossible. So when we are in launch season what we do is we launch pieces every two to three weeks …We just do it when the clothes are ready. So that gives the contractors time to keep making the clothes, and having them ready for the next launch. But again, we’re only making everything in small batches. So compared to a bigger brand, you know, H&M, coming out with I don’t know how many [clothes] every week, ours is like a baby version of that. And that seems to be what is working, and it definitely works internally, but it works for our customers too.

CK: What is your advice to someone who wants to do what you do?

DS: Oh, boy. It’s funny because I’ve been asked this a few times. I think that, I always have to just be honest: it’s a lot more work than you think. So, I know somebody who used to work for Hugo Boss, and run that. And I remember just thinking oh how hard can it be?, you know, you just make the suit. I don’t know, in my tiny little naive mind it was very simple. And when we started, when it was just the four or five of us —  and at one point it was only three of us…  Honestly there are so many facets to this business, and everybody that works here, everyone has their expertise. I have no idea how to do a lot of that stuff … So there is a lot involved in absolutely every aspect to it from the actual sourcing the fabrics, and making sure everything works, and all the things that can go wrong… So I guess my advice would be, if you’re really passionate about it, you can find a way to simplify what you’re doing. 

CK: What is your favourite thing about Miik? 

DS: It’s definitely a challenging industry, but it is very rewarding. I think the biggest thing for me is our community, honestly. That has been the thing that has been the most rewarding and the most surprising for me.When we started it was all about sustainability. I want to have clothes that are better for the planet, I want to do it all right, ethically, and all that, and now it’s that, plus the fact that what we’ve created is this community of women that are supporting each other and they’re realizing they don’t need to look like models anymore. They are seeing all of us, and no one is hiding anything. We come out on these Lives and we have our measurements, here’s my measurement, and everyone comes on from our community — models that don’t work for Miik, that are just our customers that said they would model for us, and our actual staff [who model as well]. It brings me to tears to read some of the letters that I’ve gotten from people who have spent their whole lives not liking the way they look or always feeling like they need to lose weight, and now they’re looking [at the ads and the Happy Hours] and they’re saying I’m seeing them looking beautiful, and look at her, she’s so confident.  It is shifting things. And that is the thing that I think I am most proud of: that this has all ended up with this crazy community of people that are so supportive of each other. Not even supporting us — they do and that’s great — but I mean supportive of each other. We have a Miik community, like a Facebook group. At the very beginning we asked people to post a photo of themselves wearing Miik, and they were like no, I don’t want to do that. Now, we have all these people, and they post daily, asking what do you think of this outfit, what do you think of this? Everyone is just like oh you look amazing, I think you should keep it, or I would buy this one not that one, or whatever. They don’t even know each other. And, so that’s the thing that I’m really, really happy about. 

Check out Bluedot Living’s Secondhand Sisters series, where Char Kelly and her sister Sophie showcase ways we can lighten our fashion footprint, with simple strategies such as replacing buttons and shopping vintage.