The Full Story
About
We believe in the power of local manufacture—not just as a counterpoint to global supply chains, but as a meaningful, sustainable, and culturally rich practice. The benefits are clear: a lowered carbon footprint, reinvestment into the local economy, and the upholding of ethical labour standards. But beyond logistics and ethics, what I understand to be most special is that local manufacturing—like eating farm to table—gives garments a regional identity. A city’s soul can be worn.
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Just as you travel to Paris to eat butter, you wear Toronto when you wear Wanze, Serena Li, Jerome Manguba, Pillar, Latre, grays, and Modern Sunday. Each of these brands brings their own vision to dressing. Designers don’t just drop off samples—they engage with our team, ask questions, see how things are done, and sometimes even pick up a new technique or two. That open door approach fosters connection and collaboration. All of our clients meet on our shop floor.
At Sew-Rite, we are more than a manufacturing team. We are 11 people strong, managing production for a handful of brands at a time, moving fluidly through every stage of the process. We are Swiss Army knives, adaptable, precise, and ready. When a young brand wants to launch their first collection we hold their hand through the process, connecting them to resources and systems that we have built through trial and error discovering what a young brand needs to get off the ground.
We don’t just manufacture garments—we grow our community. Our clients are visionaries—from emerging one-person brands, to more established names with wholesale accounts and hundreds of customers. They grow because they partner with us, and we grow because we believe in nurturing possibility. Our clients benefit from shared insight: they see in our production lines how more experienced labels finish, refine, and evolve their designs. Knowledge here is not hoarded. It is shared, shaped, and passed along.​
If we offer possibility to our clients, we offer memory to our team. When I take a new intern to the vacuum iron board - and oh how hard I worked alone in my apartment to save up for that board! To find a space I could fit it, and put in a special plug to power it! All they see is a piece of manila paper and fabric. How many times have I stood with a new member of my team and showed them what Susan showed me, fold one side of the pocket, turn and fold three more. Snip into the corners, thank you Ben! Bring it to the machine, set up a tape guide, thank you Chen! Hold the threads so they don’t tangle, thank you Joyce! And sew away, thank you time! We. believe real craftsmanship comes not only from skill, but from shared experience, mentorship, and time. The kind of time it takes to learn the minute muscle memory that allows cloth to flow through fingers, and around the machine. The kind of time it takes to earn trust—in cloth, in process, and in each other.
Our atelier spans generations from 18-year-old interns and 20-something assistants to masterful seamstresses in their thirties through fifties. This blend of experience creates an environment where knowledge is generously shared in organic moments - at the sewing machine, the cutting table, and that ironing board. Here, skills aren’t confined to textbooks—they’re passed down hand-to-hand, stitch by stitch. This lineage of learning refines craftsmanship, cultivates mastery, and instills confidence in the next generation who will carry forward.
This is not just making clothing.
This is renewed tradition.
This is emergent partnerships.
This is Sew-Rite.