The Label
Marilyn Brooks Boutiques
FASHION DESIGN, RETAIL, WHOLESALE
The Marilyn Brooks label was built on a simple but uncompromising idea: that a woman deserves clothing that is beautifully designed, honestly made, and genuinely wearable. Everything else followed from that.
When Marilyn opened the Unicorn in Toronto in 1963, she wasn’t just launching a boutique — she was introducing a city to a new way of thinking about fashion. Where Toronto shoppers had known only predictable little dress shops, the Unicorn offered something entirely different: an atmosphere of whimsy and discovery where fashion shared space with candles, art objects, and unexpected delights. The press took notice immediately, and never really looked away. Newspapers, magazines, and television were drawn to Marilyn continuously throughout her career, because she was always doing something worth paying attention to.
Her fashion shows became the stuff of legend. The standard industry presentation wasn’t enough — Marilyn staged theatrical spectacles that turned fashion into an event. A March 1969 show at Toronto’s O’Keefe Centre drew more than 3,000 spectators. The following year, Coliseum LXX at the Canadian National Exhibition drew over 4,200, earning recognition as the largest fashion show in North America. That kind of response wasn’t accidental. It reflected the genuine excitement her work generated — the sense that a Marilyn Brooks show, like a Marilyn Brooks garment, was going to deliver something unexpected and alive.
That commitment to quality and creativity ran through every dimension of the business. Marilyn pioneered the fully vertical fashion model in Canada — designer, manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer all in one — which meant uncompromising control over design, fabric selection, and construction at every stage. Nothing left her hands that didn’t meet her standard.
The women who wore her designs ran the gamut from their twenties onward, but they shared something — creativity, self-confidence, strong personalities, warmth, and humour. These were intelligent women looking for ease with innovation, function with whimsy, and value that was immediately apparent. Marilyn’s clothes were built for versatility and stood up easily to the rigours of an active, travel-oriented life.
Marilyn understood her customers because she made it her business to. Most Saturdays she could be found in one of her boutiques, working alongside her sales team, listening, observing, and learning firsthand how her fashions fit into women’s lives. What they needed, what they loved, what they wished for next — that intelligence went straight back into the work.
At its height, the Marilyn Brooks retail presence spanned multiple Toronto locations, Windsor, a boutique on Sacramento Street in San Francisco’s prestigious Presidio Heights neighbourhood, and one in West Bloomfield, Michigan. Her wholesale division extended the label’s reach further still, bringing Marilyn Brooks designs to more than 60 specialty boutiques across Canada and the United States. The label found its audience wherever it went, because the philosophy behind it was consistent: fashion excellence with ease of wear and care, at a price that said good value from the moment you touched it.
That quality endures in the most literal sense — women are still wearing pieces from the Unicorn days, and garments from the early 1980s remain as wearable today as the decade they were made. They are still loved, still treasured, still turning heads. In an era of fast fashion, where cheaply made clothing is discarded almost as quickly as it is bought, a Marilyn Brooks piece stands as a quiet rebuke to that throwaway culture. It doesn’t date. It simply carries forward — as relevant, as well-made, and as alive as the day it was created.
“I’ve tried to bring a spirit to design and retail that makes shopping fun with a bit of “Hollywood” in the gift-wrapping.”
If you have a picture of yourself in a vintage Marilyn Brooks, or even going back as far to the 1960s with one of her Unicorn designs, send us your photos and stories, we’d love to see what you have and may publish them on our site or socials:
NOTE: You must specifically give us your consent, for us to use your photos on our website.
“My clothes are for people who love comfort and have a sense of humour”
FLASHBACK:
Selecting fabrics for the next season.
Marilyn Brooks consults with one of her regular fabric reps.
“When I designed, I started first with colour, then fabric, then design of the garment – trim and buttons were the finishing touch.”
FLASHBACK:
“Tropical Breezes” Resort and Spring 2002
“PRINTS – The right print at the right time can be almost magical. The three prints shown for the Resort and Spring 2002 season are:
- Mothin – A 12-screen micro fibre wave that double pleats like a dream and travels even better… just jelly roll and go!
- The next print is a viscose chiffon in… you guessed it – black & white. My “Op” print makes the simplest styles look sophisticated, daring, and unique.
- Last but not the least is the Palm print made from 100% Cupro (a natural fibre) from Austria. A paprika base with save and dove palms overlaid makes for an exquisitely tropicl print that looks like silk and feels like silk but is washable.” -Marilyn Brooks
FLASHBACK:
“Tropical Breezes” Resort and Spring 2002
“Looking at the Resort and Spring collections for 2002, it is the subtle touches and attention to detail that stand out.
“Mitered corners, roomy pockets, natural fabrics that are washable all combine to create garments that are comfortable and a delight to travel in whether it is to Maui or Muskoka.” -Marilyn Brooks
FLASHBACK:
“Tropical Breezes” Resort and Spring 2002
“The collection is a combination of attitudes where your easy carefree approach to dressing meets the challenge to look and feel your best, and as always, says I love to travel. So when you reach your destination you can unpack and start a carefree fun-loving holiday!” -Marilyn Brooks
The Fashion Process 1977 - 2004
Sketches, swatches, colour stories & the studio
