Marilyn Brooks
MARILYN BROOKS, C.M., O.ONT.
FASHION DESIGNER, RETAILER, MENTOR, AUTHOR
Few designers have impacted the Canadian fashion industry and endeared themselves to such a loyal following from across Canada as has Marilyn Brooks. The Marilyn Brooks label distinguished itself with clothing and accessory designs for women that were edgy, fun, colourful and avant-garde for their time. An artist at heart, Marilyn’s designs often included her own original prints.
Celebrating over 40 years as one of Canada’s most renowned designers and media personalities, Brooks pioneered the concept of managing a vertical fashion business as a designer, manufacturer, wholesaler and retailer.
Following her entrepreneurial instincts, in 1963, she established Canada’s first innovative and highly successful series of boutiques across Canada called the Unicorn, and later established the equally successful Marilyn Brooks Boutiques in both Canada and the United States.
Marilyn Brooks founded the Toronto Ontario Designers (TOD) in 1978 – the groundbreaking association formed to promote Toronto fashion designers, later evolving to Designers Ontario (DO), then Fashion Designers Council of Canada (FDCC), and finally Fashion Design Council of Canada (FDCC).
Brooks has always made the time for significant contributions to both Canada’s fashion industry and to her community. She has been a mentor to many young designers and a fundraiser for numerous charitable organizations. An enthusiastic teacher and tutor, promoting great Canadian design talent was one of her driving passions.
Marilyn has served as a member of the Advisory Boards at Seneca College and the Toronto Metropolitan University (TMU) (formerly Ryerson Polytechnical Institute School of Fashion);
performed fundraising and other volunteer work for the Women’s College Hospital, the Hospital of Sick Children, Parkinson Society Canada, Trans Canada Trail, UNICEF, and “Honorary Big Brother”; assisted the City of Toronto Economic Development Committee on the Toronto/Chicago “twinning” project for fashion export; and was a frequent speaker and lecturer.
Her dedication to mentorship, community involvement, and the advancement of Canadian design talent is reflected in the long list of awards, acknowledgements, and honours she has received over more than four decades. Among these many honours, Marilyn’s achievements and awards include the Order of Ontario (2000) and the Order of Canada (2022) – both for her outstanding contribution to the fashion industry and mentoring young talent; the Mayor of Toronto declaring Feb. 3, 1988 to be “Marilyn Brooks Day” in recognition of her contributions to the Canadian fashion industry; as well as the City of Toronto again recognizing her in 1993 with the Designer Achievement Award.
The highlights of Marilyn’s four fashionable decades have been captured in her memoir “Behind the Seams“, released in 2017.
“I love what I do and love to inspire young people to follow their dreams”
Marilyn’s Story
“My clothes are for people who love comfort and have a sense of humour”
Raised and educated in Michigan, Marilyn came to Toronto in the early 1960s and followed her entrepreneurial instincts by establishing Canada’s first and highly successful series of boutiques, The Unicorn.
Marilyn Brooks was one of Canada’s most celebrated and enduring fashion figures — a fearless entrepreneur, a tireless industry builder, and a designer whose influence is still felt decades after she last took a bow.
Raised and educated in Michigan, she arrived in Toronto in the early 1960s and immediately set about transforming a conservative city’s relationship with fashion. The Unicorn — Canada’s first boutique of its kind — was just the beginning. What followed was four decades of bold entrepreneurship: building a fully vertical fashion business as designer, manufacturer, wholesaler, and retailer; founding the Toronto Ontario Designers association in 1976, which grew to become the Fashion Designers Council of Canada; launching the Making It with Marilyn television series on Citytv; designing costumes for Doug Henning’s celebrated The Magic Show; helping launch the careers of models including Shannon Tweed and Linda Evangelista; and expanding the Marilyn Brooks Boutiques across Canada and into the United States.
She weathered the full range of what retail and entrepreneurship can deliver — including the gut-wrenching experience of having the bank call her loan, and the determination it took to raise the money to buy her company back. She did it, and she built again.
Through it all, she mentored young talent, gave generously to charities and fundraising efforts, served on advisory boards at Seneca College and Ryerson University’s School of Fashion, and worked tirelessly to bring Canadian design to international attention. In 1988, the City of Toronto declared February 4th Marilyn Brooks Day in recognition of her twenty-five years of contribution to the industry. She received the Order of Ontario and the Order of Canada — two of the country’s most distinguished civilian honours.
In 2003, Marilyn stepped back from the fashion spotlight to embrace a lifelong passion for painting. As a year-round resident of Lake Rosseau in Muskoka, she channelled the same creative energy that defined her label into vibrant, whimsical works on canvas — inspired by extensive travels through Argentina, Morocco, Croatia, Slovenia, and beyond. Her works grace numerous private collections. “Painting is much like fashion,” she said. “You’re as free with your brush as your imagination will take you. The paper, canvas and framing are like the fabric, trims and buttons of the final design. The difference is that you don’t have to make a pattern and produce in volume. You can create just one!”
Her story is told in her own words in Behind the Seams — part business book, part biography, and entirely Marilyn: forty years of adventure in retail, fashion, fantasy, and music, with hard-won wisdom on every page.
“Love what you do and great things will happen.”
