Hi! I’m Isla, the founder and designer of Heavy Flow. I started this brand after four years of selling vintage clothing with my best friend, sharing a mutual excitement of collecting unique pieces. As time passed, my curiosity turned towards creating my own designs with my own hands, using vintage and secondhand fabrics that were otherwise destined for landfills. In 2019, Heavy Flow was officially launched and I was thrilled to begin designing and sewing clothes that I wanted to wear, inspired by the vintage fashions I loved, but with welcome modern details and silhouettes. I’m thankful to continue with this hands-on practice that has always drawn me to designing and sewing. With a growing family of styles, our focus remains on ethical and sustainable production practices, while keeping our customers stylish in our one-of-a-kind, handmade garments.

Today, our small team has grown and we continue to design, cut, sew and package all of our pieces in our Toronto studio. Each piece is handmade by myself or our talented studio assistant Curtis Matysek, who started with us as an intern back in 2020. When he’s not sewing orders, Curt offers support in the design process and making a selection of graphics. We also work with our dear friend Sarita Malan, who takes the reins on all our pattern making and grades each size by hand in her studio, also in Toronto. Our copywriter and overall superwoman is Aidan Belanger — not only does Aidan lend her skills with branding and writing, she also helps with the backend process such as our website development and naming our fabrics. Since 2021, we’ve been lucky to collaborate with photographer Clea Christakos-Gee, who has taken almost all of the beautiful photographs you see on our website or Instagram. Our fabulous intern Alba Gjelaj has been a huge support behind the scenes at the studio. Our graphic design is done by the wildly creative Brooke Mallory. Many more friends and family have worked so hard to bring Heavy Flow to life and we are so grateful for all who keep us flowing.