BIOGRAPHY

At age four James B. Fowler cut up a wedding dress trying to make clothes for his new Barbie doll. 

Fast forward –”Vancouver City College” in the “Fine Arts“-department focusing on textile manipulation and then a move to Toronto to attend “Ryerson Polytechnic” for Fashion Design. 

Fowler spent over a decade as a noted “Canadian Fashion” designer primarily creating under the “JAMESFOWLER” label.

He then segued into the education field, at “The Academy of Design and Technology”: first as an instructor, and then as the “Chair of Fashion Design” and finally as the “Director – School of Fashion” in 2002.

Apparently however, he missed the cloth, so he moved full circle and returned to cutting up old clothes to make art and accessories! Fowler started “TEXT I’LL” in 2005 and has exhibited and sold through numerous group and solo shows in Ontario. 

James returned to the education field in 2009 and is currently the “Academic Coordinator for Fashion” at “Ryerson University’s Chang School“, as well as being an adjunct faculty member teaching Design and Colour, Fashion History and Contemporary Fashion there and at the “Toronto Film School” (formerly the Academy of Design). 

Fowler also collects Vintage (1961-66)  Ken dolls and has exhibited his collection at the “Fashion History Museum” in 2016 in Cambridge, Ontario and the “Markham Museum” in 2017, in Markham, Ontario. He also wrote and produced the  show catalogue,  “Ken and Me” in 2017. You can find more of Ken and James at “www.jamesfowlervintageken.com“

He is also am an avid fan of Canadian Fashion and its backstory, where he has continued to research, collect and archive since 2010, on his web/blog site “www.clothingcanadafashion.com.”

You can contact him directly at jamesbf8@hotmail.com.