Tommy Ton
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Tommy Ton (born 9 March 1984) is a Canadian photographer known for his
fashion blog Fashion blogs are blogs that cover the fashion industry, clothing, and lifestyle. Definition A fashion blog can cover many topics, such as specific items of clothing and accessories, beauty tips, trends in various apparel markets (haute couture ...
''Jak & Jil,'' and his
street style Street fashion is fashion that is considered to have emerged not from studios, but from the grassroots streetwear. Street fashion is generally associated with youth culture, and is most often seen in major urban centers. Magazines and Newspapers ...
coverage of
fashion week A fashion week is a fashion industry event, lasting approximately one week, where fashion designers, brands or "houses" display their latest collections in runway fashion shows to buyers and the media. These events influence the upcoming fashion ...
s on
Style.com Style.com was a luxury e-commerce website, launched by international media company Condé Nast in September 2016. In June 2017 Style.com was closed and absorbed by online retailer Farfetch.com Before its closure Style.com offered established and e ...
and GQ.com. His favorite subjects are fashion editors, the likes of
Carine Roitfeld Carine Roitfeld (; born 19 September 1954) is a French fashion editor, former fashion model, and writer. She is the former editor-in-chief of ''Vogue Paris'', a position she held from 2001 to 2011. In 2012, she became founder and editor-in-chief ...
, and
Anna Dello Russo Anna Dello Russo (born 1962) is an Italian fashion journalist. She is a creative consultant and editor-at-large for ''Vogue Japan''. Early life Dello Russo was born in Bari in Southern Italy. She has a brother and a sister. Her father, a psyc ...
.


Early life and education

Tommy Ton was born in
Oakville, Ontario Oakville is a town in Regional Municipality of Halton, Halton Region, Ontario, Canada. It is located on Lake Ontario between Toronto and Hamilton, Ontario, Hamilton. At its Canada 2021 Census, 2021 census population of 213,759, it is List of tow ...
to
Vietnamese Canadian Vietnamese Canadians ( vi, Người Canada gốc Việt; french: Canadiens vietnamiens) are Canadian citizens of Vietnamese ancestry. As of 2016, there are 240,615 Vietnamese Canadians, most of whom reside in the provinces of Ontario, British Co ...
parents. When Ton was 13 years old, he was asked by his sister to record
FashionTelevision ''FashionTelevision'', also known as ''FT'', is a Canadian-produced special interest show focusing on fashion. The show, created by Jay Levine in 1985, was last hosted by Jeanne Beker. Production of the broadcast ended on April 11, 2012. The pr ...
.
Tom Ford Thomas Carlyle Ford (born August 27, 1961) is an American fashion designer and filmmaker. He launched his eponymous luxury brand in 2005, having previously served as the creative director at Gucci and Yves Saint Laurent. Ford wrote and directe ...
appeared in the segment that Ton was recording, where Ford began expressing his views on women and sexuality. Impressed by Ford's ability to speak eloquently with carefully chosen words about his collection, Ton's interest in fashion began. Although Ton did not receive formal training in photography, he educated himself by attending digital photography classes and met with friends who did graphic design to pursue a career in fashion and photography.


Professional career


Early career

Following his new-found passion, he began pursuing various positions in the
fashion industry Fashion is a form of self-expression and autonomy at a particular period and place and in a specific context, of clothing, footwear, lifestyle, accessories, makeup, hairstyle, and body posture. The term implies a look defined by the fashion in ...
. Despite his young age, at age 15, he interned with a local fashion designer, Wayne Clark, which led to his first job at the women's accessory department of an upscale Canadian
department store A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic app ...
Holt Renfrew Holt, Renfrew & Co., Limited (doing business as Holt Renfrew and known colloquially as Holt's) is a Canadian luxury department store chain founded in 1837 by William S. Henderson. It has been owned by the Weston family since 1986, and was previo ...
. During his stint working at the women's accessory department, he was spotted by Barbara Atkin, a Vice President of Fashion Direction, of Holt Refrew, which subsequently landed him a job in the department store's buying office furthering his career in fashion industry.


''Jak and Jil''

In 2005, encouraged by the rise of
online magazine An online magazine is a magazine published on the Internet, through bulletin board systems and other forms of public computer networks. One of the first magazines to convert from a print magazine format to being online only was the computer magaz ...
s, Ton conceived ''Jak & Jil.'' The site was originally intended to be a lifestyle website featuring products and people in Toronto. Although different from the current iteration of ''Jak & Jil,'' it attracted the attention of local business owner Lynda Latner. Latner runs a website and a showroom that sells high-end vintage garments. Ton was hired to help Latner to expand her business. In 2007, Latner offered to send Ton to
London London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a majo ...
and
Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...
to attend
fashion week A fashion week is a fashion industry event, lasting approximately one week, where fashion designers, brands or "houses" display their latest collections in runway fashion shows to buyers and the media. These events influence the upcoming fashion ...
, which became the first opportunity to expand his practice internationally. Ton was tired of taking head-to-toe photographs, which became the convention of documenting street style popularized by
Scott Schuman Scott Schuman is an American blogger and fashion photographer who created ''The Sartorialist'' fashion blog. Early life A native of Indiana, Schuman once worked as a sales associate at the 1980s chain Chess King. Later he attended Indiana Univer ...
of ''
The Sartorialist ''The Sartorialist'' is a fashion blog by Scott Schuman in New York City.Fleming, Kirsten; April 1, 2007;Shoots to Twill"; ''The New York Post''; retrieved April 2, 2007. Details After leaving a fashion sales position to take care of his daught ...
,'' and Asian street-style websites and blogs. To aesthetically and conceptually differentiate his photographs from those of other style bloggers, Ton started taking candid photographs. He favored landscape oriented rather than portrait oriented photographs and focused on the details of the outfit (such as contrasting patterns of the lining of the coat, or intricate details of the heels) rather than the whole ensemble. To accommodate and give more weight to his fashion week photographs, he renovated his website to its current blog format. Ton's new approach to street style photography, coupled with a redesigned website, received attention from other bloggers like
Susanna Lau Susanna Lau (born 1983) (known as Susie Bubble) is a British journalist and blogger. She got her start as a fashion blogger. Early life and education Lau was born in the United Kingdom. Her family comes from Hong Kong. Lau studied history at ...
of ''Style Bubble,'' and helped him to attract wider audience for his photography.


Breakthrough

Hong Kong-based high-end retail chain
Lane Crawford Lane Crawford (HK) Limited () is a retail company founded in 1850 with speciality department stores selling luxury goods in Hong Kong and Mainland China. Its headquarters are in , Wong Chuk Hang. Lane Crawford is a part of The Lane Crawford J ...
, who asked Ton to shoot their Spring/Summer 2009 campaign. In Fall/Winter 2009 Ton was invited to sit on the front-row of a
Dolce and Gabbana Dolce & Gabbana (), also known by initials D&G, is an Italian luxury fashion house founded in 1985 in Legnano by Italian designers Domenico Dolce and Stefano Gabbana. The house specializes in ready-to-wear, handbags, accessories, and cosmetic ...
fashion show, along with fellow fashion bloggers
Bryanboy Bryan Grey Yambao, also known as Bryanboy, is a Filipino-born Swedish fashion blogger and socialite. A former web developer, he started blogging at age 24 from his parents' Manila home. His eponymous blog won the 2007 Philippine Blog Award for Be ...
,
Garance Doré Garance Doré (born Mariline Fiori; May 1, 1975) is a French photographer, illustrator and author, best known for her fashion blog. She is currently based in London. Early life Doré was born Mariline Fiori in Corsica, France. Career She worked ...
and
Scott Schuman Scott Schuman is an American blogger and fashion photographer who created ''The Sartorialist'' fashion blog. Early life A native of Indiana, Schuman once worked as a sales associate at the 1980s chain Chess King. Later he attended Indiana Univer ...
. This moment signaled a
paradigm shift A paradigm shift, a concept brought into the common lexicon by the American physicist and philosopher Thomas Kuhn, is a fundamental change in the basic concepts and experimental practices of a scientific discipline. Even though Kuhn restricted t ...
in
fashion journalism Fashion journalism is a component of fashion media, with a focus on writing and photojournalism. Fashion journalists write about fashion events, trends and have to cultivate and maintain a relationship with stylists and designers. A fashion journ ...
. Following the Dolce and Gabbana show, Ton was hired by other fashion houses to shoot their fashion shows. In addition, publications such as ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''the Times'', ''NYT'', or the Gray Lady) is a daily newspaper based in New York City with a worldwide readership reported in 2020 to comprise a declining 840,000 paid print subscribers, and a growing 6 million paid ...
'' and ''
The Boston Globe ''The Boston Globe'' is an American daily newspaper founded and based in Boston, Massachusetts. The newspaper has won a total of 27 Pulitzer Prizes, and has a total circulation of close to 300,000 print and digital subscribers. ''The Boston Glob ...
'' began requesting and running his photographs, thereby increasing his public profile in fashion media.


Style.com

Style.com Style.com was a luxury e-commerce website, launched by international media company Condé Nast in September 2016. In June 2017 Style.com was closed and absorbed by online retailer Farfetch.com Before its closure Style.com offered established and e ...
editor-in-chief Dirk Standen asked Ton to cover fashion week for Style.com and '' GQ''. Scott Schuman of ''The Sartorialist,'' who had previously held the position, was preparing to leave to focus on his personal projects. Since then, Ton remained the main contributor of fashion week street style coverage for both Style.com, and ''GQ,'' effectively making him the de facto photographer of record for fashion week street style.


TommyTon.com

On 2 September 2015, Ton launched his site, Tommyton.com and announced that he would not be joining Vogue Runway, which scooped up some senior editorial staff from Style.com, including Nicole Phelps, and launched 1 September 2015. Instead, Ton will cover shows independently. Ton's site features more than 15,000 Ton-lensed images from the past decade, including those previously featured on Style.com, GQ.com and the photographer's former blog, ''Jak & Jil.'' In addition, Ton released numerous unpublished photographs and plans on posting new and exclusive images weekly, all of which readers can sort images by color, brand, trend and subject.


References


External links


Tommy Ton at the CollectiveShiftStyle.com Contributor Profile – Tommy TonTommyton.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ton, Tommy 1984 births Living people Canadian male bloggers Canadian photographers Canadian fashion journalists Canadian people of Vietnamese descent People from Oakville, Ontario Street fashion Fashion photographers Street photographers