For years, Cashmere bathroom tissue has been a household staple. But once a year, the everyday material is transformed into something far less ordinary: high fashion.
The Cashmere Collection brings designers from across Canada together to create couture-inspired pieces using Cashmere bathroom tissue, turning an unconventional material into wearable art while raising awareness and funds for the fight against breast cancer.
The 2026 collection returns Oct 7 with a range of Canadian designers working around this year’s “Symphony” theme.
The designer selection has a strong Nova Scotia presence, with four local designers selected to participate. Returning designers Donn Sabean and Kelsey Erin, along with first-time participants Sudha Arjun Sharma and Funmilayo Odeniyi.
For the Nova Scotia designers, the collection provides an opportunity to bring East Coast creativity to a national platform while using fashion to support a cause that extends beyond the runway.
For Kelsey McDonald, who designs under the name Kelsey Erin, the collection has also marked a return to fashion design.
McDonald studied costume design at Dalhousie University before moving into fashion technology, where she worked in body scanning and size matching. She continued working in fashion technology while also developing her own brand, Kelsey Erin.
But in recent years, she had stepped back from designing.
The Cashmere Collection changed that.
“I haven’t been doing much designing lately, but actually the Cashmere Collection has gotten me back into it, which has been lovely,” McDonald says.
McDonald previously participated in the Cashmere Collection in 2022. When the brand approached her again this year, she says the opportunity came at a time when she had not been making much space for fashion design.
One of the reasons she agreed to return was the opportunity to put those creative skills toward something with a larger purpose.
“I thought it was a great opportunity to kind of put my creative skills to work for something that serves a purpose,” she says.
McDonald says she was also drawn to the opportunity because of the awareness the collection brings to breast cancer.
Her return to designing has given her the chance to experiment again, this time with a material that presents its own challenges.
She joked that enough time had passed since her first collection that she had forgotten “how delicate the tissue is to work with.”
Her 2026 design incorporates volume, drama and structure, playing with the contrast between soft fabrics and structured garments, an approach she says is common in her work.
Fashion itself, McDonald says, has always been a form of personal expression.
“It doesn’t need to be expensive, but it’s a way for personal expression,” she says. “I love that you can put something different on and build your confidence.”
Her inspiration often comes from travel, art, architecture and historical fashion. She says she is particularly drawn to the 1940s and its structured pantsuits, as well as the construction techniques she encounters in museums.
The Cashmere Collection is giving her an opportunity to bring those influences back into her work.
It is also giving her an opportunity to represent Nova Scotia.
“There’s a lot of talented designers across Canada and definitely on the East Coast,” McDonald says.
She says it can sometimes feel as though designers from Atlantic Canada are overlooked, making the opportunity to participate alongside designers from across the country particularly meaningful.
“Sometimes we get forgotten over here on the East Coast, so it’s really wonderful,” she says.
For Sudha Arjun Sharma, the Cashmere Collection represents another opportunity to use fashion as a way of connecting cultures and communities.
Sharma is the creative designer and founder of Khush Mizaj, a Halifax-based South Asian clothing and accessories brand that creates custom designs and ready-to-wear pieces.
Originally born in Pakistan, Sharma studied in Scotland and lived in Dubai before moving to Nova Scotia. She now calls Halifax home.
Her work has long focused on bringing South Asian culture into the Canadian fashion landscape, while creating clothing that can be worn and understood by a broader audience.
That philosophy carries into her Cashmere Collection design.
The theme for this year’s collection, “Symphony,” immediately gave Sharma an idea.
She wanted to translate the movement and rhythm of music into clothing, creating a design that reflected the way musical notes travel.
“Just like how music travels, I want the passion to travel as well,” she says.
The design also incorporates elements of Sharma’s South Asian roots.
She says cultural influences are an important part of her work, but she also wants her designs to remain accessible to people beyond the communities they represent.
“Everything that I create has to reflect my roots as well and some elements of South Asian elements,” Sharma says.
Her goal is to create what she describes as wearable art, whether it is presented on a runway or eventually translated into a conventional fabric garment.
“If this one day becomes another design other than a tissue design, it can always be converted into a normal fabric design and can be easily worn by anyone at a formal event as well,” she says.
For Sharma, that approach is closely tied to representation.
She says fashion should not be limited by traditional expectations of who gets to participate or whose culture is represented.
“Fashion is for everybody, no matter what the background or cultural roots they might be from,” she says.
Her participation in the Cashmere Collection also gives her a chance to take that message beyond Nova Scotia.
Sharma says she wants people in her networks in Pakistan, Dubai and elsewhere to see the project and understand the breast cancer cause behind it.
Women around the world have been affected by breast cancer, she says, making awareness and early detection an important part of the conversation.
“It is very impressive that I get to spread awareness through my art and fashion.”
By participating in the collection, Sharma says she can bring that conversation into communities beyond Canada while also showcasing the work being created in Nova Scotia.
Her international ambitions extend beyond the Cashmere Collection.
Sharma and Khush Mizaj are currently working to bring Nova Scotia creativity to international fashion audiences, with the brand currently in Milan and Paris for Fashion Week events.
She says the trips include collaborations with other Nova Scotia creatives, including local artists and photographers.
For Sharma, the goal is not simply to have Nova Scotia represented internationally, but to show what its creative community can contribute.
She wants to challenge the idea that fashion innovation only happens in major international centres.
Whether she is working in Halifax, Milan or Paris, representation remains central to her work.
For both Sharma and McDonald, the Cashmere Collection is therefore about more than creating a dress from an unconventional material.
It is an opportunity to put Nova Scotia designers in front of a national audience, reconnect with creative practices and show how fashion can be used to communicate identity, culture and spread awareness.
The Cashmere Collection has raised more than $5.6 million over the past 22 years for breast cancer awareness, research and community programs through its charitable partners, the Canadian Cancer Society and the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation.
Kruger Products Inc., the company behind Cashmere, has supported the breast cancer cause since 2004, when it began contributing to the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation, now part of the Canadian Cancer Society. The company is also among the leading contributors to the Quebec Breast Cancer Foundation.
This year, the public can also take part in the collection by voting for their favourite design.
Voting opens Oct 7 at 9 pm and, according to Sharma and McDonald, each vote will trigger a $1 donation from Cashmere bathroom tissue to the breast cancer cause.
The voting process gives audiences a chance to engage with the designs while contributing directly to the fundraising effort.
