2025 MMode Montréal Gala Finalist

About the mmode Gala

mmode — Montréal Fashion Cluster — is the non-profit federating Québec's fashion industry: designers, manufacturers, wholesaler-distributors, and retailers. It builds business and innovation synergies and drives international competitiveness across the ecosystem.As deputy manager Gautier Berlemont put it: "This year's celebration reflects the remarkable evolution of Quebec's fashion ecosystem — from bold innovation in sustainable materials, to our emerging talent pipeline, to the growing global footprint of our designers."

The Proposal and Its Heart

Both nominations stem fromCOCOON 2025, submitted under Juan Iskandar's positioning as anew emerging designer in Montreal.One question started it all: what if a garment isn't a finished product — but a living cycle? COCOON answers with everything KOH Montreal stands for. Zero-waste cutting. GOTS-certified organic textiles. Recycled-bottle fabrics. Indonesian heritage techniques anchoring every piece. Garments that wrap, protect, and transform — Tenun weaves carrying ancestral narratives, Barong motifs stitching spiritual protection into sustainable cloth. Every centimetre accounted for. Nothing wasted.On the tech side, Juan rebuilt his supply chain from scratch — Québec-based artisan partnerships, hyper-local production replacing international dependency, and a twenty-percent cost reduction through material innovation, not labour exploitation.Slow fashion. Sharp operations. Both juries noticed.

Relevance

Growth & Resilience honours designers who turned uncertainty into strength. Juan launched mid-pandemic, sourced ethically through locked-down supply chains, and made scarcity his creative fuel. Technological Transformation rewards those rethinking how fashion gets made — zero-waste cutting, recycled-bottle textiles, a circular model built on resale, rental, and repair.Two categories, one story: a Borneo-born, Bali-raised, Montreal-rooted designer proving an emerging house can compete on creative ambition and operational ethics at the same time.