Abby Gaskin

Abby Gaskin is a first-year MA student in the department of East Asian Studies at the University of Toronto. Abby has an extensive background in Fashion Design (designing, creating, and consulting) and has been involved with New York Fashion week since 2017. In 2019, Abby presented her own collection at Hong Kong fashion week as a finalist of the ReDress design awards (the world's largest sustainable fashion competition). Abby's passion for learning the Japanese language and exploring Japanese culture stems from her background in fashion while living in New York City. In NYC she was exposed to a variety of incredible Japanese fashion designers, Japanese fashion-making processes (such as knitting) and Japanese academic language courses at The New School. After completing her undergraduate degree at The New School’s Parsons School of Design in NYC, Abby was hired at the New York City UNIQLO headquarters (a Japanese fashion company based in Tokyo) as a member of the design team for women’s knitwear and lounge clothing. Practicing her Japanese while working professionally in the world of fashion was an exciting combination for Abby, and now switching focus to the academic world, Abby is thrilled to deepen her study of Japanese at the University of Toronto.