For most Montrealers, it’s a given—and perhaps even taken for granted—that the city’s fashion scene is as good as it gets. Its storied, historic textile industry bustled through the 20th century and gave way to a modern fashionscape that prioritizes craftsmanship, diversity, and ingenuity in a way many other cities don’t.

To most outsiders, the scene is still a relatively undiscovered gem. To argue outside of Canada that the Montreal fashion scene deserves to be ranked alongside Paris and New York often gets met with disbelief, even despite the city still being that one destination foreigners know as “the cool place to go” if they were to visit within our borders. What knowledge of the scene does exist in these circles often begins and ends with some vague acknowledgement of SSENSE, while Montreal itself as a catalyst for that talent is only brought up as a haphazard addendum to the story.

But Nolan Daniel White is changing that, helping to put Montreal fashion and menswear on the international map for good. Better yet, he’s not going anywhere.

“I built this career almost accidentally”

Over the last four years or so, White has built a name for himself as one of the most respected emerging voices in menswear. His specialty lies not just in showing off looks but helping people understand clothing and dressing.

White’s channels aren’t exclusively prescriptive, and that’s arguably where he’s found his edge. Rather, his content is built around the principle of giving others the building blocks to express themselves tastefully. The goal is to help curate a personal style that feels effortless and lived in, one that compliments the life you lead rather than supplants it. Where some creators read as walking advertisements, White has become a relatable and reliable menswear resource.

“A stupid example [of this] is maybe I’m running late to an event and the quickest way for me to get there is on my bike. So, I’m on my bike, and maybe I’ve got my suit jacket tied around me. Then it’s like, Oh, that looks kind of interesting. That’s probably a bad example, because it wouldn’t necessarily look better than just wearing a suit, but it’s just saying live your life the way you live your life and let the clothes be the tools they are and adapt and modify them. That leads to interesting things,” White says, explaining his core style ethos. It’s arguably that effortlessness that makes White so compelling.

“I built this career almost accidentally,” White says with a laugh when I ask how he got started with all of this. He’s talking to me from his place in Parc Ex, a neighbourhood move he says was a long time coming. He only really launched his TikTok page as a side passion project at first, something extra to do while he was still a student at Queen’s University. Since taking off on the platform, he’s catapulted into a career spanning brand work, consulting, modeling, writing, creative direction, and more.

Notably, he was brought on to work as an aide to Aaron Levine. On the side, he’s recently taken to the food space, in which he’s started curating a relaxed fine-dining popup night in Montreal called L’Amour Du Geste alongside his friends Jay Lavish, Ethan Denovan, and Davis Morrison. And that’s all in addition to the content creation, which remains in many ways the core of his creative portfolio.

Diving into context, history, and craft

Fashion itself had been an interest of White’s since his early teens, starting with streetwear, sneakers, and archival fashion, eventually evolving to an affection for sartorial tailoring. Mostly, though, this had all been youthful experimentation. By his second year of university, and midway through lockdown, his tastes had evolved again, becoming the blend of contemporary menswear and vintage that he’s known for repping today. It was also in that period when he first started posting about his style and how he found it.

“[There was] really nothing else to do, and I decided that’s what I wanted to start doing with my time,” White explains. “When I first got into content, there weren’t that many guys doing men’s fashion. And if they were, it wasn’t really in the ways I wanted to.”

Most men’s fashion content at the time either revolved around model-types showing off outfit inspiration or certified funny-guys who also happened to have good style. Nowhere to be found was anyone diving into the context, history, and craft like White would eventually do.

“I [did] what I’m good at, which is research, presentation, and making things as accessible as possible from a delivery standpoint,” he continues.

Few other people on the internet can accurately move between describing the military origins of popular jacket silhouettes, the proper washing practices for selvedge denim, and the best way to build a capsule wardrobe on a budget with such dexterity as White. It was that nimbleness and intellect—along with his obvious aesthetic sensibilities—that allowed him to thrive.

“I noticed a lot of people making content for the sake of making content, and that’s fine. But, I wanted to do something different than that.”

The creatives that make the city

In just over a year, his page had ballooned. By the time White was set to graduate from Queen’s in 2022, he found himself in the position to go full-time with his fashion content and pursue it professionally.

Moving to Montreal also hadn’t been the plan, at least not consciously, but it quickly became the default. He knew he wanted to live in a major city to build his career, but he worried about the affordability of Toronto and Vancouver. Not wanting to go to Calgary, go back home to Windsor, or stay in Kingston, Montreal was thus the obvious pick.

“I honestly think that’s the case for so many creatives here,” White says. “It’s maybe what makes the city so great, is that there are a lot of creatives who can come here and feel supported and feel like they can lead a relatively attainable balance between their passion and their work.”

Fashion and textiles run deep in Montreal, a dynamic White is acutely aware of. The city hosts players across the spectrum, from heavyweights like Aldo to global cult classics like JJJJound to amateurs hustling to grow vintage boutiques or small brands on the side of day jobs. White is entranced and inspired by it all, often taking cues from his peers in his own work and working in turn to lift them up as well.

L’Amour Du Geste is a prime example. Started with friends from the Montreal food and creative scenes, the nights are really just a way to celebrate the city’s cultural community through dining, bringing people together like a little incubator. So far, it’s been smashingly received. And though White admits he’s losing money on the project, it’s easy to tell he doesn’t really care. It's solely for enjoyment, appreciation, and creation.

“There’s just so many talented people that I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know on a personal level and a professional level in the past couple of years,” White says. “If any of these people were in New York, they would have, like, 100,000 Instagram followers. Instead maybe they’ve got like 5,000. But it’s not like any of them give a shit about that. None of them do, because it’s Montreal! Everybody’s too cool for that, which I kind of love.”

“You know, I’ve had opportunities to move to LA and New York in the past couple of years, and that’s super cool. I feel lucky that that’s even a consideration. But there’s so much talent here, and so many impressive people. New York, LA, Paris, London, and Milan are all these epicentres of fashion, but we see that all the time,” White says.

“I want to stick around and try and put [Montreal] on as much as possible internationally.”

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Laura David

Nolan Daniel White Is Here to Stay