I’m Chavah Lindsay, a Canadian womenswear designer and the woman behind CHAVAH.
My designs are an exploration of shape, texture, and storytelling. From unexpected silhouettes to statement pieces with personality, I use fashion to express ideas, evoke emotion, and create something memorable.
My work has appeared on red carpets, in national publications, and on runways across Atlantic Canada and Toronto. In 2024, I was named the winner of the Cashmere Collection through its first-ever nationwide live public vote.
But my love of fashion started long before any of that.
Growing up, there wasn’t a lot of extra money for clothes. My mom taught me to work with what we had. We’d repurpose things, change them, and make them our own. What started as a way to fit in eventually became my favourite way to stand out.
By Grade 11, I knew fashion was what I wanted to do. My mom scraped together what she could and sent me on a Greyhound bus to Toronto for a summer fashion program. I was hooked.
I went on to study Fashion Design and Fine Art at the New Brunswick College of Craft and Design, followed by Fashion Marketing at Humber College.
Years later, the business I’d started from home had grown into a full studio with employees, clients and classes. But somewhere along the way, I became so busy running a business that I barely had time to design.
So I closed the doors and started over.
Back at home. Back to creating. Back to the part I loved most.
Today, CHAVAH is a place for experimenting, pushing ideas further and making clothing that doesn’t need to blend in.
I share the beautiful finished pieces, but also the messy middle. The experiments, the mistakes, the ideas that shouldn’t work but somehow do.
Because for me, fashion has never just been about getting dressed.
It’s about finding your voice. And having the confidence to use it..
