Adrienne Butikofer – Founder of OKAYOK
OKAYOK is the bold universe of Toronto-based designer Adrienne Butikofer. Her work is fashion adjacent, with a slow mindset and inexplicable dedication to designing lifestyle apparel.
With a background in fashion design and a DIY attitude, Adrienne has spent the past two decades immersed in every aspect of the fashion process. OKAYOK is built on her commitment to local production and creative independence.
Early Foundations
Growing up in Manitoba, Adrienne learned to sew at nine years old and spent her teen years thrifting, designing and sewing. This early passion has persisted, rooted in curiosity, observation, and resourcefulness.
From 2000 to 2003, she studied Fashion Design at Fanshawe College in London, Ontario. After graduating, she moved to Toronto to start her career.
Indie Spirit and Experimental Design
Right out of fashion school, Adrienne was making one-of-a-kind garments using found fabrics and reworked vintage, and selling them through independent boutiques and events in Toronto.
During this period, she launched Caninja, a bold winter accessory line made from upcycled vintage sweaters. The collection was carried in shops in Toronto, Winnipeg, and Montreal and reflected Adrienne’s mix of humour, craft, and hands-on production.
n 2006, she won NOW Magazine’s Designer Challenge with a conceptual newspaper dress. In 2007, she was voted Up & Coming Designer by NOW readers and presented a collection inspired by air at Toronto’s first Nuit Blanche. That same year, she launched her first formal womenswear line under the Butikofer label and was selected as a finalist in the Toronto Fashion Incubator’s New Labels competition.
Priority Shifts
After a few seasons of complicated women's wear with the Butikofer label, Adrienne stepped away to be a stay-at-home Mom to her daughters, born in 2009 and 2011. Those early years always included a studio in the basement and something on the go. This new chapter led to a shift in focus to more comfortable, wearable basics, designed for versatility and fashion forward styling.
The Rise of Skinny Sweats
In 2011, Adrienne launched Skinny Sweats, a single-product brand built around a well-cut pant. Over the next 6 years, the brand grew into a full loungewear line known for its tailored approach to knits and creative direction.
Skinny Sweats was sold online and in boutiques across Canada. During this time, Adrienne began using Toronto-milled fabrics and collaborating on seasonal colour stories with a local garment dye house. This period was a crash course in the local, small-batch production that OkayOk still uses today.
Graphic Pursuits
Adrienne has been experimenting with surface design techniques since fashion school, self-teaching methods like silk screening, machine sewn appliques, heat transfer vinyl, sublimation printing, and more. Heat transfer vinyl is the method used to develop most OkayOk prints and graphics.
OKAYOK is Born
In 2017, Adrienne rebranded her creative pursuits in lifestyle apparel as OKAYOK. The name was chosen for its lighthearted ease and lack of meaning. The new identity captured the humour and spirit of her bold cotton basics, rooted in thoughtful local production.
Soft Landing
Since 2019, Adrienne has been working from a combined shop and studio in the Junction Triangle neighbourhood of Toronto. Her slow, winding direction in fashion is rooted in experimentation and thinking creatively about what is possible in local manufacturing.
She continues to learn, adapt and rise to challenges, as a business owner and fashion adjacent creative.
