Toronto's Pride Week gallivanted across the city June 25–28, bringing communities from all walks of life together for a spectacle of live entertainment, fashion, and as a memorialization of the major advocacy milestones for the LGBTQ2S+ community. Crowds zig-zagged through the Church and Wellseley block of fantastical-feathered outfits and jersey-clad FIFA fans, while business owners' booths sat along the strip in the sweltering summer heat for a day of meeting new and old customers.

Ashie Dalal's booth at this year's Pride sits right across from the pumping rhythms of a techno DJ booth, where she had the unique experience of commingling her business day with entertainment, watching crowds dance their hearts out and bopping their heads as they strolled by.

Ash Designs was born as a 2020 pandemic-era small business that began as a creative outlet for its founder, Ashie Dalal, based in Brampton. After working gruelling hours as a full-time nurse, she began seeking a hobby to relieve after-work stress and reconnect with her artistic passions, leading her into the world of clay jewelry creation.

As she began to dabble in jewelry creation in her free time, her family and friends quickly recognized her talents as a monetizable opportunity and encouraged her to begin selling her designs and putting her work into the public eye. Dalal's collection spans clay earrings shaped and painted by hand, along with charm and metal pieces in sterling silver, stainless steel, gold plating and gold fill: all lead, nickel and cadmium free. Today, she manages her own Instagram business account, website and attends markets to showcase her art and meet like-minded creatives.

In reminiscing on how her inner flame of artistry was reignited, it's everything within her orbit; it is found in all the mundane moments of daily life,

"I find inspiration in the people that I meet — in their outfits and their nails, in conversations we have," she shares. "Sometimes they tell me or show me pictures from their travels, so it's those interactions that actually end up feeding more of my creativity."

What's especially special is that each pair of polymer clay jewelry Dalal creates presents a natural pattern and colour variance, making every piece truly one-of-a-kind. What drives Dalal to Pride this year is the interlinked love of arts in meeting her supporters across the city; she points to the importance of emboldening your courage in believing yourself as an artist especially in knowing that your creative work will find its home and space in a diverse sea of Toronto artists, "The biggest thing is to take the shot. It's worth taking the chance of doing something that you really enjoy," she shares. "You're going to find the people who enjoy your work and appreciate what you do a hundred percent."

Dalal urges aspiring entrepreneurs to do their homework at every stage of the process, especially when it comes to provincial and municipal loans and grants — funding she says is more available to small Canadian businesses than most people even realize.

All the way from the sunny island of Jamaica comes Travis Fearon, the founder of Dream Decor Candles: an all-natural and innovative candle brand. Fearon's path to entrepreneurship began out of necessity after he arrived in Canada as a refugee; he found himself out of work for an extended period — a gap that would eventually lead him to turn to his love of candle-making.

Fearon uses soy and coconut wax as his base, scenting each candle with fragrances he personalizes himself from fruits and plants. Beyond his love of natural candle designs, his mission is rooted in educating everyday consumers about the array of harmful ingredients used in typical household products like candles, which he explained are often blended with other waxes that aren't meant to be burned indoors: "It's not natural for you to inhale, it's not good for your lungs," he shares. "But what I have here is all natural, from fruits and plants."

Fearon has created over 30 unique candle types that avoid the typical harmful ingredients in candles like paraffin, synthetic fragrance oils and dyes. Fearon officially launched Dream Decor Candles in 2024 and currently sells his products through his Instagram page while building his customer base at local markets and community events.

Fearon is turning heads this year by unveiling his specialty candles shaped as the male anatomy. The novelty candles quickly became the star attraction of the weekend, attracting many passersby's attention to the booth when Fearon would playfully shake his creation in the air, urging customers to come look: "I was shouting out, 'Come and get your penis.' So you buy a candle and you get a penis, so the candle is $20 and you get a penis with it," he said, laughing as he recalled the stunt that kept curiosity — and customers coming back all weekend. While this is only the beginning for Dream Decor Candles, Fearon is already looking to expand his online presence, with plans to launch a dedicated website in the near future.

Mark Innocentes never set out to build a company; it started with a desire for individualism through fashion, to feel that the pieces he stepped outside with held sentimental value and history in their creation. What began in 2013 as a side passion for scouring vintage archives for rare '90s sportswear has since transformed into Ragstop, a Toronto-founded business built entirely on decades of generational yearning and nostalgia. Second-hand clothing was always a natural gravitation in his life that began with the thrill of the chase for the next statement closet piece, "It was just about being unique," Innocentes said. "Being the only person in the city with that hat or that piece of clothing."

What he began to recognize was that his love for vintage and novelty fashion was only expanding across generations, with many turning toward the high-quality and composition of historical garments as opposed to fast-fashion corporations. By 2019, Ragstop grew from an online-only vintage clothing retailer to its own store location at Mississauga's Erin Mills Town Centre. Ragstop's line features vintage sportswear pieces from Nike, Carhartt, and Adidas, alongside collectibles of digital cameras, Pokémon cards, and pop-culture memorabilia that would make any 90's kid swoon.

Ragstop hosts its own recurring pop-up 'Nostalgia Market' that has built a network of over seven thousand vintage lovers. This year's Toronto Pride marked the business's first appearance as a vendor. Innocentes's partner, who joined him at the booth, spoke about the excitement of meeting new customers who share their love of collectibles; alongside the sense of empowerment that comes with hand-picking every piece of Y2K clothing on display.

To Innocentes, he is fortunate enough that business and passion go hand-in-hand. Rather than business owners chasing quick turnaround profits or instant gratification, he believes his own business success lies in it being intertwined with his personal passions. "Just do it," he said. "But do it because you're passionate about it, not just for the money. Be consistent, be humble and be honest."

All the way from Delhi, India, are racks and beyond of vividly coloured and intricately woven bohemian textiles that catch your eye long before you reach the booth.

Exotica Craft traces its beginnings back to 2010, when it first began as a storefront on Queen and Bathurst called Om Mantra, run by Namida Pasi's husband. The COVID-19 pandemic forced the storefront to close, but what could have been the ending instead became a new chapter, built on wholesale shows and summer markets across the city. Now, the couple stands in the middle of the bustle of Pride, replenished by an air of energy that reminds them why they started in the first place.

For years, Pasi's own path ran separate from the business as a full-time nurse; just three years ago, she stepped in to help her husband with day-to-day operations. Since then, she's made yearly trips back to Delhi, her hometown city, to source fabric directly and oversee production alongside her husband. The pair work with their own tailors and artisans, choosing fabrics and deciding which sizes and styles are in demand before a single piece is stitched to order.

There's one core product feature that customers keep coming back for: wrinkle-free fabric, a tiny but essential detail in a product line designed for bohemian ease and comfort. "That's the main thing; they want us to make it wrinkle-free, because basically it's our bohemian style," Pasi explained. "We really want them to come back and look for different wrinkle-free fabrics every year."

Exotica Craft's signature styles and wrinkle-free comfort fabrics are already 80 per cent sold out from their Pride booth, with this year's festival marking Pasi's first time working the booth herself.

"This is my first year, and I definitely want to come back," she said, already looking ahead to her next buying trip to India's history-rich capital. "I'm really excited about next year, I already have in mind exactly what I'm going to bring."