Towards the end of World War II, the Training and Re-Establishment Institute, Toronto (T.R.I.T.) was established in the existing Toronto Normal School buildings to provide rehabilitation training to the men and women who served in the Royal Canadian Air Force. Fashion was one of the sixty programs offered at T.R.I.T. Sarah W. Murdoch, who had planned the original Fashion course, received permission from Dr. Howard H. Kerr to revise the program for the Fall of 1948 and the new Ryerson Institute of Technology. A two-year Diploma course in Costume Design, which included two four-week job training periods, produced the first graduating class in June 1950.
From 1950-1960, the program went through a number of changes, the biggest being in 1958 when Fashion came under the umbrella of "Women's programs," which also consisted of Home Economics and Pre-School Education. All courses and content had to meet the requirements of the Home Economics Division of the Department of Education. The program had originally been set up to include male and female students, but its new emphasis on Home Economics discouraged many men from applying.
The Fashion program remained under Home Economics until 1970, when the Home Economics Department was removed from the Division of Applied Arts. The Fashion Department objected to this move and was subsequently granted permission to remain in the Applied Arts Division. As a result, a brand new three-year program was developed for students for the Fall of 1970, with two specialization options: Design and Merchandising. The program became so popular that enrollment was limited by 1972.
In 1973 Jen Nemeth, Department Chairman, implemented changes to validate the program as a four-year undergraduate degree, an undertaking supported by Nemeth's successor, Bill Vine. The Fashion Department put forth a proposal for the degree program to Ryerson’s Standards Committee in March 1981 and then to Academic Council that October, with the intention that first-year applicants to the degree program would start in September 1982. However, due to the Ministry of College and University's freeze on all new undergraduate programs, the proposal was deferred. The program finally received its degree status in March 1985, making it the first (and, for many years, only) fashion undergraduate degree program in Canada. The first Bachelor of Applied Arts degree class graduated in 1986, which consisted of third-year diploma students who had chosen to remain for a fourth year.
A few program adjustments occurred over the next 30 years, including changes in requirements, option names, and discipline names. In addition, the School of Fashion moved to the Faculty of Communication & Design (FCAD). Starting in 2004, Fashion shifted from granting Applied Arts degrees to Bachelor of Design degrees (in Fashion Design or Fashion Communication), retroactive to 2003.
In Fall 2010, Ryerson introduced an innovative two-year program leading to a Master of Arts (MA) degree in Fashion. This program is the first of its kind offered in Canada. A minor in Fashion Studies was made available the following year to students not enrolled in the Fashion program.