Inclusive fashion may seem obvious to those with a disability, but the fashion industry has a long way to go, argues Emma McClelland, founder of inclusive womenswear label Kintsugi Clothing.
It seems strange that, while the fashion industry is often experimental and boundary-pushing, designers are reluctant to relinquish conservative practices elsewhere.
Diversity on the runway is infamously poor. As you filter down to the high street, it improves slightly, with fractionally better representation of plus-size and disabled people.
But the looks you see in shop windows aren’t usually designed inclusively, regardless of whether the model wearing them has a difference.
As a matter of semantics, some of the people I’m referring to when I write the world ‘disabled’ don’t identify as disabled. I also use this phrase to mean people who are living with the physical effects of brain injury – effects like muscle weakness, for example – and people whose impairment is temporary, such as people who are recovering from surgery.
Emma McClelland
Clothing can add value for many people when it’s designed inclusively, not just for the size 8-10, white, non-disabled ‘ideal’ woman and tall, toned male ideals we’re used to. Don’t disabled people just wear “normal” clothes like everybody else?
Some can, and do. Likewise, some people need – or simply prefer – clothing that has been adapted specifically to solve challenges presented by certain impairments or health conditions.
This is why adaptive clothing is so important.
Take, for example, a woman whose brain injury has caused ataxia. The tremors in her hands make fastening small buttons a frustrating endeavour.
Adaptive clothing might come into play here with a blouse that appears outwardly to have buttons down the front but actually has concealed magnets that make dressing easier.
Or, say someone is using a wheelchair because their brain injury has caused hemiplegia. Trousers designed to be worn in the seated position – with a specific fit, longer leg length or higher back – are a specific solution.
They’ll probably also have pockets located further down the body (rather than at hip level) to make them more accessible when seated, and belt loops to help with pulling them up.
These are just some examples of the power of adaptive clothing design. ‘Adaptive’ and ‘inclusive’ design are often used interchangeably but there is a difference.
If adaptive design refers to clothing that has been designed specifically to meet certain needs, inclusive design refers to clothing that has been designed with some of those needs in mind.
Sadly, when it comes to fashion, that imagined customer is rarely disabled. Items are made without the company thinking about how their products will be used by people with disabilities.
This is where inclusive design comes into play.
Fashion brands should be creating clothing that anybody can wear, not just a specific person with specific needs. For the designer, it’s about thinking about how certain elements could add value to someone with a difference, whatever that difference may be.
For example, using certain fabric types and not using scratchy internal labels might make the world of difference to someone who experiences sensory irritation as a result of their condition.
For any other person, those features might be nice. They might not care about them at all. But they are still there for those who do. They are ‘inclusive’ features.
Inclusive design matters because we live in a world where 15 per cent of the population experience some form of disability. Any one of us can develop a disability – even if temporarily (after a leg or arm break, for example).
Brain injuries are an example of how someone’s world can change in an instant. If that happened to me, I wouldn’t want to be faced with a world so inaccessible that clothing is a struggle and dressing myself is exhausting.
Nor do I want to feel limited in terms of style. This is why I set up Kintsugi Clothing: to create beautiful, accessible apparel that is inclusive of a range of body types.
Fashion is something we should all be able to enjoy and it’s not as difficult as some brands might think to be inclusive about your design process. Ask disabled people what would make life easier for them and think about how you can work some features into your designs that will add value.
Inclusive design is a developing niche and I, for one, can’t wait to see where it goes in the future.
