When you see adaptive fashion what comes to mind, a brand, a style, a concept that you wished existed? For me, when adaptive fashion represented hope that the fashion industry finally saw us. Designers could look past mobility aids and design for us as people who liked certain styles and like evertone else, would use fashion to feel empowered. Unfornately for those of us in the disability community that is not what happened with the rise of adaptive fashion. Although there are some adaptive fashion brands that do offer stylish products, most of them still design by the status quo filled with misconceptions focused on adaptive fashion being about designing for disability rather than a person with a disability.
Adaptive Fashion About More Than Function..Style Matters
The Adaptive Fashion subset of the fashion industry is projected to be worth well over a quarter of a trillion dollars in just 3 years time, according to one Forbes article. As a wheelchair user, reading that number has me cautiously optimistic and curious. Adaptive fashion has been around for close to a decade if not longer if you count the smaller brands that are coming to the forefront of the market. However, part of me is also worried that although the growth seems astounding, it will just be more of the same… a struggle of style meeting functionality, leaving those of us in the disability community dissatisfied with the adaptive clothing options available.
Featured in the article, Sawsan Zakaria, a participant in a fashion show designed to challenge the beliefs that fashion designers have about designing for people with disabilities called Double Take, said this, ‘Perhaps a lot of clothing manufacturers assume people with disabilities can’t think for themselves and don’t care about their appearance. Oftentimes, a lot of adaptive clothing is, the best way I can put it – very medical looking.’
According to the report mentioned in the Forbes article, although the industry is expected to grow, most of what I read cited medical reasoning, proving Zakaria’s point and leaving people with disabilities stuck when it comes to their sense of style, if the reasoning by the numbers is correct. In order for Adaptive Fashion to truly grow, the industry needs to appeal to both aspects of buying clothes functionality as well as sense of style. When they can truly do that and offer a plethora of options for pieces to put outfits together that people with disability can be excited to wear and have conversations around, can we really open dialogue and start to shift perspectives about living with a disability. .
Adaptive Fashion even when it was just a concept was a game changer for the disability community, Years later, adaptive apparel has carved out its own place in the fashion industry. However,I’m starting to wonder about the accessibility that people with disabilities have to these adaptive products. We’ve spent so long talking about this subset of the fashion industry and what it means for people with disabilities and dispelling stereotypes that I can’t help but wonder if we’ve taken any time to talk about the actual shopping experience.
The Accessibility of Adaptive Apparel: The Retail Aspect
During shopping trips, I’m always looking at the accessibility of a brand from the entry of a store to the layout, and finally products. I’ve yet to find something stemming from the concept of adaptive fashion that I’d want to try, but that doesn’t mean I haven’t been looking. When Aerie first introduced adaptive clothes as part of their merchandise, I was ready to start adding things to cart, but when I discovered the prices for them, I wasn’t willing to spend the money for something that was an experiment, especially when I wasn’t in love with the design and style. I just couldn’t see spending over 60 dollars for a single item from a brand when I’ve bought two items for less from the same brand. Why are the adaptive items so much more?
When I discussed this with some other members in the community, one person told me she considered it just to try the products and she went to try the product in-store to see if it was a worthy purchase, but was told you’d have to order the adaptive products online. She was done after that not willing to spend more money for a product just because it was adaptive fashion. There is an argument to made that since these items are in a way made differently than a company’s process for it’s main product, it costs more and that cost trickles down to us as connsumers. I don’t get that though, granted, I don’t know the inner workings of a making a product like that, but I can’t understand why two products from the same brand could vary so much in price, How is that it costs so much more to make a product with a few simple alterations, since the base product is so similar?
This was just one brand, adaptive fashion is here to stay yet, the products are more expensive than “regular” clothing and you can’t always find the items to try them on in a store so what kind of message does that really send? Despite the world being more inclusive in the past few years, aspects and products for people with disabilities are kind of separated. For example, in the case of adaptive fashion, as important as it is for people with disabilities to be acknowledge in this way, it still seems separate from the rest of the industry, particulary because the function for the disability matters so much more over the fun aspects of fashion and putting outfits together
Nonetheless, it all comes back to how disability is viewed and the disability mindset of society and those of us living with view disability as well. Adaptive fashion is here to stay, but it needs to truly live up to it’s purpos: fashion for people with diabilities that is functional, stylish, affordable, and accessible in stores. When they can truly do that and offer a plethora of options for pieces to put outfits together is when perspectives really can change. The adaptive fashion industry is far from perfect, nothing is perfect the first time around and though it’s been around a while, adaptive fashion is still in its infancy. I look forward to seeing what’s coming for this industry subset in the future though, hopefully some changes that have me glady adding to my closet.
My main problem is finding dresses that look good sitting. So many have too much fabric that it gets caught in my wheelchair. Also, models are always standing, so I never know how a dress will look in someone sitting.
Exactly!! I wish fashion brands would take that into consideration on their websites because it reallt does make a difference.