Gotta Look Sharp

There’s good news for differently abled fashion mavens or even people who simply want dressing with disabilities to be a little bit easier—the 20 percent of Americans with disabilities are finally feeling the love from designers on Madison Avenue and beyond.

From big names like Tommy Hilfiger and Nike to niche designers like Lucy Jones, Maura Horton and Stephanie Alves (who was previously featured in Enabling’s blog), there’s a growing recognition that consumers with disabilities represent a large and growing market for the fashion industry. What took them so long???

Accessible Runway

Launched in 2016, Tommy Hilfiger’s adaptive collection was created in collaboration with a nonprofit called Runway of Dreams.  The nonprofit, founded by fashion designer, Mindy Scheier, was a labor of love. Scheier created it for her son Oliver who has a rare form of muscular dystrophy and wanted to dress like his peers.  

After doing some research, Scheier found that there weren’t many designers offering style-conscious clothes for the differently abled. So, she started adapting clothing for Oliver. But she didn’t stop there. Scheier also organized focus groups where she asked other people with disabilities about their needs for adapted clothing. Then she approached Tommy Hilfiger who became the first major designer to partner with her organization to offer adapted styles from his children’s collections.

Based on her research with the focus groups, Scheier told UCP Maine she adapted Tommy Hilfiger’s clothing in the following ways:

“The first is closures: buttons and zippers have been replaced with a special stylish magnet closure called MagnaReady® [designer Maura Horton’s invention]. The second is the adjustability of the clothing: pant legs, sleeves lengths and waistbands are adjustable because the sizes needed for seated comfort differ from standing. Third is the ways in which a person can get in and out of the clothing: pull-over style clothing can be difficult due to low muscle tone, limb differences or other disabilities, so the seams have been adjusted to allow for the clothing to be entered through the back rather than over the head.”

Despite these adaptations, the clothing looks identical to the designer’s non-adapted clothing.

The collaboration with Tommy Hilfiger is just the beginning for Scheier who says, “her organization won’t stop until as many brands as possible are offering adaptive versions of their clothing.”

Shirts That Button Themselves

A former children’s fashion designer, Maura Horton returned to the industry after Parkinson’s disease began to take a toll on her husband Don Horton, a former college football coach who was diagnosed at the age of 48.

Horton founded MagnaReady, a company that manufactures shirts that are “magnetically infused,” to help her husband and others whose disabilities make it difficult or impossible for them to button their own shirts.

According to Fox News.com, last summer, Horton partnered with PVH (The Phillips-Van Heusen Corporation), “a global apparel company that owns Tommy Hilfiger, IZOD and Calvin Klein. The shirts will be made for a yet-to-be-named PVH brand and will also be sold under the MagnaReady label at PVH brands’ retail locations.”

Just doing it. …

The story behind how Nike came to design and offer an adapted athletic shoe is almost as good as the shoe itself. It dates to 2012, when then 16-year-old Matthew Walzer wrote a letter to Nike describing his frustration about being unable to tie his shoes because of his cerebral palsy. The letter found its way to a Nike employee named John Poyner who also has CP. Poyner made sure that Walzer’s letter was brought to the attention of designer Tobie Hatfield “who, coincidentally, was already working on an adaptive “entry-and-closure” system shoe for Special Olympians and Paralympians who had difficulty putting on and taking off shoes,” according to Jacob Kuerth, a writer for Paraquad. A few months later, Walzer received a pair of shoes that Hatfield had designed for with Walzer’s needs in mind.

“Over a three-year period, Hatfield perfected the design of the shoe that would eventually be introduced commercially as the Nike FLYEASE,” wrote Kuerth. “The shoe features a wrap-around zipper that opens the back of it near the heel. At the same time, the wrap-around zipper provides sufficient support and eliminates the need for laces.”

We love Lucy!

      In 2016, Lucy Jones told the N.Y. Times that the idea to design clothes for wheelchair users came from a challenge from a teacher who asked students to design a product that would change the world. After talking with a 14-year-old cousin with hemiplegia, Jones learned that because of his disability, dressing himself was a daily struggle. Jones followed up the conversation with a meeting with people at Cerebral Palsy of NYC and focus groups with differently abled individuals, and was amazed to discover how many people shared her cousin’s problem.

Determined to find solutions, Jones created a collection of “minimal, elegant clothes for wheelchair users, taking into account both the altered proportions necessitated by being permanently seated, and the challenges of getting pieces on and off when one is physically impaired — or taking care of someone who is.”

The collection won Jones the honor of Parson School of Designs “designer of the year” in 2015.

While we’re pleased fashion designers are recognizing the needs of people with disabilities, it’s not all about good will. The market for adaptive clothing represents a huge business opportunity for the fashion industry. We’re glad they’re catching on!