Combatting the fashion industry’s exclusion of 14.1 million disabled people, the winner of the Faduma’s Fellowship design competition made her runway debut for SS22
While fashion sometimes moves too swiftly a pace to even keep track of, the process of diversifying its catwalks is happening at a glacial pace. Yes, we are finally seeing a broader range of shapes, sizes, colours, and genders grab the spotlight they deserve, meaning it would be easy to assume that adaptive fashion was having an equally heart-warming surge. In reality, the fashion-starved disabled community continues to be be passed over again and again. However, to combat the style exclusion of 14.1 million disabled people in the UK and the one billion disabled folks worldwide, a colourfully dressed, fashion powerhouse is embarking on a mission to affect change.
Faduma Farah, who became a wheelchair user after a near-fatal case of meningitis in 2011 confronted the fashion industry’s neglect with the launch of a £10,000 design competition – Faduma’s Fellowship – to create a wheelchair-friendly collection. While other specially designed clothing is well-established, like maternity lines, which cater to less than one millon pregnant people per year, most adaptive fashion is still stuck in hospital chic mode. In the luxury sphere, Tommy Hilfiger is leading the charge with adaptive lines – but still, cool clothes for those with different abilities remain rare.
Sifting through the incredible design submissions, the competition brought together a panel of judges: Tiffany Saunders, runway and campaigns director at Oxford Fashion Studio, fashion analyst Anusha Couttigane, disabled stylist and influencer Heidi Herkes, and stylist and writer Virginia Chadwyck-Healey. This group then shortlisted six entrants: Ellen Fowles, Rizwana Matadar, Harriet Eccleston, Chamiah Dewey, Alina Green, and design duo Emma McCelland and Alison Black.
It was womenswear designer Harriet Eccleston who was ultimately crowned winner, though. Having worked with research twins Rebecca and Mel Everett, Eccleston is now collaborating with Farah to create a collection with disabled peoples’ needs at its heart. Launching this London Fashion Week, the final designs will cater to a wide range of disabilities, including the 1.2 million wheelchair users in the UK, and will hopefully encourage more designers to rethink their approach to adaptive fashion, which has historically been bland at best, and impractical at worst.
With a combined annual spending power of £249 billion, it is clear that the disabled community in the UK is ready and willing to shop – and this upcoming collection aims to please. Here, we speak with the winner about her approach to designing adaptive clothing, infusing her design aesthetic with the project’s demands, and what lessons she’ll be taking forward. Plus, meet the finalists in the gallery below.
What inspired you to apply for the fellowship?
Harriet Eccleston: To be honest, I wasn't going to apply, which sounds awful now. I just thought, I don't know anything about adaptive clothing, but the more I thought about that fact, the more shocked I was. I've gone through four years of uni, Art Foundation, textiles classes prior to that, and I've gone through years in the industry, and nobody had ever stopped and said, ‘hang on, there’s 20 per cent of the population that can't wear the clothing we're discussing’. The more I thought about it, I was shocked and staggered, and then I thought, this is something I need to do.
How did you approach researching adaptive clothing?
Harriet Eccleston: I remembered I had a friend from uni and she’d gone on with her twin sister to do a Master’s and their thesis was about the lack of adaptive clothing available. Rebecca and Melissa Everett gathered data and research from a variety of people with varying abilities such as wheelchair users and those with manual dexterity loss, as well as medical researchers. This enabled them to analyse disability in the fashion industry and identify areas to consider when designing adaptive clothing. Their knowledge and first-hand research has been invaluable in helping me better understand the issues that many people face and develop design solutions.
Why is adaptive fashion behind other inclusive fashion?
Harriet Eccleston: I don’t understand why the conversation is not happening. I’ve come across some brands that design adaptive clothing without having design at the heart of what they’re doing. There’s been a lot more conversation about different sizes, different races, different ages within the fashion industry, and adaptive clothing has just been completely left behind and not talked about. I think what’s also interesting is some adaptive clothing is often designed with the older generation in mind, but also more for the carer to dress the person so fastenings are on the back, it doesn't actually make it easier for the person that’s wearing it.
“There’s been a lot more conversation about different sizes, different races, different ages within the fashion industry, and adaptive clothing has just been completely left behind and not talked about” – Hannah Eccleston
How did you infuse your personal design aesthetic with this project’s demands?
Harriet Eccleston: It was quite difficult actually, because a lot of my work is quite oversized. But it’s the idea of these timeless pieces that are also seasonal, so they just slip right into anybody’s wardrobe very easily. We’re trying to create a collection that hopefully is a real pleasure to wear and represents the person who's wearing it. My work is very simply more monochrome with sort of hints of playful colour and I had a lovely meeting with Faduma, and she showed me her wardrobe. It’s very different from mine and is absolutely bursting with incredible colours and patterns, so it’s been really interesting to hear her thoughts and try and interlace the two.
What was the biggest learning curve during the process?
Harriet Eccleston: I’m very technically minded so it was really interesting and I really thrived off of that. It was a real challenge to work out how technically things could be put on easily or fastened easily, or just pocket positions and things like that. The biggest learning curve was really just to stop, consider and to understand (their needs).
How has the experience changed your design approach?
Harriet Eccleston: I believed that I was running a responsible and sustainable brand because everything’s individually crafted, next to no waste, and locally crafted, and I have a lovely relationship with my customers. But obviously, now I know that I wasn’t quite doing enough. I want to try and do as much as I can to ensure that the pieces I produce are available to as many people as possible.
How do you feel about the win?
Harriet Eccleston: I feel really humbled to be trusted by Faduma because this is her vision and the team have worked so hard to bring it to this point. I’m just delighted to be actually working on it and to see the pieces come to life now is really exciting. I just can’t wait to see them on the catwalk. The idea is that it’s for literally everybody to have, all abilities! Hopefully it appeals to literally every single person.
What's next for you after the fellowship?
Harriet Eccleston: To keep doing what I’m doing and to integrate a bit more of the thinking that’s come through Faduma’s Fellowship. I just really hope that we can get more people talking about this, you know, in universities, talking to students and making them aware of designing adaptive clothing because it’s shocking that it's not happening more. I just really hope that moving forward I can be a part of that and spread the word.
ELLEN FOWLES
Royal College of Art graduate Ellen Fowles’ designs are centered on inclusive design principles through intergenerational workshops and ethnographic studies. An adaptive clothes designer, her work is not trend driven and aims to “integrate seamlessly into existing wardrobes and last for generations”. Fowles’ aim is to offer a more tailored aesthetic option than the ill-fitting sportswear many are left with. Inspired by traditional Japanese pattern cutting with unisex appeal, Fowles approached her designs for the fellowship from a “functional sportswear angle”, analysing access points and reconsidering fastenings to “choreograph the process of dressing and undressing for ease in a seated position.”
As adaptive clothing has historically prioritised function over fashion, Fowles wanted to strike a balance between the two. “The visual appeal is as important as the function. Something can work really well but if people don’t like the look of it, they’re not going to wear it,” she says. “The garments I create respond to need and prioritise the wearer, with the functionality often hidden in the silhouette or subtly incorporated in a design detail.” In the future, she hopes to continue working toward rectifying the neglect of disabled people by the fashion industry.
RIZWANA MATADAR
Founder of Because I Said Sew, an online course inspired by her mother, Rizwana Matadar believes that the craft of sewing is being lost due to the availability of fast fashion. Matadar, who describes her aesthetic said, “it feels amazing to have been shortlisted for such a prestigious competition. It was a real challenge to think through the eyes of a wheelchair user.” To interweave her design aesthetic with adaptability, Matadar added extra long invisible zips, pockets on the front of trousers and elasticated waist lines on trousers and skirts for comfort while sitting down. She also avoided using big shapes with excessive fabric to ensure the wearer would never look frumpy or uncomfortable.
Moving forward, Matadar is interested in designing a wider range of adaptive fashion, like modest fashions and sportswear for wheelchair users. When designing her submission to the fellowship, Matadar’s biggest challenges were “to think, think and then think some more” to ensure that she understood the needs of a wheelchair user. “I would want the wearer to feel beautiful in my designs. I would want her to be able to turn heads in her clothing and this gorgeous colour palette would help her gain confidence,” she concludes.
CHAMIAH DEWEY
First designing adaptive wear three years ago when she worked closely with a person with dwarfism, Chamiah Dewey’s designs are “feminine and timeless”. “I believe in creating stylish pieces with discrete adaptations so that no one feels ‘different’ when it comes to dressing,” she says. “I believe that every person has a right to fashion and the ability to express themselves through it.”
A recent graduate from London College of Fashion, Dewey uses magnetic fastenings, wrap designs, and front fastenings to make her designs suitable for disabled people. Her brand, Chamiah Dewey Fashion, is a sustainable, adaptive womenswear brand for women with dwarfism, tackling the issue of lack of clothing designed for the short statured body. In the future, Dewey plans to expand into menswear and childrenswear for people with dwarfism before working on adaptive wear for other types of disability. “I plan to employ disabled people, put their voices at the forefront and create equal opportunities for them, giving back to the community who have supported me in my mission and dream,” she says.
ALINA GREEN
A recent graduate from the Arts University Bournemouth, Alina Green’s work is influenced by sustainability and longevity. In order to make her designs practical for wheelchair users, she had to adapt and reduce some of the elements. “My general design aesthetic is draping combined with tailoring to give it a modern edge. I also try to design all my garments to be sustainable whether I use sustainable material, zero waste pattern cut or upcycle second-hand clothing,” she explains.
After designing for the competition, Green advises that other designers consult disabled people when creating adaptive wear. “The biggest learning curve I experienced while designing for wheelchair users was how even just the smallest tweaks in designs can make the biggest difference such as making the seams seamless or in a place that would reduce friction to prevent sores,” she says. In the future, Green would like to extend her adaptive design work to include autistic people, who are also regularly ignored by the fashion industry, by designing garments that take into account touch sensitivity to labels and seams.
EMMA MCCELLAND AND ALISON BLACK
The only duo shortlisted for the Fellowship, Emma McCelland, founder of inclusive fashion brand Kintsugi Clothing, and Alison Black teamed up for their submission. The philosophy of McCelland’s label is inspired by its name, Kintsugi – a Japanese artform and philosophy that sees broken pottery repaired with gold lacquer, a metaphor to remind people that everyone picks up scars in life but that does not mean they render us broken. Black, a womenswear designer, recently graduated from Edinburgh College of Art and her tailoring-led aesthetic focuses on adaptive elements.
Both designers already incorporated adaptive elements into their existing designs. McCelland says, “Kintsugi exists to make high-quality womenswear that doesn’t look ‘adaptive’ but has neat design features that make life easier for a range of impairments. But it’s so discreet, the garment doesn’t look ‘other’ – which is important because disabled people face that kind of othering all the time. Both designers are committed to continuing their adaptive design work as they move forward with their careers. “There’s also a distinct lack of adaptive workwear and formalwear at the moment, which can have a knock on effect for working disabled people who may not feel appropriately dressed for their job or even for interviews, so I may explore this in future projects,” adds Black. “Generally, there needs to be more disabled people working in all areas of fashion, not just as collaborators.”