DISABILITY IN THE FASHION INDUSTRY IDEAL OR REAL?
The $1.2 trillion global fashion industry is all about selling an image, but how ‘real’ should this image be? Pressure has been intensifying on brands to use ‘real women’ models, but often with detrimental effects. Dove commendably uses ‘realistic’ models in their Real Beauty campaigns, yet its most recent ad has been branded as ‘racist’. Remember that 2008 BBC reality TV show Britain’s Missing Model where eight women – all some form of amputee – battled it out to win a photo-shoot with Marie Claire? There is a fine line between empowerment and exploitation. Despite these hiccups, the fashion industry has made great headway in the last decade. Back in 1997, Nordstrom’s catalogues featured disabled models; in 1998 double-amputee Aimee Mullins joined the Alexander McQueen runway show. More recently, Jillian Mercado, who suffers from spastic muscle dystrophy, signed with the highpowered IMG modeling agency after landing a job on a Diesel Jeans ad campaign, famously responding their question ‘Why should we choose you?’ with I want to change the world. The breakthrough of the disabled community onto the catwalk is a more recent phenomenon. In 2014, Danielle Sheypuk became the first model in a wheelchair to appear at New York Fashion Week, while in 2016, actress Jamie Brewer and Australian model Madeline Stuart became the first with Down’s syndrome, and Jack Eyers the first amputee, to strut the catwalk. At September’s London Fashion Week Teatum Jones showcased beauty in disability, paying homage to Natasha Baker, the British Paralympic dressage eleven-time gold medalist. Their AW17 The Body Part I collection took inspiration from the work of artist Hans Bellmer’s mutated forms – a rejection of the Nazi German ‘cult of the perfect body’. Continuing this theme, their SS18 The Body Part II collection aimed to demonstrate that the concept of perfection “is open to interpretation, deconstruction and ultimately reformation”. UK-based organisation Models of Diversity is determined to “change the face of fashion and modelling.” Initiatives such as their Mature Couture and Catwalk4Change have massively contributed to raising awareness. Likewise The Raw Beauty Project, which first launched in New York in 2014, “celebrates women with disabilities, educating viewers to redefine perceptions and beauty, unleashing potential for all.”
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And the models aren’t the only way the real world of disability and diversity is penetrating the fantasy of fashion. ‘Adaptive fashion’ - attire designed to suit disabled persons - is constantly evolving. Its aim is to produce clothing that is stylish without being inhibiting. Companies like Magna Ready make a range of shirts which help those with diseases such as arthritis or Parkinson’s to dress more easily. Similarly, organisations such as the 2014 Open Style Lab strive to create “accessible wearables”. Design for Disability (DfD), by the Cerebral Palsy Foundation, is a powerful example of the resolve to broaden the horizons of the fashion industry. DfD designer Derek Lam is currently working with FIT, Parsons & PRATT to create a line of live-able clothing.
The key to lasting change in the fashion industry is not only to be inspirational but also influential.
The recent LA fashion week featured the inclusive collection of Russian company Bezgraniz Couture (whose name means ‘without borders’), while Tommy Hilfiger’s collaboration with Runway of Dreams in creating an adaptive children’s collection was the first of its kind. Award-winning disabled designer Stephanie Thomas and founder of Cur8able’s Disability Fashion Styling System™ aims to “empower others with disabilities to dress with as much choice, dignity, and self-reliance as possible." Guided by this, as well as her personal experience (she’s a congenital amputee) she maintains that the key to lasting change in the fashion industry is not only to be inspirational but also influential. Yet though so much has been achieved, the fashion industry still has a long way to go. Exploitation is genuinely giving way to empowerment, but if we really want - to quote Mercado – to change the world, we first need to learn to see the real as the ideal. Written by Amelia Stewart of Cook First Image by Lara Callahan
