![]() When Runway of Dreams asked me to be in their New York Fashion Week show on Sept 14th, I prayed they’d send me something I could really wear to work. I like when websites show how the clothes look on a model, but I have never seen a picture of the model sitting down.” That is also why my friend Lucy Jones, founder of Ffora accessories and bags, focused her award-winning final project at Parsons on the seated client. “Even before COVID-19, I did most of my clothes shopping online. Aubrie Lee, a wheelchair user with Muscular Dystrophy who works at a Fortune 100 company and admits she wears a lot of clothes she needs tailored, also would like see seated models in garment photos available online so you can see how the garment looks on a seated body: Even when accessibility is built into the space it is often an arduous process to find clothes that fit us on the rack, making online shopping an overall more convenient option for people with disabilities. Traditional big box stores are harder for many of us to shop in-store, even with accessible fitting rooms. Finding solutions to the fashion needs of the disability community which constitutes 1 in 4 adults (61 million) in the United States is a broad yet largely untapped market, and ultimately benefits both the company and their customers. I appreciate that they still have lingerie and some professional wear available for women with disabilities, but find it surprising that it’s predominantly smaller brands that have chosen this as a priority. is an online marketplace for adaptive clothes and accessories and one of the few places you can find available professional wear, but even Alexandra Connell Herold, founder of Patty and Ricky, admits it’s mostly men’s wear. Like many of you, I also did not realize how wide the field of adaptive fashion was growing. Until I was designed for in 2016, I didn’t realize how my body and my work could have a role in changing the culture of fashion. But it wasn’t until I was in an NPR Marketplace piece on Adaptive Fashion where the author said that my plea to brands was to please ‘make more shoes to replace those tired Mary Janes,’ that I realized yes, it really was time to let my faithful Mary Janes go. I wore Mary Janes for so long not only because they were durable enough to withstand my foot dragging, but also because it was very time-consuming to find other options and I was just tired of spending hours at shoe stores every month searching for the right shoes. This struggle led me to wear the same Merrell Mary Janes in a variety of colors for FIVE years straight. Which meant I wore out my left shoe consistently within weeks if the shoe was cheaply constructed, or two months if the sole was solid rubber. You see, my unique brand of Cerebral Palsy means I drag my left foot. I, on the other hand, until at least my early 20s, often looked sloppy with holes in my shoes and jeans. My mom once showed up like this to a fashion show and the designer came up to her and praised her casually chic style. ![]() My mom, an FIT grad, on any given day either looks like she’s ready for the board room, red carpet or still somehow looks impossibly chic in jeans and sneakers. My dad always wore Armani shirts and fitted suits each day to his namesake law firm. I was born to two sartorially savvy parents. I was not only concerned with how I represented myself, but my intersectional communities as an Asian woman with a disability. That was ok up until High School, but as an entrepreneur, self-esteem advocate, and professional speaker, those shoes no longer felt appropriate to wear for presentations. For a long time, my only options for shoes were either Mary Jane’s with a well-placed strap or sneakers.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |