Adaptive Fashion Has Been A Thing Long Before Selma Blair Came Into The Picture - Forbes

Selma Blair is not the first person to talk about adaptive fashion.Evan Agostini/Invision/AP

Ever since actress Selma Blair came forth about her multiple sclerosis diagnosis last October, she has been advocating for fashion lines to include adaptive clothing. Most recently, Blair made a debut with her walking cane on the Red Carpet at a Vanity Fair Oscar party, claiming that assistive devices can double up as fashion accessories.

In an exclusive interview with Vanity Fair, Blair states, “I would like to partner with someone like Christian Siriano on a line for everyone—not just people who necessarily need adaptive clothing, but for those who want comfort, too. It can still be chic. You shouldn’t have to sacrifice style. Like, let’s get elastic waistbands to look a little bit better.”

Although it’s praiseworthy that Blair is being unapologetically bold about her M.S. diagnosis and shining a light on the inaccessibility of fashionable clothing, she is not the first person to do such advocacy work.

Often, the voices of disadvantaged, minority groups are only heard only when those who come from more privileged backgrounds speak on their behalf. Although it’s important to have allies and supporters, their advocacy should not overshadow the years of work that came before.

Each person with a disability experiences it differently and at varying times of life. Disability is one of the only social identities you can acquire at any stage of life because humans are prone to unforeseen accidents and conditions that cause permanent impairments. One’s experience with a disability doesn’t outweigh that of the next person. However, the problem occurs when you are not cognizant of other people in the community and those who came before you.

The “invention,” or recognition, of adaptive clothing, started to become mainstream in the 1980s when caregivers and loved ones of people with disabilities realized the need for easy-to-wear clothing. So, certain manufacturers and distributors began to design and create specific garments for people with limited mobility. However, such designs often resembled a hospital gown and were not fashionable, per se.

Over the past few years, fashion designers and people with disabilities have been focusing on manufacturing functional and presentable clothes. This movement was significantly heightened in the public eye in 2014 when psychologist and model Danielle Sheypuk became the first-ever New York Fashion Week model to work the runway in a wheelchair.

Danielle Sheypuk at NYFW in February 2014.Craig Barritt/Getty Images Entertainment/Getty Images

“I think it’s very important for the spectrum of fashion designers (low- to high-end designers) to recognize their consumers with disabilities, and I don’t think that any designer really does a good job at that. We are essentially never pitched to, and virtually ignored when it comes to fashion,” Sheypuk told The Guardian in 2014, and people worldwide put her words into action.

During that same year, designer Mindy Scheier launched Runway of Dreams, a nonprofit that promotes and supports inclusive clothing design. She was inspired to create this organization by her son who has multiple dystrophy and who wanted to wear jeans instead of wearing sweatpants all the time. Since she couldn’t find any pair of jeans that’d fit over his leg brace, she designed one herself!

In 2015, Tommy Hilfiger and Nike launched their respective lines specifically for adults and children with various needs. Tommy Adaptive has fashionable and adaptive sportswear, from jeans that fit over prosthetic legs to shirts with easy-open buttons. In the same year, Nike came out with its FlyEase line that features easy-on zippered sneakers, which were launched as a response to a letter from a teenager with cerebral palsy who struggled with regular sneakers.

Since 2016, the Cerebral Palsy Foundation teamed up students from the Fashion Institution of Technology to design clothing that’d transform the fashion experience for women with disabilities. The students’ final products are showcased at the Design for Disability Gala each spring.

Those are only a few samples of the work of dozens of organizations and designers to make fashion inclusive of people with disabilities. Adaptive fashion has already been a growth industry, long before Selma Blair entered the narrative.

The disabled community will surely welcome Blair with open arms — there’s no doubt about that. But it’s crucial that Blair, or any other new member of the community, acknowledge and credit the work that people with disabilities have long been doing.

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https://www.forbes.com/sites/sarahkim/2019/02/28/adaptive-fashion-selma-blair/