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Adaptive clothing brand Unhidden was gearing up to make its London Fashion Week debut last season when the news broke of Queen Elizabeth II’s death. Founder Victoria Jenkins quickly realised she had to postpone the event: “I couldn’t guarantee the models’ safety, getting around London, on that particular weekend,” she says. The media blackout would have made it difficult to make an impact, too. “I was pretty gutted at the time from the community point of view because it meant less representation for another season.”
Today, Unhidden will finally get to realise its ambition of showing its collection during fashion week. The evening show, whose principal sponsor is The Bicester Collection, will feature 30 models with disabilities or visible differences, a first in LFW’s history. Founder Victoria Jenkins hopes it will “encourage other designers and show that there is real value and real beauty in being inclusive”.
For the models involved in the show, it’s a big deal — a moment in history that has the potential to change some people’s perceptions of what is fashionable and desirable. Sandie Roberts, disability advocate, speaker and model, who is a full-time wheelchair user, believes it will be “the moment that the future will look back on and say, that’s when it changed, that’s when the world finally started to take notice when it understood that we mattered and we weren’t going anywhere”.
However, experts say there’s still a lot of work to do to make fashion more accessible to the 14.6 million disabled people in the UK. Even as understanding grows, lack of investment and commitment remain barriers. And, while buzzy, awareness-building moments at fashion weeks are important, there is a need for systemic change.
Jenkins, a trained garment technologist who spent 14 years in the fashion industry at British high street brands, including All Saints and Jack Wills, founded Unhidden in 2017 after noticing a gap in the market for stylish, adaptive clothing. She became disabled in her mid-20s, and struggled to find fashion that suited her own needs. Unhidden started with made-to-order but now sells ready-to-wear direct-to-consumer online, and via occasional pop-up stores in the UK. The seasonless collection is keenly priced to keep it accessible, ranging from £30 to £150, across men’s and women’s. After LFW, Unhidden will launch a partnership with a rental platform Loanhood. It is also working on an adaptive kidswear range, to be brought to market this summer, and discussing a potential adaptive footwear collaboration with Kurt Geiger. Jenkins would like to sell products wholesale in the future, once the brand is more established.
During the LFW show, Unhidden will show 20 new designs that cater to the various needs of the disabled community. The collection offers both standing and seated versions of trousers, taking into account the comfort of those in wheelchairs. The removal of excess material at the front of the hip and back of the knee ensures greater comfort and helps prevent pressure sores.
Tops are also available in standing and seated versions, with arm openings for easy access to the arm for those undergoing chemotherapy or radiotherapy and those with diabetes or a long-term PICC line. The dresses have openings for stoma bags or feeding tubes, eliminating the need to remove clothing. Pockets are strategically placed for easy accessibility, and snap fastenings replace buttons, making dressing easier for individuals with limb differences or reduced dexterity. Soft jerseys are also available for those with sensory needs.
Jenkins explains that she consulted with doctors, patients and disabled influencers to ensure the designs were informed by the community’s actual experiences. She also analysed reviews and comments on other adaptive wear brands to identify areas for improvement. For the show, Jenkins chose a mix of both models with disabilities and those with visible differences, regardless of whether they were professional models or not. "It was important to me to show the real diversity within the community,” she explains.
Hiding behind excuses
Very few designers and brands use models with visible disabilities or show adaptive fashion on the catwalk. There are some exceptions: Tommy Hilfiger has an adaptive collection, which it has included in its New York Fashion Week shows, featuring disabled models. This season in New York, disability activist Lily Brasch, who has muscular dystrophy, appeared on the Hitechmoda runway. Aaron Rose Philip, who has cerebral palsy, was featured in Collina Strada’s runway show.
Teatum Jones made waves at London Fashion Week in 2017 by casting models with disabilities for its runway show. The aim was to make the point that a person’s disability or physical appearance should not limit their access to great clothing. As Rob Jones, the co-founder of Teatum Jones, puts it: “We were told at the time by people that we shouldn’t do it and that certain barriers existed that would make including disabled models in our show impossible, but when it came down to it, those barriers didn’t really exist.” Some had suggested that having models with disabilities would require double the team to assist with dressing and accessibility; Teatum Jones found this was not the case.
“We're part of an industry that prides itself on being forward-thinking and a pioneer of change and difference, but it actually isn't,” says Jones. He points out that it is usually left to smaller, upcoming brands to push the boundaries in fashion, yet these brands lack the resources to make a significant impact. He believes that more established brands need to take the initiative and drive meaningful change.
Laura Winson, co-founder of Zebedee, the UK’s first modelling agency exclusively representing people with disabilities, echoes Jones’s view that brands should not hide behind the excuse that disabled talent is difficult to find or accommodate. Many of Zebedee’s models are standard sample size and height, with the only difference being their disability. Still, getting brands to book them can be a challenge. “People always tell us the industry will get there, it’s a slow process and it's just going to take time, but we've been here for six years now and brands are still not booking disabled models,” Winson says.
The Bicester Collection provided funding for the Unhidden show. Chantal Khoueiry, chief culture officer at The Bicester Collection, says of Jenkins, “we admire her determination as a young female entrepreneur pushing boundaries, and we applaud her commitment to making sustainable and adaptive fashion accessible.”
Kurt Geiger also supported the show by providing its HQ as a wheelchair-accessible space for the event and offering to supply disabled-friendly shoes for the models. “People with disabilities are too often excluded from the fashion sphere, and it’s essential that we all join forces to help change this,” says Kurt Geiger's chief creative officer, Rebecca Farrar-Hockley.
Kurt Geiger’s office space includes private rooms for changing. “Everyone will have a private space to get changed; we're not having anyone get changed in the open,” Jenkins says. “Privacy is important because we have a wide array of bodies with different dressing needs and dignity is paramount.” To make the show more accessible, a British Sign Language interpreter will be present for the live singing performance, and the show will be recorded live on the night for anyone unable to attend physically. “We have limited the guests and kept the show quite small so that it's not too overwhelming for the models,” she adds.
Change in the wider industry
Jenkins points out that, by ignoring disability, fashion brands are missing out on a significant pool of potential customers. Twenty-two per cent of people in the UK live with a disability, according to estimates from the UK government’s Family Resources Survey. “People have told me ‘oh, what you do it's very niche’, but I don't consider one in five people to be niche, that’s an awful lot of people,” says Jenkins.
Caroline Rush, CEO of the British Fashion Council, is keenly aware of the barriers that have traditionally kept disabled talent on the fringes of the fashion industry. “Lack of investment, knowledge and commitment to inclusivity, as well as representation in all stages of product design,” have been the biggest challenges, she says. Part of the problem is lack of education, adds Jenkins: “Brands [with] huge design teams get told they have to create inclusive fashion, and they have no idea how to do it because they haven't been taught it.”
Jenkins believes that the key to overcoming the barriers is to involve those with lived experiences. Caroline Casey, the founder of Valuable 500, a collective of CEOs that are working together towards disability inclusion, agrees: “Much of the misunderstandings and ‘mistakes’ could be avoided by simply asking us what we need or how we can get better together. By involving the community, their ideas, their talent and tenacity, by supporting, developing and investing in design we will accelerate the move beyond optics and tokenism. There is a desperate need for systemic change — not just inspiring moments.”
Jenkins hopes to inspire the next generation of designers to think more inclusively. “Fashion students are reaching out to me directly to discuss adaptive design, so we can see that the next generation of designers are genuinely inspired by this work, and that's what we want to keep encouraging.”
Correction: This article has been updated to include The Bicester Collection as the principal sponsor of the Unhidden show (17/2/2023).
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