A Short History of Adaptive Fashion.
I am by no means an historian or scholar in the line of adaptive clothing. Yet when it came to assisting my late father in his journey through stage 4 cancer, my siblings and I searched and researched anything we could get our hands on to support him with the comfort, ease and independence he needed while dressing. I felt that we had learned much during these last two years of struggle and suffering, and hopefully the information we gathered will help you too.
It is amazing how the ingenuity of people can create things to solve problems. We’d never heard of or known about the idea of adaptive clothing until our father needed it the last few years of his life. So of course; researching, digging, and asking questions, we found out about some great adaptive clothing brands, and an interesting history.
So where did this all begin, adaptive clothing for seniors and the disabled? This whole concept has been around for a very long time. An accident and need for rehabilitation can occur to anyone of us at any time. Aging is a given. So, adaptations had to be made, or clothing at least modified to fit the needs of the individual. Designers and wearers both struggled for decades with the idea of how a physical disability could be hidden. There were few companies that catered specifically to the needs of seniors, or those with special needs. There have been great strides in the last decade with adaptive clothing looking as fashionable and comfortable as possible. History itself demonstrated that people who wanted to be stylish were sometimes disabled. There have been kings, queens, and even presidents of the United States who suffered from disabilities. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was disabled. He suffered infantile paralysis also known as polio at the age of 32. Before the Nineteenth Century, clothing was changed around or adapted to fit the individual body. If you were rich and disabled, you could have tailors hired to create whatever you needed. If you were not rich, people still sewed enough at that time to create some of the things they needed to help the elderly or disabled.
Then came the 19th Century and the idea of mass production. More and more adaptive clothing was made to fit the body type and need of the individual. Between 1955 and 1976 in the United States top designers joined forces to create the Functional Fashions Line. Their purpose was to focus on garments that worked for disabled individuals. Helen Cookman was a designer who had the disability of hearing loss. She started with herself, designing a special belt that could hold her hearing aids. She co-authored a book entitled Functional Fashions for the Physically Handicapped. Cookman designed easy-to-reach pockets, magnetic closures, jackets skirts and pants sewn to fit the needs of those who were wheelchair bound. Open-back designs, fabric easy to clean and elasticized waistlines can be accredited to her. The movement to provide adaptive clothing for all who needed it declined after Cookman passed away. A new wave of adaptive fashion was inspired in 2014 by Danielle Sheypuk, who seated in her wheelchair, went down the runway during New York Fashion Week. Over the years, adaptive fashion has come a long way providing clothing for people with specific needs. Adaptive Fashion creators, who themselves are disabled, have been able to give a very real vision to functional solutions for adaptive clothing.
There is an innovative group out of Australia called Shapes United who create inclusive and accessible adaptive clothing for any need. It is wonderful to know that there are more brands available that inspire the creation of adaptive wear, benefiting people with long- and short-term needs.
Hopefully this short read provided some valuable information about adaptive clothing. There are all kinds of options out there. Provided below you will find some options you might find useful. Who knows where your search will take you. Maybe our brand Welowela, though limited, could give some ideas for adaptive clothing that you might find fashionable, comfortable, and useful.
