Unraveling the Beautiful History of Disability Fashion

/disability-fashion-history-access-issue

  • Unraveling the Beautiful History of Disability Fashion
    https://www.bitchmedia.org/article/disability-fashion-history-access-issue

    “To be well dressed is to feel well dressed.”—Helen Cookman There are no “firsts” in disability fashion, and there can’t be a future for disability fashion without acknowledging its lineage of disabled creators. People have always made clothes for disabled bodies. Whenever possible, we disabled people have modified garments and assistive devices to fit our bodies for style, comfort, and function. In 1948, for example, a British woman named Gladys Reed was frustrated with her body-worn hearing aid, which placed separate battery packs in a “handbag container” worn over her shoulder. Because the handbag regularly slipped off Reed’s shoulder, she decided to create a better solution: a belt with hip pockets for carrying her instrument and batteries. Her later designs—including bra pockets and (...)