No Fashion Without Disability: Embracing Disability as Knowledge and Access as an Aesthetic

There has been a rise in clothing and accessories designed for disabled people under the moniker of adaptive fashion. Accompanied by increased representations of disabled models in fashion media and the introduction of disabled mannequins in fashion exhibitions, adaptive fashion is often celebrated as evidence of the industry's commitment to diversity. However, my lecture challenges this assumed inclusivity strategy. I propose a new framework to embed disability into fashion practice and education. Drawing on my disability-led fashion projects, research with disabled fashion students and the Parsons Disabled Fashion Student Program, I will demonstrate how disability experience can be harnessed as design knowledge and how access can be manifested as an aesthetic. This approach reveals the creative possibilities that emerge when disabled people are fulsomely embedded in fashion and education, while also exposing the persistent ableist attitudes and systems that hinder true systemic inclusion. I highlight practical recommendations for educators, students, and researchers to recognize the brilliance that disability brings to fashion, design, and education, urging us to make it a fundamental part of our work.

This event is part of a Women’s and Gender Studies Lecture Series funded by the Mellon Foundation’s Affirming Multivocal Humanities Grant, which was awarded to Dr. Winfrey and the WGS program in the fall of 2023.

Pictured is a headshot of Ben Barry — a white, Disabled, cis gender man with low vision. He has short brown hair and he is wearing a shirt made up of different pieces of patterned fabric that have been sewn together. His head is tilted to the left and resting on his hand, and his brown eyes look into the camera.

This lecture is ready to view on the Available Recordings page.