Fashion Styling for People with Disabilities | Stephanie Thomas | TEDxYYC
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- Опубліковано 5 вер 2024
- How the Disability Fashion Styling System empowers people with disabilities to dress with dignity and self-reliance.
Stephanie Thomas is founder, stylist and editor-in-chief of CUR8ABLE, a disability fashion lifestyle website. With a passion for accessibility, Stephanie has followed clothing trends for people with disabilities for 24 years and works to empower people everyday with advice from her disability fashion styling system.
Based in Los Angeles, with followers spanning the globe, Stephanie strives to create beautiful, powerful images that challenge and ultimately change negative perceptions of people with disabilities.
This talk was given at a TEDx event using the TED conference format but independently organized by a local community. Learn more at ted.com/tedx
Thank you for being aware of those with a disability for dressing. The fashion industry has ignored them. Who else did they ignore? Those who dress modestly are looked upon with such disdain it's incredible. It took me about 8 hours on the internet to find some fabric in the form of a sport shirt to fill in a low neckline.
I'm a wheelchair user who is breastfeeding & involved in medieval recreation. I made an adaptive outfit of my own design (based off of a family tree portrait from I think 1500s Germany if memory serves) that allows me to breastfeed my child while seated in my wheelchair, and that fit over my belly while I was pregnant. The "dress" is actually separate top & skirt (held together with hidden snaps for easy on/off and the ability to toilet by dropping the skirt instead of raising it, which I personally find easier to manage). I also hid four large pockets on the front of my skirt (one on each thigh and one on each shin) since I can't wear belt pouches (they get caught in my wheel path). I also made the skirt less full than usually worn, to keep it from getting into my manual wheelchair's wheel path or spokes. I would be thrilled if others wanted to make improvements on my design and use them, for modern or medieval wearing.
you're so creative, this is excellent :) perhaps we can help out with pockets for other outfits, if you like. PortaPocket's a system that can be worn anywhere on your body, or even on your chair frame, too. we've been thrilled to work with folks that have special needs ove the years, including amputees, wheelchair users, diabetics, asthmatics, and more. All the best to you! xox
I'd love to not look dumpy and all wrinkled in front and my pants pulled down in back when I'm in my wheelchair. I also need elastic in the waist because of a pain pump in my belly. Shopping is so difficult for pants especially! Love the zippered pockets, too. She's awesome. People are taught from childhood to "no stare" at disabled people, so they grow up trained to not look at or communicate with them. The Invisibles.
exactly. :)
One secret I learned from a paraplegic youtuber is maternity jeans and leggings are awesome for wheelchair users. No lie.
@@HouseKatArmy I will definitely give that a go! Thanks for the tip!
Hi Have you tried the tommy hilfiger line? they make trousers and they are a little pricey but good quality and made specifically for seated use!!
That's my old teacher! Great presentation Ms. Thomas!
agree! she was so polished, but REAL. great job.
ABSOLUTELY LOOOOOOVE THIS!!! It is so necessary Stephanie thank you so much! I'm so proud.
she is awesome. what a wonderful job to have
Who dislike this. This is amazing ! How someone can think that people with disabilities should not have clothes that fit them ?
ikr??
Amazing speech, you are doing a great job. As a wheelchair user, I thank you so very much! Hugs from Spain.
"I couldn't just talk about it. I had to be about it" is a bada$$ thing to say. Her style! Her suave! Her joi de vivre! Stephanie Thomas, you are amazing.
Love her mission and her energy!
Beautiful, Needful, Necessary!!! Thank you, Stephanie!! You are a blessing!!!!
FABulous! So glad to see this worthy subject gaining much-deserved momentum.
This is amazing. Your disability was your gift and uniqueness to create this line of fashion. You are amazing 😉
Love this content!! Powerful as a wheelchair user!
This made my night.
Thanks to help people with disability (ies) like me show the best self, their beauty and improve their confidence.. You are such a good person!
Damn once she warmed up she was going. This lady is a total fucking boss.
Agreed! I noticed the transition too - and loved the confidence!
Fantastic work! we need more fashion styling for different types of disabilities.
I love you, you saw a great need and set out to meet it!
amazing. hats off
I am autisitic and I have chronic back pain (well fibromyalgia). I usually don't wear clothes because they are uncomfortable or pull on me. I have found two things help. soft material. Idk what it is but at Walmart I got this very soft yarn. I wanted to make myself a fox tail and I was making a belt to go around me and hold it.
well as I was fitting it to my body and trying it (I'm still making it) I noticed that I like it.
it's very soft and doesn't irritate my skin. and it's tight. it doesn't move around which makes the fabric rub on my skin lightly. that feels like bugs on me and like my skin is burning.
it is also flexible so it moves with my body if I need to bend down or change positions. just enough give. I also found that the tightness from that and also from ftm binders really helps with my back pain. a lot. and it cuts down on clothing stimulation too so I usually wear one when I have to wear clothes.
I don't have the resources to be able to widespread make these things. but I hope I can make enough for myself and maybe some friends and get other people interested in making similar clothes so that it can maybe be more readily available. I'd love that.
if something can be tight on my fingers at like the middle joint and allow full mobility and fingertip functionality I'd love it. even fingerless gloves don't tend to do very well. they either hinder the fingers or don't apply enough pressure. that's one clothing goal I have never been able to meet. even in my head. and yes I did try to crochet my own glove. it failed horribly for the issue as there was no mobility at all
love your spitit and ingenuity :))
Fox tail? Why!??
Also, maternity pants are horrible for almost all body types and the under-belly ones exponentially worse for those of us with a seated body type. PLEASE help improve those. The material for the over-belly ones doesn't stay up and makes sensitive pregnant belly skin extra itchy. I had to wear a layer of cotton under the stretchy over-belly fabric, otherwise I was constantly twitching & having skin-crawling sensations from the nylon stretch fabric.
This was so beautiful and empowering. I cried!
Hey Stephanie. Congrats to your passion to stylist disabilities. Luv God Mom..Earlene from Louisville,Ky
Lovely job !Stephanie Thomas
This is an awesome way to go. Great information and ideas I could present to my clients and teams.
I have MS and sit a lot and walk with a cane i want to look stylish and scomfortable and warm or cool as well. The pants have to be easy to pull up and down so i just buy them a size bigger than i am. Dresses are easy in the summer but winter layers are a challenge. I have a tightening feeling around my waist called the MS hug. I want to be comfortable and stylish so that has been an issue. I have trouble with buttons and zippers so i avoid zippers. I have a tool that buttons my clothing but still avoid them. Soft fabrics are a must too. It would be a huge challenge is not impossible andunsafe for me to try on clothes in a changing room so have had to buy my clothes on Amazon and hope for the best!
SUCH AN AMAZING WOMAN!!!
Damn, I love her!
I love this. Are you in the United States and available for consultation ?
Steph You Rock!
awesome. thanks to Ms. Thomas I will start designing for disabled rt now, rt here
She is so damn good!
Very interesting!
where can I buy clothes like these ??
I love it! Sharing!
My friends sister has a disability and clothes designed for her would be so great
What type of disability does she have?
i want footlocker stuff designed with me in mind but aint gona happen lol paraplegic btw and the trouser thing is real but tbh if you thin i dont make too much different. i never wear anything with pockets or buttons
beautiful thankyou
Smart brain woman
Love this fashion show is there any apprenticeships available I live in Waterloo Canada this would be awesome I am also a full-time wheelchair user
amazing...
This is woooooooooow!!!!
thats amazing!!
Awesome!!! 👍👍👍
This is the 'Lady boss' magazines should be shouting about
Well done.
Hi
Holy shit! That was dope!
Nice. :)
howww, yes, i'm make the diference in life...
I wish I could go to ai in California so you could be my teacher
I'm not sure what the point here is. Clothing and fashion is bound by the same principles as any other business venture: profit, supply and demand. Why are there so few places to purchase clothes for disabled people or abnormally sized folks? The answer is in the question. They are abnormal, production of new product costs money, if the demographic is that small, it simply does not justify an investment.
This has nothing to do with how people feel about the disabled. Its business.
Id like to see more adaptable clothing and clothing designed for disabled people. (or ridiculously tall people like me, I can't wear half of the clothes in any given store.) But it's not a morality crisis.
The demographic of people with disabilities isn't that small. If you go to 9:51 in the video, she talks about how there is more than one billion people in the world who have them.
So, creating a new market in the clothing industry dedicated to people who have disabilities actually not only is a humane thing to do, but also is good business-wise.
+Shadow Hew I can see an online service spread out to cater to the (supposed) 1/7th of the world's population.
My point is; you'll never see wide selections of clothing for wheelchair users because the demand isn't there. In addition to the smaller demographic these people often require custom fitted outfits.
online venues for acquiring custom made clothing already exist and take full advantage of people who need them. So again, I still feel the whole speech was moot. but that's just my two cents.
Yes, it does mean disability interest does not and they disabled people are not worth the etc.
she ain't disabled!
There's always one of you around, isn't there?
I can't think of anything I care less about. =/
I understand... mankind is so interesting... there are things that for some, don't matter and for others... they are life... :)
*****
how stoned are you right now?
Hahaha nope, never have consumed that, this is the way I am :)
*****
oh sorry, didnt realize i was replying to a child, let alone a little girl.