WHAT IS ADAPTIVE CLOTHING?
Adaptive clothing is designed to help people with disabilities, the elderly, and others who have difficulty dressing themselves. It can make dressing easier and more comfortable, and can also help caregivers dress their loved ones. Some features it might include are closures, elastic waistbands, and zippers that are strategically placed. This extra stretch and openings can make it easier to pull on pants, shirts, and footwear.

MY GOAL
As a tailor and costume designer with decades of experience, my goal is to make adaptive clothing that is not just functional but also fun and fashionable. Creating an entire line of clothing and getting it to market is an expensive endeavor. I am raising $20,000 to cover the costs of manufacturing, marketing, and getting my clothes on the runway. This will pay for many things, including fabric and materials for creating the clothing line, booth spaces at different Abilities Expos, airfare and hotels for these various expos, shipping garments to the runway models, and much more.

THE REST OF MY STORY
One of my first experiences in making adaptive clothing was designing corsets for Mary Lou, who had polio as a child. The corsets were medically necessary, but I wanted them to also be beautiful. After perfecting the fit, I used l gorgeous fabrics and lace to complete the corsets. She was delighted with the results.

Around the same time, I designed skirts for my friend’s daughter, Sara (my muse - pictured below), who had Cerebral Palsy and wanted to be able to wear skirts like the ones her classmates wore. Since it was difficult to transfer her in and out of her wheelchair with a full skirt on, I created a backless skirt to be worn over leggings or shorts. It closes with a Velcro waistband and is added after she is seated. To transfer her out of her wheelchair, the skirt was easily removed and then transferred easily with her leggings or shorts on. Sara loved the skirts in fun fabrics and her parents loved the ease of transferring her.

From there, è Ispirante was born! The line has grown, with skirt sizes for children and adults and matching berets, and more to come. In the works are pants, jackets, and tops for wheelchair users and people with other physical disabilities as well as non-disabled people, to have my adaptive line be more inclusive.

I recently embellished a jacket for Lachi, a legally-blind musician. The applied design is very tactile, using various textured fabrics, trims and beads, enabling it to be felt as well as seen.

FIND OUT MORE
Please visit my website to see all the designs. You can also see photos and read the story behind Lachi's jacket here.

REVIEWS
Customers who have purchased the garments in my Adaptive Line have said:

Just so you know, the skirts are Mom approved. She's happy with the design and.....they don't cause sores from sitting on the skirt bunched up under me. That's been a problem with me. I refused to stop wearing skirts!

I absolutely love everything and so does my Mom! 😊

When I did a photoshoot with my "Muse" Sara Ann, she had her mother buy each skirt and T-shirt design because she said that she looked very cute in them!

Barbara with Sara who has CP and is in a wheelchair

è Ispirante Fundraiser

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