Getting dressed is supposed to be routine. For Elliot Caswell, it often came with an audience.
Caswell, who lives with cerebral palsy, said shopping for clothes that were easy to put on had long been frustrating. “It’s been a struggle,” he told the BBC. “I would need my parents, friends and family, and my carers to help me out to put clothes on.”
That changed when Primark, the United Kingdom-based department store, released a new adaptive clothing line for adults with disabilities.
For Caswell, the impact was immediate. “It’s life-changing stuff,” he told the BBC.
The launch is also personal for him in another way. Caswell is one of the faces of the collection, modelling clothes designed with features meant to make dressing easier and more comfortable for disabled shoppers.
Victoria Jenkins, the designer behind the range, said Caswell stood out during the campaign. “He was fantastic on the campaign shoot,” she said. “We’re going to see more and more of Elliot, and I have every intention of sending him down the runway for London Fashion Week.”
The collection includes magnetic zippers and buttons, easy-grip loops, trousers with adjustable zips on the legs, and a pouch for stoma bags. The designs are meant to respond to practical problems many disabled people face every day, from limited mobility to pain and medical needs.
Jenkins said the thinking behind the line goes beyond convenience. “A lot of it centers around dignity and modesty,” she said.
She also said her own experience helped shape the work. Jenkins, who has several gastrointestinal conditions, said that gave her a clearer sense of what disabled and chronically ill shoppers may be looking for, including stretchier clothing that is easier to put on and take off when pain or movement is an issue.
At the heart of it, Jenkins said, is the idea that disabled people should not have to settle for less choice. “Everyone needs choice, everyone dresses differently, and everyone has the right to self-expression,” she said.
She added that disabled people have been excluded from that for too long. “That’s been denied to far too many of us for too long.”
Jenkins is an award-winning adaptive designer and leads her own brand, Unhidden. Primark brought her in to help push its adaptive fashion efforts forward, a move she suggested marks a larger shift in an industry that has often overlooked disabled customers.
“I didn’t think we’d see adapted fashion on the high street in my lifetime,” Jenkins told The Guardian.
In a statement for the brand, she said the company’s decision to move into adaptive fashion could have a wide effect. “Primark recognizing the needs of disabled and [the] chronic sick community, and acting upon it in such a meaningful way, is going to be life-changing for millions of people,” she added.
For Caswell, that bigger shift is already showing up in a very personal way, in shop windows and campaign images that reflect lives like his.
“It doesn’t feel real,” he said. “But I know it’s real when I see the pictures.”
