Fashion industry perceptions of clothing design for persons with a physical disability: the need for building partnerships for future innovation

ABSTRACT

Introduction: Persons with a physical disability may need adapted clothing to facilitate their full participation in society; it is unclear what information designers use to create adapted clothing. Objective: Explore the perspectives of fashion industry representatives regarding adapted clothing and gauge their receptiveness towards academic inquiry. Methods: Semi-structured interviews with five female adapted clothing designers were conducted, transcribed verbatim, coded, and analyzed thematically. Results: Participants felt research (i.e. knowledge and guidance) could benefit the design process and spoke about industry barriers (e.g. time, manufacturing, human and material resources, marketing, level of importance) to designing adapted clothing. Conclusions: Strengthening collaborations with stakeholders (e.g. researchers, designers, consumers, health professionals, caregivers) may add credibility to future adapted clothing designs and bridge the gap between research and practice. Engagement from fashion design trainees could also contribute to growing a more socially responsible industry.

KEYWORDS:

• Adapted clothing
• fashion design
• knowledge translation
• physical disability
• rehabilitation

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Please contact the corresponding author for access to interview data.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Quebec Rehabilitation Research Network (REPAR) and l’Office des personnes handicapées du Québec (OPHQ). A.E. was supported by a graduate scholarship from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research (CIHR) as well as bursaries from the Université de Montréal Faculty of Medicine and School of Rehabilitation and the Centre for Interdisciplinary Research in Rehabilitation of Greater Montreal (CRIR). N. D-O, A.R., and C.A. held career-grant funding from the Fonds de la recherche en santé du Québec (FRQS). F.P. held a post-doctorate fellowship from FRQS.