City designer makes an inclusive fashion statement

What we wear is an integral part of who we are. There are thousands of brands available to us, we can pick and choose and try them on to our heart’s content. But what about people with disabilities? How would a person on a wheelchair put on clothes off the rack? These are questions that inspired 21-year-old National Institute of Fashion Technology graduate, Namrata Chandrasekar, to explore inclusive fashion and create clothes that can be worn easily by people with disabilities. 

“As part of the curriculum, we had to work with people from the Ability Foundation to create clothes for the disabled. The project got me thinking about the challenges that wheelchair-bound people face to dress up. They have to make do with whatever is available and often have  to go to a tailor for modifications. There is no aesthetic value to what they wear. I decided to explore it further by taking inclusive fashion as my design collection project, wherein I had to design different looks for various occasions,” says Namrata. 

When a designer makes clothes for regular people, all they have to worry about is comfort, body type and fitting. “Here, I had to look into ways that would make it easy for people on a wheelchair to wear them easily without any help. I had to research fabrics that were the most comfortable as we did not want one that would brush against an affected area. Also, if a person is paralysed neck down – he/she cannot use buttons, so we looked for options,” she says. They tried Velcro and magnetic buttons, but found that these did not have enough adhering capacity and could lead to a wardrobe malfunction. With each challenge, she says she grew as a designer. 

Her first model was Justin Jesudas, an IT professional and quadriplegic, after a fatal accident. “To dress up on my own is a challenge especially if I have to wear something formal. I swim, I drive a car and I try not to be dependent on anyone. However, while changing, I still need help sometimes,” says Justin. It followed then that Namrata worked on a wanderlust theme for him. “She created outfits for different occasions — dinner date, night out wear, beach wear and casual wear. She also designed a special glove for me that works as a great accessory,” he says. Namrata plans to take this initiative forward. “I plan to work on a line and make fashion accessible to those excluded from the mainstream.”