Zinyet Veliyeva made her first trip to the catwalk at the age of 48, wearing a light blue shirt and dark trousers. Hassan, her eight-year-old son, pushed her stroller.
“I watched videos from previous shows,” says Veliyeva. “Most of the models were thin and I thought to myself why not have a fat model.”
While still at school, Veliyeva had a stroke that led to paraparesis, a partial loss of movement in her legs. She became Azerbaijan’s first female Paralympic athlete, qualifying for the London 2012 Paralympic Games in archery.
Quick guide
A common condition
show
The number of people with non-communicable diseases (NCDs) is large and growing. These diseases end the lives of approximately 41 million of the 56 million people who die each year – and three-quarters of them are in the developing world.
NCDs are simply that; unlike, say, a virus, you can’t catch them. Instead, they are caused by a combination of genetic, physiological, environmental, and behavioral factors. The main types are cancers, chronic respiratory diseases, diabetes and cardiovascular diseases – heart attacks and strokes. Approximately 80% are preventable, and all are on the rise, spreading inevitably around the world as aging populations and lifestyles driven by economic growth and urbanization make being unhealthy a global phenomenon .
Infectious diseases, once seen as diseases of the rich, now have a grip on the poor. Disease, disability and death are perfectly designed to create and widen inequality – and being poor makes it less likely that you will be accurately diagnosed or treated.
Investment in treating these common and chronic conditions that kill 71% of us is extremely low, while the cost to families, economies and communities is extremely high.
In low-income countries, infectious diseases – usually slow and debilitating diseases – are seeing some of the much-needed money being invested or donated. Attention remains focused on threats from communicable diseases, yet the death rate from cancer has long exceeded the number of deaths from malaria, TB and HIV/AIDS combined.
‘A Common Condition’ is a new Guardian series reporting on non-chronic diseases in the developing world: their prevalence, solutions, causes and consequences, telling the stories of people living with these diseases.
Tracy McVeigh, editor
She loves suits, tops and pants – the more colors the better – but she can’t get them on and off easily because they don’t have zippers and buttons in the places she needs them.
Over the summer, Veliyeva was one of 20 models who participated in the Kekalove adaptive fashion show at the Marriott Absheron Hotel in Baku.
Male and female models with various disabilities walked the catwalk, alone or with assistance, in front of a packed audience.
The show was the brainchild of Mahammad Kekalov, a 21-year-old student. Months earlier, he had visited Veliyeva and her husband, Galib Aliyev, at their home with his business partner Rashada Aliyeva, Azerbaijan’s first adaptive clothing designer. Aliyev also has a disability, having lost a leg when he stepped on a land mine during the first two wars between Azerbaijan and neighboring Armenia in the past 30 years. The conflicts resulted in hundreds of amputees.
Aliyev had often thought there must be a better way to dress: “I thought it would be more convenient to take off and put on clothes along with the prosthetic limb,” he says.
Aliyeva and Kekalov talked to Aliyev and created clothes based on what he said. Aliyev then tested the creations and provided feedback on what worked and what didn’t.
Kekalov was inspired to start the business by his late grandmother, Salimat Kekalova. She was visually impaired, so getting dressed could be a challenge. Along with a year spent with an American family caring for disabled children, he was led to think about adaptive clothing as a solution.
“Just like with my grandmother, I see the same thing in the people we work with. We ask them if they need help or have any problems getting dressed. They say they don’t, but we find out they have trouble dressing. They are so used to it that they don’t see it as a problem, but a daily reality.”
That’s one of the reasons he puts on catwalk shows – he’s done three now – he believes those who perform feel more confident about their bodies. “They get away from body stigma and that’s the main reason we do it,” he says.
The first two shows took place last year. The first cost $13,000 (£15,500), paid for by the US embassy in Azerbaijan; by the second, Kekalov was selling the concept, encouraging companies to buy sponsorships to show solidarity with people with disabilities.
Rahim Rzayev, 36, was on the catwalk in a turquoise Hawaiian shirt and white button-down trousers. Like Velijeva, he followed the show on social networks: “He who doesn’t risk, doesn’t win anything,” he says.
Rzayev, who recently got married and will soon become a father, has had a severe form of scoliosis since the age of 6, has a curvature of the spine and a twisted bone in his right leg.
His schooling was limited to a few weekly home visits by a tutor. Now she makes a living by selling handmade products, but has trouble finding clothes: “When I wear pants, the waist is small and tight. If the waist is straight, the skirt is too long.”
Rzayev convinced his friend Khayyam Rahimov to perform with him in the show. Rahimov has anemia and his legs are of different lengths; previously he had covered his uneven clothes with a heavy jacket.
The clothes Kekalov makes range in price from £130 to £215, putting them beyond the reach of many Azerbaijanis, where the average monthly wage is around £420. Therefore the team gives their clothes to the models for nothing.
But Kekalov says the show needs to be financially viable. “Our plan is to have a supply chain to sell products in Western countries, for example in Germany, where there is a proven track record of adaptive fashion brands.”
Kekalov is also reaching out to representatives and designers in Georgia, Turkey and Uzbekistan, countries with “similar disability ecosystems.” The team plans to stage a series of shows this year in each of these countries, using models with disabilities.
“It will help us better understand how fashion can overcome disability and cultural-geographic aspects,” says Kekalov.
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