To highlight the need for adaptive fashion design, the spinal muscular atrophy community has teamed up with the non-profit organization Open Style Lab to put on a runway show called Double Take. The show will take place on February 8 at 10:00 am at 608 Fifth Avenue in New York.
SMA is a progressive neuromuscular disease that can impair gait, agility, and overall strength, making clothing with certain fits, cuts, fits, and weights inaccessible.
Double Take is the first fashion show with end-to-end involvement of the SMA community, from conceptualizing the message to collaborating on garment designs, to walking and spinning the runway leading up to New York Fashion Week, and is dedicated to everyone living with disabilities. .
The show aims to enable people with disabilities to occupy a space that is often closed to them, and the SMA community is inviting the world to do a “double”, not because of disability, but because because of their style and individuality.
Prior to the show, Open Style Lab’s adaptive fashion design fellows, some of whom have disabilities themselves, worked with members of the SMA community to create and modify the outfits, according to each runway participant’s personal style and needs. Garments feature hidden magnetic closures to create the look of buttons without the challenge of fastening them. There are also stretch knit panels instead of zippers, flexible sleeves for easier wheelchair operation, and other adaptations.
Support for Double Take was provided by biotech company Genetech’s SMA My Way program, which is an initiative that aims to support people affected by SMA by sharing their experiences and building connections within the community. Genetech, which discovers, develops, manufactures and commercializes medicines to treat patients with serious and life-threatening medical conditions, is a member of the Roche Group, headquartered in South San Francisco, California.
“Thanks to Genetech’s support, Double Take gave me the opportunity to explore forward-thinking fashion designs that are inclusive of people of all abilities. I’ve collaborated with several people living with spinal muscular atrophy to co-create accessible clothing that fits both their personality and individual needs, including Shane Burcaw, who has SMA and uses an electric wheelchair. To fit a purple corduroy suit for Shane, I added an invisible zipper to the back of the jacket for easier wear and stretch panels at the elbows to accommodate flex. The custom-made tailored velvet pants had two layers – a comfortable L-shaped base and a removable cover that goes on top,” Open Style Lab 2022 Fellow Andrea Saleh told Double Take.
“For a person with spinal muscular atrophy who is sitting all the time, suit jackets can be difficult to wear and puffy, very unsexy. We ended up getting a custom tailored suit for our wedding, and it looked amazing, but it was still difficult to wear. For the Double Take project, which was sponsored by Genetech, we worked with custom fashion designers to create a suit that not only looked great, but was also comfortable and much easier to wear. Ultimately, Double Take is about celebrating differences, not trying to erase them. Fashion allows you to do that – to embrace the things that make you different,” said Shane Burcaw, who will model on the runway with his wife, Hannah.
