PUntil 2012, Alicia Searcy was what she now refers to as “anti-fashion”. When she was very young, her mother, who was a model, criticized her body. “My legs were too fat,” she recalls, “my arms were too big—things a little kid can’t really help.”
Searcy was born with cerebral palsy. She uses a wheelchair and has difficulty with fine motor skills, which limited her options when it came to dressing.
“So for a long time,” says Searcy, “I was very anti-fashion. I didn’t want to do it, look like a bag lady, proud of it. The swing.” But she began to notice something. “People treated me very badly because I looked so slow. They thought I couldn’t think for myself. So I would go out with other people or try to hook up. They would say to the people around me, ‘What does she want? … What are we going to do with it?’ So I decided to try and experiment and clean myself up and not look so dirty.”
Searcy began to see fashion as a language—something that can communicate who you are to the rest of the world. She started blogging about her experiment. In 2012, very few people were talking about making fashion inclusive of all bodies and abilities—and no one knew Alicia. Her interest led her to Nashville Fashion Week. “I was amazed at what they could do,” she says. “I was amazed at the talent in this city.” As she sat in the audience at an NFW event, she had the spark of an idea: “Why can’t we all do this?” In other words, why can’t fashion promote body positivity and self-esteem by being inclusive of ALL bodies? Maybe it can.
Alicia Searcy wearing Laura Citron
She began discussing the possibility of a more inclusive fashion show with her friend and collaborator Krystle Ramos. She continued her experiment and continued blogging. Then, in 2016, David Bowie died. “It just hit me in the head,” Searcy says. And I went, ‘Oh no. David Bowie may die. If he can die, then I can die.’ “
Fueled by Searcy’s energy and vision, a small team of volunteers put together the runway show she had dreamed of for years. Called Fashion Is for Every Body, the 2016 event sold out three days before the show. Local fashion designers responded to her call to work with designs for clothing that met their needs. The annual show will take place on Saturday, September 10, at Studio615 and will feature models dressed in styles by local designers, a pop-up boutique, cocktails and bites and an after party.
“Adaptive clothing is something that has been modified so that a person with a particular disability can wear this clothing and/or use it in a way that they can do completely independently,” explains Searcy. It has magnetic clips that you can place behind the buttons without changing the look of the garment. No one looking at it would know it’s a magnet, but for someone with fine motor disabilities, the change makes dressing and undressing much easier. There may be hidden loops that a user can use to adjust their pants when sitting down. A shirt may have a strategically placed zipper that creates easy access to a port.
Tailored clothing is “like a good fashion show,” says Searcy. “No one knows what goes on behind the scenes, because everything that comes out is beautiful. … But really, the important thing is, it puts us all on a level playing field and gives us the value as human beings that we deserve.”
Chelsie Nitschke volunteered at the first Fashion Is for Every Body show, helping out backstage. Nitschke is a quadriplegic due to a car accident in 2011, but that didn’t stop Searcy from convincing her to model in the show the following year.
“I had never modeled before,” Nitschke tells her scenes. “I had no idea what to do, but I just went with it.” As Nitschke walked down the runway for the first time, the shoulder of her dress went up to her neck. “I did a little impromptu thing where I slipped it off my shoulder. I had no idea I had this in me!”
Some of the models on the Fashion Is For Every Body runway have physical disabilities, but others do not. Searcy opens it up to anyone who doesn’t see themselves reflected in mainstream fashion. Plus-sized people, people on the autism spectrum, queer people, people with anxiety—the philosophy recognizes that our bodies are often the sites and bearers of trauma. Using fashionable language can help us heal.
Chelsie Nitschke wearing Rank & Sugar
Nitschke says her first walk on the track felt “so empowering. You just feel themselves. … It was a push to get there, and I was super nervous at first. But afterwards, with praise from everyone around, the pictures that they took – as soon as I saw the pictures, I thought, ‘Oh dang! I looked good!’ Since then she has modeled in every show and will be on the runway this weekend.
This year, five local designers and brands are working with models on the apparel: Article X, A Lady of the Lake, Laura Citron, Any Old Iron’s Andrew Clancey and Dahlia, which features Searcy’s designs. This year, Unhidden – an adaptive clothing brand from London – will also have pieces at the show. Designers learn a lot in the process about how their clothing can be more inclusive. There are many practical reasons that Fashion Is For Every Body should exist, but it all stems from what Searcy suspected years ago, when she was ready to challenge her anti-fashion stance.
“I, as a person with disabilities, [I’ve] had to really fight to be seen and heard and appreciated,” Searcy says. “I want you to see me as a fun and valuable person in society. … And I think a lot people with disabilities want the same thing. A lot of people who are 60 years old, the same thing. People who are size 5X want the same thing. People who are LGBTQ. … We want to be valued. And we want to be valued in a beautiful way. And that’s what we do.”
