PROBLEM:

Fashion for the specially abled is- 1. Non existent/ scarce. 2. Discriminatory. 3. Costlier due to customisation. 4. Unavaible throughtout major parts of the country.

PROCESS:

1. Problem identification, secondary and literature research comprising over 100 blogs, forums, social media posts, research papers, YouTube channels, books and Ted talks. 2. Market research of all brands in adaptive clothing 3. Formulating possible solutions based on insights from research 4. Approaching Braille and programming experts for inclusion of smart textiles and encrypted messages.

PROPOSAL:

1. A collection of adjustable garments addressing clothing problems for the phys- ically challenged, pregnancy and people with acute body insecurities, aiming at removal of specialised clothing categories and more inclusive fashion. 2. Fashion wear creating utility. Introduction of smart textiles for mass use. 3. Narrows psychological barriers. Lends people enough visibility to blend into the rest of the population.

MARKET BRIEF

DEMOGRAPHICS PSYCHOGRAPHICS

Health consciousness has seeped into the national conversation in recent years, and our survey shows that 57% of consumers now spend Census on health and wellness. This includes 46% of consumers who are spend- ing on services such as health checkups, gym memberships, and diet

1,40,00,00,000 consultations, and 40% of consumers who are spending on healthier 1,20,00,00,000 food. This further reflects the increase in athleisure, casual wear sectors. 1,00,00,00,000 People want healthier, more comfortable and sporty clothing now to suit- 80,00,00,000 their extremely busy day to day schedules. 60,00,00,000 40,00,00,000 Fashion for specially abled mostly is too overwhelming as they donot 20,00,00,000 want to stand out from the crowd. While custom clothing should be com- 0 fortable make one feel confident and positive, it should never be an indi- 1 cator of negative impact. Caregivers and disabled people find the physi- total population male female disabled disabled male disabled female cal act of donning doffing extremely laborious, the placements, systems just aren’t right most of the times.

Fashion goes on to influence psychologies of billions of people on a Disability populatioon by type (2011 Census) daily basis. It may be considered as a mere quirk by the better half of the country but it is the basis of a easier inclusive world and life for a certain sect of people.

ADAPTIVE CLOTHING Clothing made keeping the elderly and disabled in focus, and accord- ing to their needs is called Adaptive Clothing. Sometimes there are certain challenges

Hearing Speech Sight that are unique to people for which designs need to be custom made. Movement Mental Retardation Mental Illness “Enclothed Cognition” describes the impact of clothes on the mood Others Multiple Disabilities and health, it is a term recently coined by researchers.There are about 7-8 companies currently catering to this to this client base.

COMPETITION IN THE MARKET

A number of Indian brands have paid attention to the needs of 5. SHIVAN AND NARRESH - Shivan and Naresh began Masectomy the specially abled and have started amazing start ups to blouse for women having undergone mastectomy an contribute to this field. Some of them are - alternative to relieve them from their feeling of inadequacy and consciousness. 1. OROFIT - Stylist at Home, a service provided by Mumbai based Orofit aims at personalising customer care. Stylists are 6. NIDHI MUNIM - Mumbai’s Nidhi Munim started a swimwear sent over to the customer’s homes with sample swatches helping and evening wear for mastectomy patients. them with their choices. These clothes are majorly sold online.

2. SUVASTRA DESIGNS - To ease travel for her wheelchair 7. VALENTINA IREENA - Chennai based Valentina Ireena stitches long bound husband and alike, Chennai’s Shalini Visakan started. Su- gown for wheelchair bound and polio effected women. These gowns vastra Designs. Bridal wear, Party wear, pre stitched sarees and contain zips on both sides. blouses aresome of the many things they make. Among the international contenders are Target, SpecialKids, Tommy 3. BILLIONABLES - Sameer Garg started BillionAbles to serve Hilfiger, Bezgraniz Couture,Open Style LAbs, MagnaReady, Zappos the needs of people with disabilities and special Adaptive, Marks & Spencers etc. needs provides products and services catering to them.

4. COCOON - Started in 2015 by Somdev Prithviraj, Cocoon is Adaptive clothing is a virtually untapped market, mostly because major an adaptive clothing brand. It comes under the Old is Gold store. players are only confined to online stores. It is unique in it’s usage of Velcro in place of zippers in mostly all clothes containing zippers.

PROBLEMS IN NORMAL AND ADAPTIVE CLOTHING

1. Everything is designed for a standing body. they dont fit right in sitted and truncated pos- tures. for people who are sitting all the time, their spinal cord tends to shift forward. 2. The physical act of donning and doffing is extremely exhaustive. 3. Shirts and tops ride up while pants ride down. 4. Ready to wear clothes are never designed taking into consideration, the correct body proportions of the disabled. The fit is always wrong and every piece of clothing they ever buy and own is hence tailored. 5. They are the ugliest looking clothes ever made andnever satisfy the buyer’s need for fashion 6. Seams and cloth labels and tags cause irritation for autistic 7. Pockets never add to utility for people bound to wheelchairs 8. People with disabilities usually don’t get much mechanical activity done. As a result they feel conscious about their stomach showing through clothing and leads to an un- healthy underconfident body psychology. 9. People do not wish to be regarded as be- ing different from everyone else and may also react in a nega- tive manner to clothing which has been specially modified to suit their needs. Such persons look at cloth- ing as an aid to independence while being a means of blending-in with their peers, as- serting their identity and confront prejudice. Unfortunately this clothing category does not still exist. 10. Merchandise available for the disabled is limited and isn’t always in sync with the cur- rent fashion trends. 11. The lack of attractive functional clothing keeps differently abled people away from weddings, school dances, funerals, baseball games and graduation, homecoming.

12. After studying more than 30 websites featuring adaptive clothing, it was realized that all the sites were selling only in the United States, United Kingdom, Europe and in some cases even in China. 13. Indian sites offering clothing for the differently abled are nonexistent except for Chennai based Old is Gold which also has very limit- ed offerings. 14. In the Indian context, there seems to be an abysmal lack of initiative taken by leading clothing brands to address this very real issue with only a small handful of individual designers leading the way, that too in a limited manner. 15. Special attention should also be paid to the socio economic strata that maximum of these persons belong to in terms of affordability, durability, functionality and ease of maintenance of such clothing. RESEARCH SUPPORTING THE DEVISED SOLUTIONS

• Clothing serves the social as well as psychological needs, it FASTENING SYSTEMS - Three of the most basic purposes should be all about creating a desired image and enhancing of fastening systems are: their self confidence. - To form a closure or an enclosure • High quality fabrics that can withstand rigorous washing. - To change the shape of a garment or adjust it to fit multiple Splits in the clothes makes the process of wearing it hassle sizes free for the wearer. - To change a garment’s configuration (to rear-range the position • Fasteners on the clothes do not put pressure on the tender of garment segments). areas, or result in sores. • NOTATING MOVEMENTS Does the user know how the fastening system is to be used? Can it be done by one or would help be needed? And does the speed at which it is done really matter? Fig 1. Changes in circles dimension and shape during movement can be checked to determine strain. FASTENER OPTIONS

Fig 5. Applying a hook and loop tape by sewing it down the centre rather than around it’s edges as a way of allowing it to take more stress before opening.

Fig 2. Anthropometric kinematics: The amount and areas of skin stretch are determined by measuring the distance between lines when knee is bent.

Fig 6. Torso areas reachable with one hand.

• EXAMINING THE BEHAVIOR OF THE SKIN DURING LOCATION OF GARMENT CLOSURES FOR SELF DONNING MOVEMENT- Studying the local skin strain or skin stretch AND DOFFING- helps one gauge body expansion and contraction. The choice of location for self-donning depends on several • EXAMINING THE EXPANSION OF CLOTHING DURING things, among them. MOVEMENT • The ease that most users will have in reaching and manipulat- • ANALYSING WRINKLES ing closures. • SKIRT DESIGNED FOR WHEELCHAIR PATIENT • The presence of any environmental conditions or physical • FABRIC - The reduction of friction between garment layers hazards (such as items that could snag on openings or fas- can add significant mobility without posing a potential loss in teners) that affect the user. other functional properties of a clothing system. • The presence of accessories worn as part of a protective • CLOTHING DESIGN: - Clothing designs: ease, cut and con- ensemble. tour and the way these affect the fit of the different garments on bodies of various size and shapes should be factored in DEXTERITY AND EASE OF MANIPULATING FASTENERS- when planning movement capacity in a garment. Specific Manipulation of fasteners that require perfect accuracy designs to aid in mobility such as using spandex core yarns, cannot be done by people with arthritis or people with failing adding in a few inches, leaving areas around the joint centres vision. the size and roughness of fasteners increase their opera- open, using rubber pads for careful movement and ventilation bility. More force, and grip is required on small, slippery fasteners should be carefully chosen. than large and rough ones. An example of this is seen in an astronaut’s intravehicular activity (IVA) suit for NASA’s Space Station. HUMAN INTERFACE: FINDING AND UNDERSTANDING FASTENING SYSTEM -The accurate mental model of the fas- Fig 3. Expansion pleats built into the front shoul- tening system by the user is inspired by the principles of human ders and down the back of an IVA jacket planned interfacing, that promote discoverability by putting forward nu- for Space Station. merous sensory modalities like sight and touch. This ensures that placing information to the maximum possible extent rather than relying on user’s memory is more mandatory.

LOCATION OF CLOSURES FOR ASSISTED DONNING AND DOFFING For disabled people on wheelchairs, it is easier for aides to reach fasteners at the back of the neck or anywhere on the upper back, above the level of the back of the wheelchair, since they need a hand with closures. The length of an opening is as critical for Fig 4. A skirt designed for a woman ina wheelchair. assisted donning and doffing as location. Designers must put in (A) The skirt fits smoothly in seathed position. (B) the same skirt on an upright fig. Extra length extra effort into thinking about accomodation of longer openings, needed at the skirt back for the seated position and also placing seams in traditional locations. A pullover shirt bunches up unattractively on the upright fig. would be more preferable by someone with a stiff shoulder or limited shoulder movement. CARRYING ANGLE OF THE ARM DESIGN 2 • The reflection of hand position is created on the shape of pock- ets on many pants and jackets. Gravity was not a factor of the environment that influenced a part of the basic ground for the pocket design in IVA garments. • The arms and hands float without gravity, so it wasn’t essential to use pockets as a place to rest hands. This aided the designers to design a discourse for easy reach and for the astronauts’ abil- ity to see pocket contents, since items would settle down vertical pockets. Horizontal pockets (for IVA suits) are suitable for the hand to reach into (think of hugging oneself). • The pocket contents in no gravity disperse everywhere when pulled out, which is the primary reason for this position, since items are pushed forward by inertia and continue in the direction of the user pulling them out. They are also not affected by gravity. Sometimes crosswise openings lead to the best solution for donning, despite most people being used to lengthwise openings.

Fig . An IVA jacket for space shuttle flight withzip- pered pocket openings on either side of the centre front zipper.

Fig. Awrap-around dress for a woman with limited mobility.

Fig. An easy-on blouse with zippered openings down and top of each sleeve, designed for some- one with stiff or fixed shoulders. DESIGN 3

-Rubber and spandex lend the greatest capacity for stretch to a material and have almost full elastic recovery, but they are not often used alone for a variety of reasons, among them: comfort against skin and aesthetics. When they are used, they tend to be the core of the yarn that is wrapped with stretchable fibres such as nylon or polyester. Spandex-core yarns are used in both wo- Wrap around garments provides a good solution for people who ven and knitted fabrics. find the dressing process difficult. The dress in fig. was developed - Knits tend to be more easily stretchable. for a nursing home patient who had lower body paralysis and limit- ed shoulder and arm movement. It can be opened and laid flat on a bed, and the wearer can be lowered or rolled onto it so that a caregiver can complete the dressing operation Fig . (A) jacket with a zipper inserted at the underarm to allow ease of don- without any movement by wearer. The garment uses a combination ning. (B) A jacket with a hook-and-loop closure added to the centre back seam for ease of donning. of lengthwise and crosswise openings to wrap the garment.

Fig. A module garment system. (A) an individual module;(B)a set of joined modules; (C) a garment made of many modules.

This closure allows an aid to spread out each side of the garment separately so that an individual can place each arm in its sleeve with limited lifting of the arms.