Dress, shoes and heeled prosthetic legs: the paralympic bid to break fashion barriers Sara Cavagnero Italian Red Cross, Italy
[email protected] Valentina D'Arrigo Fondazione Banco Alimentare, Italy
[email protected] Domenico Demarinis Università degli Studi Internazionali di Roma (UNINT), Italy
[email protected] ISBN: 978-989-54263-0-0 INTRODUCTION When Charles VII was asked to establish a ministry of fashion in the fifteenth century, it would have been hard to anticipate the global resonance that fashion would be making six centuries later. Fashion is a social and cultural phenomenon which lies at the cross-roads of several interrelated fields, including collective and personal identity dynamics, production and consumption patterns, social distinction and imitation mechanisms (Aspers and Godart, 2013; Svendsen, 2006). It is simultaneously inclusive and exclusive, having the ability to celebrate but also to exacerbate the differences between people or inflict vulnerability on a group whose needs are not considered. The current prevailing model of fashion can be accused of excluding various groups of people, as it focuses on certain categories in a hierarchical way, marginalizing others. In this rigid system, disabled people seldom get the chance to be valued as stylish and elegant and seem to be excluded from the fashion industry target markets. Although the fashion industry has made huge strides to becoming more inclusive, committing itself to represent a wide spectrum of genders, ethnicities and cultures, it is undeniable that the voices of the disabled community are often silenced. In ensuring that “no one will be left behind”, the UN Sustainable Development Goals recognise the importance of redressing inequalities experienced by vulnerable and marginalised groups and communities both in high and low-income nations (SDGs Preamble, 2015).