‘Unhidden’: The Future of Fashion
Almost 1 in 4 people in the UK are disabled. Yet, clothing retailers have not created pieces that are accessible. Jenkins is here to change that. I recently came across her incredible story leading up to the creation of her fashion brand, ‘Unhidden.’ I feel so inspired by her journey and am excited to be sharing it with you.
It doesn’t seem to make sense that, for something that we all need, some people simply don’t have the right options available to them. Jenkins talks about working in the fashion industry for 10 years and how becoming disabled made her recognise that disabled people are rarely, if ever, taken into consideration within this industry. Her honesty is compelling and is what stood out to me when reading her article. She admits her part to play in designing clothes for major fashion brands without considering their accessibility. This stresses the importance of thinking with an open mind and outside your realm of possibility and experiences when creating a product. There are so many people out there who have to consider more than just the clothes fitting and looking nice. For example, they may have to consider whether they can do them up or whether their stoma bag can fit inside the clothing without being uncomfortable. Jenkins hadn’t considered these adjustments before being in a situation where she was forced to, personally. When she became disabled due to a burst stomach ulcer, this changed the way she thought about so many everyday practices, including deciding what clothes to wear.
In 2020, Jenkins launched her fashion brand ‘Unhidden’, focusing on ‘providing stylish, practical clothing for people with disabilities and chronic conditions.’ She states that ‘fashion has a duty to represent and retail has a duty to produce’ and this was the aim of ‘Unhidden.’ Whilst making adjustments like magnets instead of buttons, wrap-around dresses with hidden access points, and soft waistbanded trousers, Jenkins also assures that the clothing pieces are fashionable and can aid self-expression, something that people can find they lose during the process of having treatment. She says that adaptive fashion is about choice and ‘being able to wear something that reflects who you are and to dress with the same freedom everyone else takes for granted.’
‘Unhidden’ has grown since its launch. In 2022, it became the first adaptive clothing brand to show at London Fashion Week, an incredible opportunity to showcase Jenkins’s clothing and to provide the 16 million disabled people in the UK with the opportunity to feel fashionable and express themselves in clothing that supports them, something that they had not had previously.
I found her article challenging because it highlights the way that society tends to overlook the needs of disabled people in relation to how clothes are designed.
When advertising ‘Unhidden’ on social media, Jenkins found that their adverts were blocked or taken down by Meta for containing ‘sensitive content.’ The content in question was pictures of people wearing the clothing line in wheelchairs. Jenkins justifiably announces that this shows how ableism is built into the system, arguing that it ‘reflects a broader failure to recognise disabled people as legitimate consumers.’ She draws on the fact that disabled models are being censored for being ‘controversial’ with the allowance for fast fashion brands to show exposed bodies with no backlash to highlight that something is ‘deeply wrong’ with how the fashion industry views the disabled community. She stresses that it is not enough to show representation within a fashion brand and that functionality must come with it; otherwise, the meaning is lost.
Jenkins's journey is inspiring. It highlights the extent to which the fashion industry often fails to take into consideration the particular needs of disabled people. It is important that in all aspects of society, including clothing design, we think more broadly about inclusion so that everyone has the opportunity to express themselves freely and creatively. I hope that ‘Unhidden’ can be the start of a path towards disabled fashion becoming mainstream.
I would like to finish with Jenkins’s last comment from the article. It will leave us all with something to think about. ‘Inclusion isn’t a trend. It’s overdue and the industry will either get on board- or get left behind.’
https://apple.news/AziyUIgipSxCb0ax_iTqTLg
https://unhiddenclothing.com/
