How Fashion Helps Disabled People Own Their Identity

For the past several years, fashion’s biggest buzzwords have been “inclusivity” and “authenticity,” but one of the most marginalized groups continues to be excluded from the conversation. Disabled people account for nearly 14% of the United States population, and study after study continues to show that most people will become disabled in their lifetime. I lost my left eye at the age of 5, finding myself within the disability community. I found much of my personal style because of it, embracing “fun eyes,” or custom colorful medical-grade prosthetics, oftentimes matching them to my outfits. Learning to reclaim my eye loss as an adult, while growing my career as a fashion writer, helped show me that disability and fashion aren’t separate; they’re interconnected. As someone with a visual disability, I have attended Fashion Week in New York for 10 years, using my style to challenge assumptions about what disability can look like. Especially one like mine that may go undetected at first glance. The question stands: Why is fashion still not serving people with disabilities?

Fashion has a long but complex relationship with the disability community. While brands like Tommy Hilfiger and Victoria’s Secret have successfully launched adaptive clothing lines, many other offerings can often cater more to medical needs than style; loose silhouettes that lack color, pattern, or design details that make them feel like regular clothes tend to take up a lot of the market — a result of brands not getting direct input from the disabled community.

But accessibility isn’t only about what we wear. It’s also about how we see ourselves. Internalized ableism can convince us that certain clothes, trends, or forms of self-expression aren’t meant for us. Challenging those beliefs has taught me that disability doesn’t have to limit style, beauty, or confidence. We deserve to take up space, experiment, and become the most stylish, confident, and beautiful versions of ourselves.

Through my own experience working in fashion, I’ve seen how disability can be treated as a conversation to have once rather than one that should be ongoing. With this disparity in mind, I hosted a Fashion Week panel to celebrate both communities, which are often segregated. Moderated by my former colleague Harper’s Bazaar Assistant Accessories Editor Jennifer Jenkins, our panel featured Jillian Curwin, podcast host and reporter; Maya Moore, model, writer, and content creator; Margo Gignac, actor and content creator; and me, a fashion editor and content creator.

These women have publicly shared how isolating the fashion industry can be, and I wanted to give them space not just for their frustrations to be heard, but for their style and perspective to be celebrated. I asked them, along with six other disabled fashion industry professionals, to share one insight their experience with disability has taught them about fashion. Here’s what they had to say.

Jillian Curwin, Podcast Host & Fashion Writer

“My fashion identity has been shaped by my disability and vice versa; my identity as a person with dwarfism, as a disabled person, has been shaped by the fashion industry and art form. The industry believes that it is impossible to design for a body like mine, and yet the art form has proven that not only is it possible, but that my body belongs; my body is in fashion. It is because of the fashion industry that I have built my platform, that I have become the advocate I am today. And it is because of my being disabled, my disabled experience, that I believe the industry can change, that the industry can design for me, that the industry will see me.”

Maya Moore, Model, Writer, & Content Creator

“Disability is still seen as the antithesis to fashion and style. Accessible clothing as a category others us, and the only way to have a lasting impact in the fashion space is to call out more of the intersections between the design needs and desires of disabled and non-disabled people. This means centering universal design, bespoke fashion, and most importantly, collaboration that isn’t one-off consulting jobs, but equity and profit sharing from the companies that benefit from our input and lived experience.”

Rachel Shugg, Designer & PhD Candidate at RMIT

“My disability has taught me that there is no such thing as a standard body, yet fashion continues to be built around standardized measurements, proportions, and ideas of fit that inevitably leave people out. Bodies are diverse, changing, and experienced differently; they cannot be reduced to measurements and expected to conform to the same systems, garments, or ideals. Disability makes this particularly visible, yet the fashion industry often responds by treating disabled people as a monolith, reducing our individuality, style, aesthetics, and needs to a handful of generic solutions. Designing for disability means recognizing that what works for one person may not work for another. It requires more than ticking an accessibility box or making surface-level adaptations. It means challenging the assumptions, rules, and forms of knowledge that fashion has traditionally upheld.”

Margo Gingac, Actor & Content Creator

“[Fashion] allows you to control how you present yourself to the world, even though I am not able to physically control the way I enter a room. Clothing and personal style are such a powerful form of self-expression that is so important for me to find a way to make the clothing that I love work with my body and not against it, so that I’m able to feel my most confident at any time. I am a strong believer in the saying ‘Don't dress the way you feel, dress the way you want to feel.’ I find it so therapeutic. With my injury and disability, there can be so many low days that make that little boost of confidence that much more meaningful.”

Rachel Gross, Content Creator

“Being disabled, there is so much that we can’t control in our lives. But one thing that we can control is how we dress, how we present ourselves, and how we express ourselves. Fashion is about showing who you are, and for me it’s also about control.”

Lauren Grier, Model

“One thing my experience with disability has taught me about fashion is how powerful representation really is. A lot of times when I walk into rooms where people aren’t familiar with people with disabilities, they seem genuinely surprised by how I dress and how put together I am. And while I know it’s meant as a compliment, sometimes I can’t help but feel like, ‘Why is that so surprising?’ Having a disability doesn’t mean I don’t care about how I look. I love fashion, I love getting dressed up, and I love expressing myself through my style. I want to help change the narrative that disability and style somehow don’t go together. We have style. We care about our appearance. And looking good shouldn’t be considered unexpected just because we have a disability.”

Natalie Trevonne, Accessibility Specialist

“When I first started losing my vision, I didn’t see a lot of people who look like me represented in fashion. But by being in the disability community, I learned from my peers that we can be stylish, iconic, desirable, and all-around ‘that girl.’ We just have to make fashion work for us. We have to adapt it to our taste and make it functional and hope that the industry catches on.”

Xian Horn, Journalist & Founder of Give Beauty Wings

“[Disabled people] find solutions to barriers all the time; but it shouldn’t just be on us. By seeing the good and the bad of the fashion industry, I’ve learned that access to fashion is and should be a human right — not a privilege — rather than romanticizing the ‘exclusive.’ It’s far better to be inclusive and expansive, so that everyone can look and feel their best and, in turn, give their best to the world.”

Chelsea Langerud, Model

“Fashion is for everyone. It’s a human right. We all need clothing — disabled or not — that comes with options. Disabled people have style and want to express themselves just as anyone else does, but limited options create exclusivity for the disabled community within the fashion industry. I’m grateful to see people making strides to create the change we so desperately need, not just want.”