[Music]
hi everyone so I want you all to think
about the last time you went shopping
and your experience did you know exactly
what you wanted and went straight to
that did you shop around a little bit
tried a few things on and when you
finally checked out how did you feel
did you feel a sense of pride and
individuality that this wardrobe that
you picked was going to reflect who you
were this exact feeling is the epitome
of fashion fashion has had a long
history of means to define and express
one soul through their color choices
fabric designs and shapes and sizes as I
reflect on my own experiences I go back
to the day of my 12th birthday I
remember feeling so excited to spend the
day at the mall and reinvent myself for
future teen years to come ahead so as I
went to the mall I felt really hyped
because I wanted to find the most
stylish the most edgiest wardrobe that I
could find because I really needed to
impress my fellow preteens at school so
at this particular store I found this
really cool a plum leather jacket like
it was so cool and looked like this so I
told my mom to get it off the rack
because I thought it was amazing so my
mom helped me wiggle myself into this
jacket I suddenly realized that this
jacket wasn’t going to fit me like it
did on the mannequin because due to my
scoliosis my left shoulder is
automatically right it’s automatically
lower than my right shoulder so the left
side of my jacket would fall lower than
the right so I just looked weird so I
was like okay let’s just put it back so
I scanned the other stores I was like
it’s okay I won’t find my new perfect
outfit right away but the panic hadn’t
really set in until the fourth fifth
sixth and seventh store we had visited
and left empty-handed none of the
clothes for girls at the time fit my
body type and I felt really frustrated
on my decrease my confidence
just decreased so I mean I guess this
feeling you can really relate to it
sometimes right I mean being a preteen
in general there is a lot of pressure to
fit into society’s mold of beauty or to
look somewhat normal and the fashion
industry has actually a lot of impact on
this because and one one study done by a
group of researchers to two groups of
women were given news magazines and the
other were given fashion magazines and
as have hypothesized what the group of
women that were given fashion magazines
are shown to be more frustrated with
their bodies and more fearful of their
waking so now knowing that the pull of
what fashion magazines can do to a
vulnerable mind let’s think about the
body image issues that disabled people
and abled people go through see they’re
relatively on the same scale but
disabled people have to go through one
hurdle farther because of their bodies
not meeting the societal norm because
many studies have concluded that
disabled have disabled people have these
so-called discrediting attributes that
make it harder for them to reach
society’s beauty standards thus
resulting in low self-esteem low
confidence and more vulnerability to
mental illness so while this lack of
representation is something that’s being
challenged with fashion designers and
models there is still a huge lack of
representation of the world’s largest
minority group which is the disabled
community this absence is one that is
tragic and it’s disappointing and just
simply demoralizing because while this
issue is generally not taken lightly in
the activism world it didn’t catch my
attention until it was much older it
hung out and the very subsided parts of
my mind and it took a toll on my
self-esteem and the way I looked at
myself but see I’m not the only one who
seeks fashion that is adaptable to their
bodies in fact the amount of disabled
people left unaccounted for
is huge the area market for
and for disabled people would be as
equal as to the size of China which
would be pretty safe to say that this
market could hold a lot of potential for
money success and confidence that could
bring to this abled community so the
lack of disabled people isn’t the
problem
rather the lack of people who are
willing to overlook these simple
obstacles are the problem
so now knowing that there could be an
entire clothing category dedicated to
disabled people
why isn’t there been anyone that takes
the initiative well let me clear that up
for you
many people have but not in the way we
want hundreds of businesses have
launched around the world to make
clothing easier for disabled people to
put on independently but the one thing
that these clothes lack is lack of style
that these clothes up these clothes are
almost always offered in primary colors
and they’re really bland and include
metal plastic buttons that haven’t been
used since what the 1900s companies like
these are just as damaging as absence of
fashion takes part and the self-esteem
of disabled people much because they
perpetuate the same stereotype that
society projects out constantly disabled
people are just not fashionable however
hope is not lost fashion designer Tommy
Hilfiger and cow in collaboration with
Mindy Shire the mother of a young boy
with muscular dystrophy have launched a
line that caters to kids with
disabilities in 2016 called runway of
dreams this line has replaced buttons
and zippers with magna ready closures
which are magnets that make it easier
for people with low muscle tone or limp
differences to put on independently so
this line has offered so many kids so
much confidence and curious as to how
how this line has made impact to this
particular market the sales of this line
have made up 20% of all children’s sales
of Tommy Hilfiger so what that sinking
so I want you to
imagine a world where lines such as hill
figures could be more commonly seen such
as adjustable pant legs elastic
waistbands and customizable shoe sizes
that’s what I want to see and that’s
what I want to create a line that offers
disabled people confidence individuality
and glamour this line could change so
many disabled people around the world
because while abled bodied people enter
the store and they see that really cute
fitted dress or the v-neck top on that
rack they feel a sense of pride a sense
of wow I want that and disabled people
often don’t get that chance and I want
to change that because all my life I’ve
seen that the disabled community has
been slept on and I don’t want that to
continue any longer but at the end of my
story
I don’t want you to feel bad for me or
to feel bad for the rest of the disabled
community I want you to realize that
this issue is big and it needs something
and he needs to be something that we
start thinking about it needs to be
something that can be so casual singing
in stores such as the plus-sized section
and the petite section so all I’m asking
from you all today is to think what to
disabled people feel when they when they
enter a store did he feel like maybe I
might get that maybe not maybe I might
buy it so I just want to send out a
message more glamour more beauty and
more more confidence to every
marginalized group out there thank you
[Applause]
hi everyone so I want you all to think
about the last time you went shopping
and your experience did you know exactly
what you wanted and went straight to
that did you shop around a little bit
tried a few things on and when you
finally checked out how did you feel
did you feel a sense of pride and
individuality that this wardrobe that
you picked was going to reflect who you
were this exact feeling is the epitome
of fashion fashion has had a long
history of means to define and express
one soul through their color choices
fabric designs and shapes and sizes as I
reflect on my own experiences I go back
to the day of my 12th birthday I
remember feeling so excited to spend the
day at the mall and reinvent myself for
future teen years to come ahead so as I
went to the mall I felt really hyped
because I wanted to find the most
stylish the most edgiest wardrobe that I
could find because I really needed to
impress my fellow preteens at school so
at this particular store I found this
really cool a plum leather jacket like
it was so cool and looked like this so I
told my mom to get it off the rack
because I thought it was amazing so my
mom helped me wiggle myself into this
jacket I suddenly realized that this
jacket wasn’t going to fit me like it
did on the mannequin because due to my
scoliosis my left shoulder is
automatically right it’s automatically
lower than my right shoulder so the left
side of my jacket would fall lower than
the right so I just looked weird so I
was like okay let’s just put it back so
I scanned the other stores I was like
it’s okay I won’t find my new perfect
outfit right away but the panic hadn’t
really set in until the fourth fifth
sixth and seventh store we had visited
and left empty-handed none of the
clothes for girls at the time fit my
body type and I felt really frustrated
on my decrease my confidence
just decreased so I mean I guess this
feeling you can really relate to it
sometimes right I mean being a preteen
in general there is a lot of pressure to
fit into society’s mold of beauty or to
look somewhat normal and the fashion
industry has actually a lot of impact on
this because and one one study done by a
group of researchers to two groups of
women were given news magazines and the
other were given fashion magazines and
as have hypothesized what the group of
women that were given fashion magazines
are shown to be more frustrated with
their bodies and more fearful of their
waking so now knowing that the pull of
what fashion magazines can do to a
vulnerable mind let’s think about the
body image issues that disabled people
and abled people go through see they’re
relatively on the same scale but
disabled people have to go through one
hurdle farther because of their bodies
not meeting the societal norm because
many studies have concluded that
disabled have disabled people have these
so-called discrediting attributes that
make it harder for them to reach
society’s beauty standards thus
resulting in low self-esteem low
confidence and more vulnerability to
mental illness so while this lack of
representation is something that’s being
challenged with fashion designers and
models there is still a huge lack of
representation of the world’s largest
minority group which is the disabled
community this absence is one that is
tragic and it’s disappointing and just
simply demoralizing because while this
issue is generally not taken lightly in
the activism world it didn’t catch my
attention until it was much older it
hung out and the very subsided parts of
my mind and it took a toll on my
self-esteem and the way I looked at
myself but see I’m not the only one who
seeks fashion that is adaptable to their
bodies in fact the amount of disabled
people left unaccounted for
is huge the area market for
and for disabled people would be as
equal as to the size of China which
would be pretty safe to say that this
market could hold a lot of potential for
money success and confidence that could
bring to this abled community so the
lack of disabled people isn’t the
problem
rather the lack of people who are
willing to overlook these simple
obstacles are the problem
so now knowing that there could be an
entire clothing category dedicated to
disabled people
why isn’t there been anyone that takes
the initiative well let me clear that up
for you
many people have but not in the way we
want hundreds of businesses have
launched around the world to make
clothing easier for disabled people to
put on independently but the one thing
that these clothes lack is lack of style
that these clothes up these clothes are
almost always offered in primary colors
and they’re really bland and include
metal plastic buttons that haven’t been
used since what the 1900s companies like
these are just as damaging as absence of
fashion takes part and the self-esteem
of disabled people much because they
perpetuate the same stereotype that
society projects out constantly disabled
people are just not fashionable however
hope is not lost fashion designer Tommy
Hilfiger and cow in collaboration with
Mindy Shire the mother of a young boy
with muscular dystrophy have launched a
line that caters to kids with
disabilities in 2016 called runway of
dreams this line has replaced buttons
and zippers with magna ready closures
which are magnets that make it easier
for people with low muscle tone or limp
differences to put on independently so
this line has offered so many kids so
much confidence and curious as to how
how this line has made impact to this
particular market the sales of this line
have made up 20% of all children’s sales
of Tommy Hilfiger so what that sinking
so I want you to
imagine a world where lines such as hill
figures could be more commonly seen such
as adjustable pant legs elastic
waistbands and customizable shoe sizes
that’s what I want to see and that’s
what I want to create a line that offers
disabled people confidence individuality
and glamour this line could change so
many disabled people around the world
because while abled bodied people enter
the store and they see that really cute
fitted dress or the v-neck top on that
rack they feel a sense of pride a sense
of wow I want that and disabled people
often don’t get that chance and I want
to change that because all my life I’ve
seen that the disabled community has
been slept on and I don’t want that to
continue any longer but at the end of my
story
I don’t want you to feel bad for me or
to feel bad for the rest of the disabled
community I want you to realize that
this issue is big and it needs something
and he needs to be something that we
start thinking about it needs to be
something that can be so casual singing
in stores such as the plus-sized section
and the petite section so all I’m asking
from you all today is to think what to
disabled people feel when they when they
enter a store did he feel like maybe I
might get that maybe not maybe I might
buy it so I just want to send out a
message more glamour more beauty and
more more confidence to every
marginalized group out there thank you
[Applause]
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