A Victoria business and advocacy organization have teamed up for a fashion initiative they hope will highlight the challenges that people with prosthetic limbs experience in their daily lives.
Ampuseek and Alleles Design Studio held a worldwide InstaMeet through Instagram on Sunday to celebrate diversity in fashion.
Members transformed donated leggings into stylish wear for people with disabilities and amputees.
“Modifying them, making them really individual […] also changing the length and modifying the leg so that an amputee can wear them,” said Ampuseek Co-founder Gabrielle Fitzpatrick.
Once the modifications are complete the leggings will be gifted to the studio’s and Ampuseek’s Instagram followers around the world.
“There are a lot of people talking about this, talking about how we can be inclusive in fashion, how we can be more accessible in design and really make it so that a person with a disability doesn’t have to take extra thought in their everyday life,” Fitzpatrick said.
Emery Vanderburgh, a co-founder of Ampuseek, lost part of her leg three years ago.
She says the project helps fill a demand clothing stores often ignore.
“When you’re an amputee you have to cut your leggings and it’s just an everyday kind of adaptation that normally people don’t think about,” Vanderburgh said.
Alleles Design Studio works with amputees to create affordable covers for prosthetic limbs.
The company’s founder says they’re trying to remove stigma of having an amputated limb.
“Little things like altering clothes or going shopping for clothes that don't always fit their body types, but the mainstream doesn’t consider that,” McCauley Wanner said. “It’s amazing to be able to work with them to be able to highlight these type of issues because it’s really important.”
The project itself is a temporary endeavour, but the organizers hope the message will have a lasting effect.
“Fashion is something that everyone can be passionate about, even people with disabilities,” Vanderburgh said.
