One of the fundamental things about improving the design of a product to meet specific disability needs, is that you have to forget everything you think you know about it. Lucy Jones came to realise this very early on in her ambition to design practical and stylish clothing for people who use a wheelchair. 

The incentive began when her younger cousin, who uses a wheelchair, made an off-hand remark about how frustrated he was about struggling to get dressed independently. This was partly due to partial paralysis in the left hand side of his body.

“I carried out an investigation where I mimicked Jake’s posture by strapping one arm down, a technique often used in occupational therapy, and I proceeded to dress myself. I noticed the time difference, the difficulty of buttons, zippers, the weight of clothing, the imbalance of manoeuvring garments…”

This led Lucy to develop something she calls “seated design”, which doesn’t look at adapting existing clothing designs for wheelchair users but designing clothes from scratch based on sitting models as opposed to the conventional upright clothes model. But this not to say that she is labelling it “the disabled range” of clothing. Noting that for many people, much of modern life takes place sitting down, it is therefore important to be comfortable in this position. So what exactly does happen when you sit down that has an impact on how our clothes fit us.

Essentially our hips, thighs and waist all expand, the fabric gets tighter around our knees and also, of course, our ankles become more exposed as well as the lower back. If you spend most of your day sitting then the elbows can get worn very quickly from leaning so Lucy reinforced the fabric there. Lucy measures her model, Ronnie, while she’s sitting in her chair to get an accurate idea of the measurements and how sitting changes them.

Besides this however Lucy wanted to explore the inconvenience of having to get dressed from the confinements of a wheelchair. Her clothing range is unlike any other in this respect as the clothes are cut in a way that you can conveniently put them on with minimal dexterity required and while being sat down. She uses conventional accessories like zippers and buttons, but has them in places you wouldn’t expect to fasten clothes.

Lucy’s work is centred on the idea that the aesthetic appeal of clothing needs to work with its practicality and comfort. Wearing nice clothing has a direct impact on our mental and emotional well being.

In this short video Lucy further explains her philosophy behind seated design…

Seated Design // Lucy Jones from dustin flannery mccoy on Vimeo.

If you use a wheelchair, what are the clothing problems you encounter? comment below.

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