The Open Style Lab is an educational programme to create clothing that is accessible and stylish and, in the words of its creator Grace Teo, “to expand the clothing vocabulary” of people.

Origins

Grace’s reasons for starting the Open Style Lab, she tells me, were a mixture of short term and long term reasons.

            SHORT TERM - Grace was working on her PhD in a Boston hospital when the idea for Open Style Lab came to her. Going by the belief that it is crucial to understand the problem if you are going to find a solution, Grace asked a severely disabled lady up front “What do you miss most about being healthy?” The answer came in the way of an anecdote about how the lady had struggled and toiled to prepare and dress herself that morning as her husband was out of town on business. “I was really surprised”, says Grace, “the lady was in a scooter so I had expected her to say that she missed her mobility most”. It made her realise how import independence really is to people with disabilities.

It also brought into focus the lack of adapted clothing available for people with disabilities such as motor neurone disease and arthritis. Grace subsequently applied to Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) for a grant to launch Open Style Lab; a 10 week course in which students work closely with clients who have disabilities as well as industry professionals to design and manufacture stylish and practical clothing.

            LONG TERM – the long term reason starts with Grace’s sister who was born with a cleft palate. An incident involving someone Grace believe to have been “well intentioned” (you know the type) shocked her somewhat and made her appreciate that, although it shouldn’t matter, “beauty is related to social capital and being well turned out helps”. In short, everybody deserves to look and feel good.  

The course

Upon receiving funding from one of the top universities in the world, Grace tells us with a nervous laugh of her surprise - “I thought ‘oh now we have to do it’”.

She explains to me that the first two to three weeks of the course is a period heavily focused on observation. The students are matched up with clients whom they follow around trying to assess and get a feel for their needs which aren’t being addressed.

“Together with the client they identify the user needs. The whole process is very much user initiated”

The clients have disabilities that include autism, amputation and paraplegia. As well as the
students, professionals from the industry get involved; occupational therapists, representatives from the fashion industry and engineers. I was a little surprised to hear that engineers could be an asset to clothing design but Grace tells me that “they bring a very functional mind-set to the table. Whereas designer are going to be a little wrapped up in style the engineers approach the matter very pragmatically.”

Then what happens

The summer course is now over and the respective clients have all been blessed with unique items of clothing to make them feel more comfortable and confident. But for some of the students this is only the beginning, and several continue to work with the clients they were assigned to, having developed a family-like bond together. For our part, we would love to see some entries from the Open Style Lab in our Blackwood Design Challenge. Just saying. You can see below a few more examples of designs devised by the Open Style Lab and also click here to watch a short video about their work.

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