{"id":245,"date":"2018-06-29T11:46:07","date_gmt":"2018-06-29T11:46:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nehsjc.org\/therenaissance\/?p=245"},"modified":"2018-06-29T11:50:24","modified_gmt":"2018-06-29T11:50:24","slug":"new-gallery-exhibit-features-inclusive-fashion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nehsjc.org\/therenaissance\/new-gallery-exhibit-features-inclusive-fashion\/","title":{"rendered":"New Gallery Exhibit Features Inclusive Fashion"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Fashion Accessibility Project opened a new exhibit at the Open Door Gallery in Boston in May, featuring unique clothing pieces custom-designed to the needs and lifestyle of a different disabled model.<\/p>\n

Malia Lazu from the Epicenter Community worked with VSA Massachusetts and ArtsEmerson, among many other organizations, on the idea of making fashion for disabled people not only practical, but also beautiful. Many models expressed a desire for more flattering fashion options.<\/p>\n

\u201cDisability needs to be sexy, too,\u201d said Nicole Agois with a smile, who works for VSA Massachusetts, an organization that works around the intersection between disabilities and the arts. As a musician, Agois knows the power of art when it comes to making a difference. She believes \u201cfashion is not trivial.\u201d Rather, it can be a statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo much of what we put on dictates how we feel,\u201d agrees Nicole Olusanya, who works with ArtsEmerson, an organization in Boston that helped with the initiative. Like Agois, Olusanya has a personal connection to this project. A former arts director at a Boston public high school, she helped put on a fashion show for disabled students who did not always feel integrated.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was an opportunity for all the students to feel recognized and seen…to have your fellow classmates recognize you as their peer was so powerful,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In Massachusetts alone, there are 1.6 million people with disabilities, including 20 percent of students in Boston Public Schools.<\/p>\n

However, in terms of fashion, the disabled community can often be marginalized. Many face difficulties performing tasks able-bodied people don\u2019t think twice about: buttoning a shirt, putting on pants, changing out of clothes.<\/p>\n

One of the models, Cheri Blauwet, is a Paralympic athlete, as well as a doctor and a mother. Being wheelchair-bound, many characteristics of normal dresses are impractical, such as buttons. Jay Calderin, director of Boston Fashion Week, designed a dress for her that has magnetic buttons, and the train of the dress drapes against the wheelchair, making the wheelchair part of the dress rather than a barrier.<\/p>\n

Another model, Keith Jones, gives public presentations, but he\u2019s also a frequent traveler by airplane, requiring him to look well-dressed, but also comfortable. The designer, Peda Edouard, came up with a hybrid of a sweatsuit and a suit so it can be functional for Jones\u2019s lifestyle.<\/p>\n

Agois claims that some of the best feedback they\u2019ve received is when someone says, \u201cI\u2019ve never thought about the barriers.\u201d The initiative is sparking new conversations around disability, something that the organizers believe is a main hope of the gallery.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn Boston, we\u2019ve created a bit of a movement,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Fashion Accessibility Project opened a new exhibit at the Open Door Gallery in Boston in May, featuring unique clothing pieces custom-designed to the needs and lifestyle of a different disabled model. Malia Lazu from the Epicenter Community worked with VSA Massachusetts and ArtsEmerson, among many other organizations, on the idea of making fashion for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":15,"featured_media":202,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"coauthors":[27],"class_list":["post-245","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-more"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nehsjc.org\/therenaissance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nehsjc.org\/therenaissance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nehsjc.org\/therenaissance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nehsjc.org\/therenaissance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/15"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nehsjc.org\/therenaissance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=245"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.nehsjc.org\/therenaissance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":356,"href":"https:\/\/www.nehsjc.org\/therenaissance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/245\/revisions\/356"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nehsjc.org\/therenaissance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/202"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nehsjc.org\/therenaissance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nehsjc.org\/therenaissance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nehsjc.org\/therenaissance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=245"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nehsjc.org\/therenaissance\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}