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How YouTuber Molly Burke Is Making Fashion More Accessible
As a YouTuber, motivational speaker and fashion lover who also happens to be blind, Molly Burke is an advocate for accessibility in the blind community. After being diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa as a young child and eventually losing all her sight at 14, Burke’s interest in style and beauty only grew. She often explains to people that not being able to see what she wears or the makeup she uses doesn’t change her love of style. Burke enjoys creating fun, colourful looks to match her playful personality. While her fashion sense remains impeccable, what has changed since Burke lost her sight is how she puts her looks together. For Molly, being blind means…
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Fashion Focus: the Stories of Disabled Models
The fashion industry has longed for change, inclusivity is no longer a token gesture. The voices of those in isolated groups are now speaking up, using their voice to create impact. People with disabilities are making a breakthrough in fashion, telling their stories as a way to disrupt its norms. Becoming leaders of justice, they are manifesting integrated causes for the disabled community. Banging on the door of fashion and making it bold. Body politics If the essence of fashion is all about vibrancy and expression, then why are people feeling excluded? Inclusion as a concept, holds power. For instance, fashions background is shadowed by over-sexualisation and restrictive representation. It’s…
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Reminder: the Fashion Industry STILL Lacks Inclusivity…
Race Vogue magazine in a 2019 article stated that “The 2010s were a watershed moment for diversity in fashion”. The article boldly argues that all elements of the industry have opened its doors in the past decade to minorities with no segment of the business left untouched. Although the article references Balmain’s and Louis Vuitton’s appointment of Oliver Rousting and Virgil Abloh as valid examples of ways that the industry has recently welcomed people of colour to take center stage, it’s suggestion that the industry should be praised for its efforts to diversify is wrong. Yes, the Black Lives Matter movement has prompted many within fashion to take the necessary…
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One size should NOT fit all
What is really “ideal”? When we think of the models in the fashion world, the first image that pops into everyone’s head is a tall, slender, caucasian woman. This beauty standard is the “ideal” woman that has been ingrained in heads across the nation for years. The lack of diversity in the fashion world must change, rather we must think of an eclectic variety of what it means to work in the world of fashion. One way the fashion industry has established the beauty standard in society is through their fashion shows. Their roster typically has models of the same size, race, and truly lacks the representation of the diversity…
