admin When Mindy Scheier’s son Oliver was 8 years old, he asked her if he could wear jeans to school one morning. Oliver has a rare form of muscular dystrophy that requires him to use leg braces, and typically wore baggy sweatpants. Because of his condition, he couldn’t manage the buttons and zippers involved in putting on jeans, and it was also impossible to maneuver stiff denim over his leg braces. But Oliver didn’t like how his clothing singled him out, and just wanted to fit in with his peers. Scheier had to choose between letting her son wear jeans, knowing that he would need help going to the bathroom and might be unsafe without his leg braces, or asking him to wear the baggy sweatpants he usually wore. Ultimately, she chose to let him wear the jeans.
“It was more important to me to have him feel good about himself and feel empowered,” Scheier tells SELF. “But I thought, ‘there has got to be a way.’ We need gear that can make that demographic feel included in the fashion industry.”
The incident inspired Scheier to launch Runway Of Dreams, a nonprofit that makes adaptive clothing fashionable and accessible. The brand adapts clothing using magnetic closures to replace things like zippers, buttons, snaps, and hooks, making it easier for differently abled kids to dress themselves. Scheier launched the nonprofit two years ago, and it has come a huge way since then—on February 23, Runway Of Dreams debuted a line in partnership with Tommy Hilfiger. Adaptive versions of select styles from Tommy Hilfiger’s Spring 2016 children’s line are now available.
Image Credit: Richard Corman
Scheier, a clothing designer by trade, says that combating stereotypes has been the most challenging thing about getting her idea off the ground.
“My biggest challenge was just educating the industry,” she tells SELF. “There are some [ideas] out there, that because this demographic is differently abled they don’t care about what they look or what they’re wearing, or they don’t have buying power.”
Through research and focus groups, Scheier was able to prove naysayers wrong. An estimated 1 in 5 U.S. residents has a disability of some sort, and for people with limited mobility or who use wheelchairs or walkers, putting on standard clothing is just not feasible. This group has a huge amount of buying power, and is often overlooked by mainstream fashion brands.
Scheier says that the fashion industry is ready for a change, citing the huge response to her line and the growing prevalence of consumer products aimed at differently abled people such as more accessible clothing options, differently abled dolls, and television shows featuring differently abled characters.
Image Credit: Richard Corman
Scheier’s son, Oliver, is excited about the brand and relieved that he can wear clothes that look just like his friends’. The brand plans to expand into adult and elderly clothing in the future, and Scheier says that she looks forward to incorporating wearable technology into her products.
When asked what is most important about her work, Scheier shared a powerful anecdote.
“At a photoshoot, we had one boy that was 15 and had been in a wheelchair his whole life. We had him try on one of the shirts, and he said ‘this is the first time in my life I have ever been able to dress myself.’ There is nothing I can do or say that’s more powerful than that.”
Learn more about Runway Of Dreams here.
Image Credit: Richard Corman
Also on SELF: A Woman Had A Powerful Response To A Cruel Note Someone Wrote About Her Disability.
Photo Credit: Richard Corman
