Tenants at Action for Blind People’s supported housing unit, Bradbury Oak, took part in the first of Shinsuke’s fashion and design workshops organised by StyleAble.

The tenants were given a range of textured materials and brought along their own items of clothing which they customised. One of the items was a football inspired t-shirt designed by Simon Cowler. He said “It was such a great day and with the support of the StyleAble team we had lots of opportunity to design and customise. I don’t get to do that type of thing very often because of my sight loss, but working with my hands and being able to talk about the issues I have with clothing and garment design was brilliant.”

The designs and images from the workshops will form part of an exhibition and fashion show.

The StyleAble team have been working with blind and partially sighted people and fashion designers, to explore the non visual aspects of clothing, focusing on texture, fit and functionality. We hope that our workshops will give people the opportunity to explore fashion design and talk about their likes and dislikes.

Feedback from the first workshop has proven that the fashion industry – including manufacturers, retailers and designers – do not think enough about the functionality of clothing, especially when it comes to blind and partially sighted people. We hope that the exhibition and fashion show will be an opportunity for those that work in the industry, to gain some feedback from their visually impaired customers on what they think of their clothing and what changes could be made.

…To take part in one of our workshops email info@styleable.co.uk