UK-first for County Durham designer using braille at London Fashion Week
Kat Paylor-Bent from Bowbur is debuting her ‘Feel Seen’ collection
A County Durham fashion designer is doing a UK-first by using braille on a catwalk.
Kat Paylor-Bent from Bowburn near Durham is debuting her ‘Feel Seen’ collection at London Fashion Week.
The Seated Sewing Founder says she is hoping to be as inclusive as possible with her adapted outfits and fashion for disabled people.
Kat said: “I want to be as inclusive as possible and one thing that I’ve never seen is anybody attempt to describe outfits in braille, so I’m like ‘OK, if I’m going to challenge myself, I’m going to challenge myself.’
“In our 10 piece collection, we go from base layers through to comfortable clothes and work wear and finish on tuxedo/evening wear looks.
“They may have panels for if you’ve got colostomies to keep your colostomy in place, some of them zips so that if someone’s having chemo or they’ve got catheters and they need to access their body, we’ve got zips hidden in seams.
“If they’ve got a big colour contrast, they can see the braille so we decided that we would put a tape down every garment with a high contrast, so we’ve got black swarovski crystals and every outfit has a different colour ribbon.
“In the braille description we tell them that it’s part of the ‘Feel Seen’ collection, we explain the colour of the garment, we explain the style and the fit and then if it’s got a specific adaptation then we explain what that’s for, so we’ve sort of gone above and beyond.
“My whole driver was just to bring attention to the lack of adaptive fashion on the high street and as soon as I became disabled, it became very apparent people assumed that I was either going to be staying in bed all the time being in pyjamas and joggies, or I was going to never have a life and leave the house and it’s like actually all those of are wrong.
“It’s only my legs that don’t work, my love for clothing is still there. My love of going out and having a normal life has never changed. We’re showing that any garment and any piece of fabric can be curated into this beautiful collection.”
