Rowan College at Burlington County fashion design students Dana Condo (left to right), Victoria Schade and Katrina Nguyen researched and designed adaptive fashion for medical device wearers and the visually impaired. Their collection will be on the runway at the college’s 2025 fashion show at Cherry Hill Mall.
Rowan College at Burlington County’s STEM Division will hold its 2025 fashion show at the Cherry Hill Mall on Friday at 6 p.m.
This year’s event will feature two collections and a research group that worked on adaptable fashion branding and clothing. That group focused on a visible collection for trending and branding ideas it will issue at the show; a video short on the group’s processes; and clothing for the visually impaired, those on the autism spectrum and wearers of medical devices.
“Fashion programs are so typically aligned with fashion and glam and making a big splash, but we really like to focus on diversity and inclusion,” said Rowan program coordinator and professor Lisa Steinberg. “This was brand new, and it was much more difficult to tackle, so we felt that it wasn’t something that we could right away put into a class.
“It really needed to come from students that we felt were very focused, very hardworking and felt very passionate about doing it.
The research group that worked on adaptable clothing consisted of seven Rowan students separated into three groups. Deanie McMillan and Mallory Murray explored the development of adaptable clothing for individuals on the autism spectrum by focusing on sensory-friendly fabrics, closures (buttons, zippers, snaps, etc.), colors, ease of dressing and current gaps in the market, one of which is the limited availability of adult-oriented adaptive clothing that is both trendy and affordable.
The group’s research produced the necessary design elements, with a focus on the ease of dressing oneself, comfort and simple closures. Part of McMillan and Murray’s design process was to consider tag-less designs and instead offer a fun fidget toy hand tag with a QR code that includes fabric, care and information about the garment’s closures.
“What really makes me connect with this is that if I wasn’t going to be in fashion, I wanted to be a special education teacher,” Murray noted, “so I wanted to combine the two together and I definitely think that this is something special. We were really focusing on creating sensory-friendly garments … looking for sensory-friendly fabrics, closures that work and we also looked for finding good colors.
Red, for example, isn’t a good color,” she added. “You want to find cooling, calming and earth-y tones … And we really focused on creating (clothes) for adults and being on the affordable side.”
Students Deanie McMillan (left) and Mallory Murray explored the development of adaptable clothing for individuals on the autism spectrum.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) refers to a broad range of conditions characterized by challenges with repetitive behaviors, social skills, speech and nonverbal communication. ASD affects sensory processing and produces different responses to sensory input, with some individuals experiencing hyposensitivity (sensory seeking) and others hypersensitivity (sensory avoidance).
“We created these two garments (a sensory adaptable hoodie dress and a seamless adaptive top and adaptive wrap skort), which the dress form is more for those who are seeking sensory fidgets,” Murray explained. “Since it is a bit heavier and it’s made of (knit fleece), what they (the consumer) can do is they can put their toys in here (pocket area). They can fidget with the fabrics, since it is a bit of a thicker material … And also, the hood provides closure and security.”
As Dana Condo, Katrina Nguyen and Victoria Schade worked on adaptive fashion for medical device wearers and the visually impaired, they aimed to prove that accessibility and fashion can co-exist. Their goal was to make clothing that fills a need and would be attractive to a consumer. Schade created two garments that represent the visually impaired, using a French knot technique to embroider them with Braille that contains heartfelt messages, words and phrases.
“When you’re (visually impaired), people think that you don’t care much about what you’re wearing, but that’s not true,” Schade pointed out. “(Those who are visually impaired) deserve to feel confident and comfortable just as much as everyone else, so I hope that that’s something that people take away from this.”
Jayden Cohen-Boyce and Ciara Jones worked on adaptive brand building for people with disabilities. They started the Commonplace brand, meant as “not unusual” in the fashion world.” Their mission is to promise customers a better way to shop. The vision for Commonplace goes beyond functionality, focusing on empowering women with disabilities and offering comfort and functionality without forfeiting current fashion trends.
“Years ago, sustainability started being a conversation in schools, but now in the fashion world it’s everywhere,” Cohen-Boyce observed. “The same thing is going to happen here. We’re talking about adaptable clothing now, and in a few years from now, all your clothing will be adaptable. It’s about putting in the groundwork to try and get people to hear these words, so when they see them later, they can grasp onto them, and they can become invested in them …
“This can be game changing if people started to take it more seriously …,” he added. “I’m excited to have my name on it now.”
“Even the concept of adaptability being a separate branch of fashion, I think it needs to be considered as in the same bubble,” Jones said. “Don’t think of it as separate, because that’s where the contrast comes in, and it creates all of the issues that we’re trying to fix now.”
