The brand is founded by two occupational therapists who realised a major gap in the industry and now, JAM the label is about to start work on a seasonal range to showcase later in the year.
Their customers include 27-year-old NDIS worker and part-time standup comic Oliver Hunter, who lives with cerebral palsy (CP).
“I bill myself as the guy we get when we can’t afford Dylan Alcott,” he said.
Hunter has also struggled finding functional clothes.
“With my CP I could never do buttons up on a button-up shirt so my mum actually adapted the shirt herself,” he said.
Emma Clegg and Molly Rogers created their adaptable fashion range after working with two teenagers who used wheelchairs.
These clients craved not only independence but style.
So, JAM uses magnetic buttons and zips to offer a solution and each item in the range is priced under $100.
“Anything that was easier to get dressed into was really daggy and not age-appropriate for them as teenagers,” she said.
The Aussie brand’s online collection caters to those with a broad range of disabilities from intellectual and autism to the vision-impaired and anyone who uses a wheelchair.
“They’ve got easy access and allow for extra room for the discretion of continence aids,” Rogers said.
For those with sensory concerns there are no seams, no irritating tags and the logo is printed on the sleeve.
“For wheelchair users, often the front is covered by bibs or straps or supports,” Clegg explained.
“They want to show off their JAM [label] so we’ll put it on the sleeve as well.”
“In the lead-up we didn’t think about how significant it was that it was the first-ever adaptive runway for Australian fashion week and how that representation and thought is felt by the disability community,” Clegg said.
Hunter said he loves the clothing because it looks fashionable.
“You can just put them on and no-one would know that you’re wearing adaptable, disability-friendly clothing” he said.
“Once you cater for the minority, you cater for the majority.”
Clegg and Rogers’ dream is that one day all designers have a range of fashion that is both functional and appealing to all of their customers.
“We would love to think that this way of designing and these considerations would become standard practice for fashion brands,” Rogers said.
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