Fashion has the power to shape our desires and aspirations and it influences what millions of people find beautiful, and more importantly who they find beautiful. This is why diverse representation in the fashion industry is important, because it shows us that beauty comes in many different forms. Despite diversity and inclusivity becoming buzzwords, the lack of visibility for the disabled community in fashion is still a major issue.
To further unpack this topic, we caught up with model and designer Laura Wagner-Meyer who is passionate about disability representation in the fashion industry. Born with a congenital neural tube defect, Laura was expected to live for two days only. Miraculously, she survived, and 23 years later she needs crutches to walk and uses her platform to inspire and drive change in the fashion industry.
When did your interest in the fashion industry begin?
I have always gravitated to fashion. Its ability to bring one’s vision to life attracted me to it. When I got an opportunity to try design at high school, I thoroughly enjoyed it. The more that I progressed through my studies and gained clarity on my path, the more exciting it became. It was no longer a career based on my enjoyment, but something that I wanted to pursue for the benefit of others too.
What do diversity and inclusivity in fashion mean to you?
Diversity is about being able to look at a campaign and identify with it. It is so powerful and important to create visuals that feature people who look just like them. This creates a sense of pride and validation. Fashion is supposed to empower and allow for freedom of expression. Diversity creates the space for this to happen and allows people to truly accept and celebrate their uniqueness and differences. In terms of inclusivity, fashion has the power to influence culture. When the fashion industry is exclusive and inaccessible, it continues to marginalise certain groups of people. Inclusivity is about making your consumers feel included in every aspect of the brand and normalising the representation of disabilities when it comes to wearing your brand’s clothing, appearing in marketing material, or shopping in your store.
What has your experience been with buying clothing?
It has been challenging. I struggle with finding clothing that meets the needs of my body shape. Often, the actual garment fit isn’t flattering at all. They’re made for able-body types that don’t share the same needs as mine, so the proportions are off. It takes me quite a while to find items that are comfortable. As a fashion professional, I do love shopping for clothing and exploring trends, and figuring out if my body shape can wear them. But as a customer that needs extra time and assistance, it can get frustrating at the same time.
How can fashion better cater to the needs of people with disabilities?
I think if retailers were just more considerate of us, it would make the world of difference. Right now, I feel as if retailers just do not care about us as consumers so they do not make the effort to include us in advertising and the brand community. It would be great for retailers to reach out and take the time to try and find common ground with us. An understanding of our clothing needs or requirements will develop through these conversations.
In your experience, is there a difference between local and global fashion?
Well, both the local and global fashion scenes are moving towards inclusivity and diversity when it comes to people with disabilities. I must admit that the global fashion scene has done well in recent years by including and incorporating models with disabilities into the mainstream fashion media and even on Netflix shows. Speaking from my own experience, the local media has shown immense interest and has been so encouraging. So, I do see the change coming locally and, hopefully, it will be at the same scale as the global industry soon. More than anything, we need more visibility of people with disabilities.
What can the local fashion industry do differently?
I’d love to see more people with disabilities brought to the forefront in all sorts of mainstream media. I have to see people with disabilities in local advertisements. I would also like to see more fashion brands considering people with disabilities as a target group with different needs to mainstream society. There isn’t a lot of consideration for consumers with disabilities overall.
Can you tell us about a recent project that you enjoyed working on?
I recently worked with We Are_, a media production company headed up by Dillon Buirski, that dedicated their time (eight whole hours!) to shoot a passion project with me. The project ended up being a beautiful short film that brought tears to my eyes. I genuinely felt proud to have produced something that re-wrote the narrative about people with disabilities. The entire team believed in me and put a lot of thought into representing me as I am – fearless.
- Cover image: Topco Models’ in-house photographer Samantha Pinto @samanthapinto_photo
- Images in article: Jermaine Joubert @justjermainevisuals
- Follow Laura Wagner-Meyer on Instagram.
