A designer who was told “disabled people don’t need fashion” launched her own adaptive clothing firm, which appeared on the catwalk at London Fashion Week.
Hanan Tantush told the BBC she heard the comment while showcasing customised clothing which she created for disabled people as part of her coursework, having been inspired by her grandad’s struggles following cancer surgery.
She said: “That sentence made me so angry.”
Hanan added that she believes the fashion industry has “evolved” but “disability is still treated as a niche”.
Her response was to build up the adaptive fashion firm Intotum – Latin for “as a whole” – which she platformed at London Fashion Week earlier this year.
Hanan told the BBC the idea had been several years in the making after she noticed her grandad struggle to find trousers he could wear with his stoma bag.
She said: “Every pair of trousers rubbed against it or pressed on the bag. The only thing he could wear without pain was jogging bottoms and he hated how they looked.”
Hanan added that her grandad had been a Merchant Navy engineer who wore his uniform with pride – trousers pressed, shirt tucked in, shoes polished – but the stoma bag was affecting his lifestyle, accessibility and clothing.
She said: “He’d often say how difficult it was to manage his stoma bag in public toilets, especially at football, and over time he stopped playing bowls for the same reason – something he’d done for 40 years. Seeing clothing strip away his confidence like that broke something in me.”
Hanan said she works to make and promote stylish clothes tailored for people with different disabilities and neurodivergences because she wants them to “feel empowered, not pitied”.
Her fashion range includes wheelchair trench coats and capes, side-opening trousers and clothes with magnetic or Velcro fastenings instead of buttons. After seeing her grandad’s experiences, Hanan also makes items with discreet pockets for stoma bags.
She said: “When big brands launch ‘adaptive’ lines, they’re often just tracksuits in different colours. People tell me they want to feel stylish, to walk into a room and be seen for their outfit, not their condition.
“Fashion – the very thing that should help us express who we are – has shut out an entire community.”