Tommy Hilfiger has released a clothing line for children with disabilities, and with one in 20 kids in the US living with a disability, it couldn’t come sooner.
Working in partnership with Runway for Dreams, a not-for-profit charity set up by designer Mindy Scheier, the line includes Hilfiger’s classic polo shirts and khakis with special adaptations to get the clothes on and off.
The idea came about when Mindy’s son, who has muscular dystrophy, wanted to wear jeans to school but couldn’t button them up. She decided there and then that rather than saying he couldn’t wear them she would figure out a way so he could.
“I knew jeans wouldn’t fit over the braces and because of his muscle weakness he wouldn’t be able to button them and go to the bathroom by himself. I had a choice that day to crush his self-confidence and tell him he couldn’t wear jeans like his friends, or figure out a way to make it work,” she wrote on the Tommy Hilfiger website.
Working with Hilfiger, the team replaced zippers and buttons with magnets and adjusted pant, sleeve and waistband lengths.
“When I see that Tommy Hilfiger or a New York designer is coming up with disabled clothing, it reinforces that we need it. But we also need it for the middle class.” Donna Freeberg from Dignity by Design told the Star Tribune.
