Disabled designers’ dreams come true
Polytechnic University student volunteers team up with disabled and elderly to turn ideas for their loved ones’ outfits into reality
Designer Wong Yun-yee rolls her wheelchair down the aisle of the fashion gallery and stops before a mannequin. She gazes at the maroon evening gown called "Floral Connection" that she designed for her sister to wear at her son's wedding.
The butterfly-shaped hat and flowers sewn on the gown which symbolise pollination express Wong's desire for the continuation of the family line.
Welcome to the Youreable Fashion Design Exhibition 2013, which showcases the design talent of the elderly and disabled.
Participants were invited to design an outfit for a loved one. Those whose designs were chosen were paired with a student volunteer from the Polytechnic University's Institute of Textiles and Clothing who will tailor the design into an outfit.
This year, a panel of the institute's professors chose 25 sketches out of 300 submissions from 15 public welfare organisations.
Professor Frency Ng Sau-fun, director of the institute's Care Apparel Centre which organised the event, says she hopes to cultivate the design ability of the elderly and disabled, and to make the public aware of it.
"I teach students that fashion design is not just about drawing a picture … You have to make it into a real product," says Ng, who has taught at the institute for 30 years. "This is a good opportunity for them to learn the garment-making process from choosing fabrics to stitching the pieces together."
I teach students that fashion design is not just about drawing a picture … You have to make it into a real product. This is a good opportunity for them to learn the garment-making process
Fifty students volunteered for the project, which will not gain them any course credits for their participation. The students, whose previous designs were worn by supermodels strutting down the catwalk of Hong Kong Fashion Week, turned their attention to society's less glamorous people and learned how to care for them.
One student, Lai Wan-Ying, spent four days laboriously hand-stitching each corn onto a "Maize Fairy" outfit. She said while she was exhausted from the work, she learned a variety of garment-making techniques through the experience.
For the maize costume, the volunteers faithfully followed the original sketch by stitching random green and red corn kernels among yellow ones.
Fashion merchandising student Wang Aiqian tailored a yellow top highlighted with a clown-face, hand-shaped collar designed by Tsou Kin-Ho. She modified the design slightly by turning the collar into a decorative scarf.
"At first Ms Tsou was not confident of my ability, but during the production process, we grew close. I was impressed by her cheerfulness," said Wang.
"When I showed her the finished garment, she was ecstatic and held my hand throughout the night of the award ceremony."
Fashion design student Kerry Chong Chui-yi said she learned much about patience and responsibility through this volunteering exercise.
"Fashion students like to make their own clothes and have lots of half-finished garments. But for this event, we had to commit ourselves to finish the product," she said.
"We designers also tend to be very subjective in aesthetics, but we learned to respect the participants' ideas and to improve them using our professional skills.
"It's also about realising that what the market likes may not necessarily be to our tastes, and then adapting to it."
The students were inspired by the tenacity of the designers despite their disabilities.
Leung Sau-ping, who designed a custom flat-backed wedding gown for the wheelchair, operates a sewing machine with three fingers.
Designer Joey Li, who suffers from muscle spasms, holds a pen in her mouth to create beautiful impressionistic drawings.
Each outfit at the exhibition tells an extraordinary story.
The display is open to the public at the Fashion Gallery, Building MN109, Polytechnic University, until August 15.
