Living with cerebral palsy, Elliot Caswell has often found it difficult to shop for clothes that are easy to put on with his disability.
“It’s been a struggle,” Caswell told the BBC. “I would need my parents, friends and family, and my carers to help me out to put clothes on.”
But when United Kingdom-based department store Primark released a clothing line with adaptive features for adults with disabilities, well, “it’s life-changing stuff,” he told the BBC.
It helps that Caswell is a model for the new line, too.
“He was fantastic on the campaign shoot,” the collection’s designer, Victoria Jenkins, said. “We’re going to see more and more of Elliot, and I have every intention of sending him down the runway for London Fashion Week.”
The new items from Primark include features like magnetic zippers and buttons, loops that are easy to hold, pants with adjustable zips on the legs, a pouch for stoma bags, and more.
“A lot of it centers around dignity and modesty,” Jenkins added, sharing that she has a number of gastrointestinal conditions herself. This, in particular, helped her design around what she and other disabled shoppers might want to see, like stretchier clothes that are easier to put on or take off when pain or mobility are top concerns.
“Everyone needs choice, everyone dresses differently, and everyone has the right to self expression,” she said, adding that she hopes collections like this are the norm in the coming years. “That’s been denied to far too many of us for too long.”
Jenkins is an award-winning adaptive designer and leads her own adaptive clothing brand, Unhidden. Primark brought her on board to help accelerate the brand’s efforts in adaptive fashion.
“I didn’t think we’d see adapted fashion on the high street in my lifetime,” Jenkins told The Guardian.
“Primark recognizing the needs of disabled and [the] chronic sick community, and acting upon it in such a meaningful way, is going to be life-changing for millions of people,” she added in a statement for the brand.
It’s already changed Caswell’s life, as well as all the other disabled models sporting the adaptive fashions in Primark storefronts across the U.K.
“It doesn’t feel real,” Caswell said. “But I know it’s real when I see the pictures.”
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A version of this article was originally published in The 2025 Fashion Edition of the Goodnewspaper.
Header images courtesy of Primark
