Making Fashion Accessible
with Hair & Care
As an extension of our work making hair care accessible for the sight loss community, Hair & Care is now on a mission to do the same within the world of fashion.
Hair & Care launched the Making Fashion Accessible initiative at the beginning of 2024, and has since worked with the likes of designers Sinéad O’Dwyer and Chet Lo across London and Copenhagen Fashion Weeks, to help make their shows accessible and inclusive to blind and low vision individuals.
As a highly visual industry, fashion is at present largely inaccessible for those with sight loss, but with the right support and expertise, the world of fashion can be adapted and made accessible; Hair & Care is dedicated to bringing about this much needed change.
We offer brands and designers the chance to make their shows accessible, and open up their craft and their collections to a community passionate and interested to take part in fashion.
The Need
There is a misconception that blind and low vision people are not interested in fashion or how they look - this could not be further from the truth.
As an industry designed to make people feel good and that prides itself in diversity, there is a notable lack of accessibility in fashion - and there is an entire community of people who are in large excluded from what the industry has to offer.
In the UK, disabled people have an estimated annual spending power of around £274 billion: if fashion brands are not inclusive or accessible, they miss out on a significant market, willing and passionate to spend within the industry. Fashion is for everyone, to be experienced and enjoyed by all.
Read below about some of our previous work in helping brands become more accessible for blind and low vision individuals at Fashion Week.
SINÉAD O'DWYER
Hair & Care first partnered with Sinéad in February 2024 to help make her AW24 LFW show accessible for three blind and low vision guests - including blind activist and broadcaster Lucy Edwards - through the use of audio descriptions.
Fast forward to August where we collaborated for a second time, for Sinéad's SS25 debut at Copenhagen Fashion Week. With the addition of tactile fabric swatches, together with Sinéad we made the show accessible for a group of blind and low vision guests from the Danish Association of the Blind, and the RNIB.
We are so proud to have also championed the inclusion of a blind model to walk in the show, with Lucy Edwards making history as the first blind model ever to walk the runway at Copenhagen.
CHET LO
In September 2024, Hair & Care partnered with Chet Lo at London Fashion Week to help make his SS25 show, ‘Mai’s Blossom’, accessible to blind and low vision guests. Guests included a group of women and girls who regularly attend Hair & Care's monthly hair care workshops for blind and low vision individuals.
Along with audio descriptions and tactile fabric swatches, we were able to provide an introductory audio from Chet himself, detailing the inspiration behind his collection, and the individual fabrics featured in the designs. Chet's famously textural and tactile designs allowed for detailed audio descriptions, which, when paired with the accessible elements provided by Hair & Care, gave guests a more in-depth understanding of the collection being shown.
Our Press
Since forming the Making Fashion Accessible initiative at the beginning of 2024, we have featured in leading publications such as the BBC, British Vogue, Vogue Business, Dazed, and many more.
Get In Touch!
Are you a fashion brand looking to make your shows more accessible and deepen your understanding of inclusivity for the sight loss community? Feel free to get in touch to learn more about the services we can offer - you can reach us at:
February Fashion Week is just 3 months away!
Our Story
Our mission for the Making Fashion Accessible initiative began with our founder, award-winning hairstylist Anna Cofone, and the inception of our non-profit Hair & Care. With a 20 year career in the creative industry and having worked closely with celebrities such as Lana Del Rey and Dua Lipa, Anna's work is regularly featured in leading fashion publications and luxury brand campaigns.
Inspired by her personal experience of growing up with a father who was blind, Anna launched Hair & Care in 2019 with a mission to bring accessible hair care to blind and low vision women and girls, who too often feel unseen and disconnected from the beauty industry. Since then it has empowered more than 300 people.
The positive impact of Hair & Care's monthly workshops on our participants' sense of identity and confidence has been immeasurable, and we wanted to extend this level of accessibility into the world of fashion.
Anna's deep rooted understanding of sight loss and the importance of accessibility has been sewn into the fabrics of Hair & Care's values and practices. It is the unique blend of our years of expertise in accessible support, paired with Anna's extensive experience within the fashion industry, that makes us well equipped to create accessible events and experiences for blind and low vision people.
With Making Fashion Accessible, you can allow your collections and your shows to be experienced by a whole new audience with a passion to be involved. Together, we have the power to make crucial and valuable change, creating an accessible future for fashion.