Universal Clothing Design
This is an exploration of the alterations to clothing that could ease the hassle of a wheelchair user’s daily life.
I worked on this project as a college student with Jordan, my best friend from high school.
My friend Jordan broke his neck in a car accident on his way to school. He is now unable to walk, his fixed fingers curl into a fist, and he cannot feel from the chest down. When he returned home from the hospital we started to work on projects together to help alleviate some of the tremendous difficulty that Jordan was finding in his new life as a quadriplegic.
Standard pants add to the hassle of life in a wheelchair. Jordan typically wears sweat pants because he is able to put them on and take them off with much more ease. Despite this convenience he dislikes wearing them.
“I hate wearing sweats. I would prefer wearing jeans or more formal clothes but in doing so I sacrifice my independence and dignity. With my lack of hand function, unbuttoning and unzipping is extremely difficult and time consuming. Afterwards, zipping and buttoning back up is often impossible for me to do. Pockets are designed for standing. Try using your pockets while sitting down. Then imagine not being able to use your fingers or wrists. Adaptive jeans that account for this are stigmatizing and often look bad. I would rather just wear sweats.”
We aimed to address style, comfort and the many functional attributes of standard pants that do not hit the mark for Jordan. I created a pattern from his old favorite pair of jeans and made some minor adjustments. Elongating the waistband and the yoke to create a waist that is higher in the back and lower in the front ensures that the pants do not ride down in the back throughout the day. Typically, when seated, pant legs shorten and expose our ankles and appear a little silly. For this reason I added a few inches to the hem of the leg. We tackled the pocket issue first by putting many pockets onto a pair of old jeans and figuring out which ones were the easiest to access and use. It turns out that a pocket placed 4 inches lower is completely accessible and easy to use for someone with little to no dexterity. Slight changes in hardware, like a magnetic button and a zipper with a ring enabled fastening and unfastening pants much easier. I eliminated rivets, back pockets, and hard seams because they are notorious for causing pressure related wounds.
Issues with Pants
Button: Jordan is able to unfasten the button but is not always able to refasten it.
Front Pockets: Using the pockets is time consuming and almost impossible. There is also a good chance of dropping the object that is being placed into the pocket.
Zipper: Jordan claims that he "Can't use it. Period."
Waist: The back of the pants ride down throughout the day. The waist is also notorious for slipping down when transferring in and out of the wheelchair, which exposes the lower back and is very hard to fix without assistance.
Rivets: Should be avoided on jeans, especially over bony areas because they can cause pressure wounds.
Hard Seams: These can create pressure sore problems as well.
Back Pockets: These are difficult to access and can create pressure sores.
process pictures
This was my first sewing and pattern making project so the first few pairs were quite rough. We cut up and altered several pairs to experiment with best pocket placement, yolk height, hardware, fit and waistline. The pattern was made by tracing a pair of Jordan’s favorite American Apparel Jeans he bought in 2012. I worked with Fabric Horse, a great Philly cycling bag fabricator, to sew the final pair.
