A group of blind or visually impaired individuals won’t just be modeling on the runway at an Aug. 7 fashion show in Chicago, they also will be choosing the designs that they wear.
The event is being organized through the Beautiful Lives Project, a nonprofit that gives people with disabilities opportunities to participate in activities and events that may not have been available to them previously due to their physical or facility challenges. About 100 guests are expected at the evening event, which is being held at the CD Peacock Mansion in Oakbrook Center in Oak Brook, Ill.
About 6 million Americans have vision loss and 1 million have blindness, according to the U.S. Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Vision and Eye Health Surveillance System. While legally blind individuals like “America’s Next Top Model” contestant Amanda Swafford and fashion designer Natalie Travon have gained attention, fashion shows that feature visually impaired models have been scarce. In 2016, the first national Blind Fashion Show was held during New York Fashion Week.
Bryce Weiler, cofounder of the Beautiful Lives Project, said he wanted to do a fashion show to demonstrate that “individuals with disabilities can do whatever they dream of doing in their lives and that there are different ways to experience fashion.”
While some look at clothes, runways shows or digitally to experience fashion, visually impaired or blind people experience it with their touch. The 10 participants who are legally blind will be visiting a Nordstrom store to choose the designs they will wear in the show. The texture of different apparel styles, whether that be their smoothness, roughness, or varying fabrics, will impact the models’ tactile approach to self-styling. While some will use their partial vision for those decisions, others will rely solely on touch. Before they hit the catwalk, they will visit Hammer & Nails to have their hair styled.
Having arranged sports, art, cheerleading and other activities for Beautiful Lives Project events, Weiler, who is completely blind, said fashion has always been something that he has wanted to give participants the opportunity to experience. He added, “I am passionate about creating community support for individuals that are too often forgotten.”
Next month’s show will also relay to guests that “there are different ways for everyone to experience fashion. But everyone can come together to help people, who are visually impaired or blind to be successful in life,” he said.
CD Peacock, a two-story 21,000-square-foot luxury watch and jewelry store, is engaged with various charities, but it was a client who introduced vice chairman Steven Holtzman and his 16-year-old daughter Aria to the nonprofit. They later made plans to visit the Illinois Center for Rehabilitation and Education-Wood, a facility that offers programs to blind, visually impaired, or DeafBlind individuals, who are 18 or older. After picking up 10 pizzas, Holtzman decamped in its cafeteria to speak with people about the prospect of a fashion show. The CD Peacock executive said he had goosebumps the entire time, due to their interest in trying something different and getting involved with the project.
While the idea for the show sprang in part from his daughter looking for something to do this summer, Holtzman hopes it evolves into a “Pay It Forward” type situation, referring to the 2000 feature film with Kevin Spacey, Helen Hunt, Haley Joel Osment and Jay Mohr, where young students make a plan to help others, who will in turn do the same for more people. His daughter is pitching in with the show at CD Peacock, which offers Rolex, Omega, Chanel and other concept shops. “It’s like a candy shop for people, who like watches and jewelry,” he said.
Making the point that his daughter attends a boarding school that has 150 clubs for students, he said they have been brainstorming about how students could start a Beautiful Lives Project to introduce participants to college sports, college concerts or other events that they may not have been privy to yet.
Weiler, who attended ICRE-Wood to learn life skills, said, “People sometimes feel nervous to allow people with disabilities to live their dreams. Also, a major struggle for many people who are blind or visually impaired is finding employment. Often people do not believe that someone — no matter what their disability or challenge is in life — can be successful in the workforce.”
The aim is to make the CD Peacock fashion show an annual one, and to possibly do fashion shows in other cities to give the opportunity to experience to others including those with different disabilities, Weller said. There will be a fundraising component to the fashion show to try to help Beautiful Lives Project events in other parts of the country.
More than anything, he expects the event to show guests who attend the event, “that everyone experiences the world differently whether that be fashion, trying to find employment or being successful in life. We hope that everyone will understand that everyone has their own unique ways of experiencing fashion or wanting to live their dreams. And everyone, no matter of his or her disabilities, deserves those opportunities,” Weiler said. Â
