Meet Clothing You Can Feel Good In!
Imagine if you could touch the clothing you’re wearing to read a moving message its makers want to share with you? Thanks to the creativity and determination of fashion designer, Angela Wanjiku, you can!
AP reports that her Kenyan clothing brand, Hisi Studio, has recently launched a new fashion line focused on the needs of visually impaired people. Each piece of apparel features an uplifting sentence written in braille using beads, or even buttons, carefully sewn onto each garment.
What’s more, in a bid to appeal to younger fashion-conscious consumers, the brand sells its wares through social media and e-commerce platforms, explains Africa News, with ambitious plans to partner with retail chains. It also highlights that in Kenya alone, some 224,000 people are blind, while 750,000 have visual impairments. Despite these numbers, the Kenyan fashion industry has largely ignored this demographic to date.
Heartfelt Affirmations to Wear on Your Sleeve
Some of these uplifting statements, aka affirmations, are truly moving. They include “The less we see with our eyes the more we see with our hearts,” explains Wanjiku, the twenty-something founder of the Hisi Studio company.
Another message is “Wade in the water, contend for your future,” shown next to artwork depicting the contours of Mount Kenya.
Of these special concept fashion pieces with their uplifting phrases, Wanjiku explains to AP that they are geared to “champion the call of inclusion to all who wear our clothes; both sighted people, and visually impaired people.” The phrases are added to the fronts of the clothing pieces, the sleeves or the lapels on a range that now takes in kimonos too.
Wanjiku discusses what she sees as a pioneering adaptive clothing brand, one aimed at people with disabilities, which is based in the Thika Municipality in Kenya, a commerce hub some 26 miles (42 kilometers) northeast of Nairobi in our related AP video, above. Her inspirations are varied, she shares, stemming from the local culture and materials.
Keen to give materials a second life and boost sustainability, materials used are either upcycled discarded clothing pieces collected from local thrift markets, or factory fabric surpluses.
One satisfied next-gen customer, Julius Mbura, a visually impaired lawyer, is shown donning a chic olive T-shirt with a white swirl print created around a braille message. He explains the allure of these Hisi clothing pieces
“This is one brand that ensures [that] people who are blind and visually impaired appreciate textile and fashion and clothes that represent who they are and what they are, so messaging on the clothes that we can read ourselves.”
He expands on why the brand checks boxes for him in conversation with Africa News: “The T-shirt I’m wearing allows me to appreciate fashion in a way I never could before. I can read the messages myself, thanks to the tactile and braille designs, without needing anyone else’s help.”
It’s very different, it has both tactile and braille, so I can read the messaging on the T-Shirt without having to depend on someone else to read what is on it for me.”
But the significance goes deeper for him. He feels that the ranges indicate that the creators have thought out their creations well, and know what their target consumers really want, indicating that they are exposed to what he calls “the blind universe.”
Adaptive Clothing Brands Drive Social Change
Wanjiku talks about her brand’s challenges in educating clients on the distinctive braille dots on its clothing. This has a positive side, however, as it had turned staff into advocates of inclusion for the disabled.
And it is this role that Teen Vogue salutes in particular, crediting Wanjiku for having “mastered the art of inclusivity.” As a recent fashion graduate in 2022, the leather belt bag in her first collection aimed to counter the theft that many blind Kenyans report facing. Her macrame bag has a holster that fits close to the body, to keep valuables safe.
This brand’s sensitivity is supported by an article on Hisi Studio in Adjoaa, an online clothing store built around social change. This piece emphasizes the studio’s reliance on local artisans and sustainable materials like safe inks and dyes, as well as cultural heritage such as the weaving skills representing a modern interpretation of the traditions of local tribes.
Adjoaa points out, for instance, that Hisi Studio adds QR codes that work with assistive technology so consumers can easily comprehend product descriptions and care instructions.
