Adaptive Fashion Star of Catwalk Show

One of the most inclusive free fashion shows that's ever been staged in Manchester is coming to the city ahead of Disability Awareness Month.

Sixteen female, non-binary and male models will travel down a specially constructed runway at Aviva Studios on June 27, as part of Disability Pride Catwalk: A Space for Each Other.

Aged from 20s-50s, every model is disabled, neurodivergent or chronically ill and all will wear adaptive fashion designs from a RECONDITION , founded in 2025 by Manchester Metropolitan University fashion graduate Ellie Brown.

Ellie's eyes were opened to how unaccommodating fashion can be in 2021, when she badly broke her ankle, which resulted in her using a wheelchair for several months. Each garment in RECONDITION's denim-centred collection, has been designed with and for disabled people. 

Adaptations built into the label's inclusive designs include front pockets on jeans for wheelchair users, ring pull zips for people with reduced dexterity and sleeves with poppers along their full length to help accommodate prosthetic limbs or medical equipment from feeding tubes to insulin pumps.

Ellie's Manchester city centre-based company now works alongside a co-design group who all have varying lived experience of disability. This ensures that her designs are truly fit for purpose, whether that's accommodating stoma bags, providing comfort and practicality for wheelchair users, or offering an easier "on and off" experience for people with reduced grip strength or dexterity.

Diagnosed with ADHD aged 21, advertising creative Aaliyah Rice signed up to take part after seeing an open casting call on TikTok.

"Mainstream fashion on a whole is entirely unaccommodating even for an able-bodied person,” said Aaliyah.

“Things like sizing and fit are generally a nightmare. I can only imagine the extra layer of hell having a physical disability brings to clothes shopping. 

"My own personal experience is with clothes that give me sensory issues - things like tags, textures and seams that cause me distress and take my focus away from other things. It makes it more challenging to shop, as most of the clothes that don't cause me sensory issues aren't fashionable or stylish and when you don't feel confident you can't embrace life the way you want. I'm a strong believer that accessible fashion is fashion for all."

The label's first catwalk collection includes the popular dark blue denim Reconditioned Jean, which is already on sale and debuts a number of new adaptive designs, including a denim miniskirt, a dress, a jumpsuit, a top and a further new cut of jeans.

The purpose-built runway at Aviva Studios features a double height bar, which is inclusive to wheelchair users and people of short stature and acts as a metaphor for how the built environment enables or disables people.

"The Disability Pride Catwalk is a safe space for people to celebrate bodies of all kinds whilst enjoying the atmosphere and experience of a runway show,” said Ellie.

"I also hope the event will provoke useful discussions about how fashion - and society as a whole - can take more accountability for inclusivity."

Visit https://factoryinternational.org/whats-on/disability-pride-catwalk/ for further information.