Tommy Hilfiger is a brand that we all have loved since it was first founded in 1985. The brand is notably known for its preppy but cool designer pieces with a bit of a twist. It’s not only recognized for its famous jeans or nautical red, white and blue fashion pieces from its TOMMY HILFIGER and TOMMY JEANS brands. The Hilfiger brand also includes their other collections HILFIGER COLLECTION, TOMMY HILFIGER TAILORED, TommyXGigi, which include men’s, women’s and kids’ sportswear, denim, accessories and footwear. Hilfiger’s brands also include products that include fragrances, eyewear, watches and home furnishings. However, Hilfiger continues to change the fashion industry by being one of the first designer brands to offer clothing meant to cater to the needs of all people with disabilities.
The brand’s new campaign TOMMY HILFIGER Adaptive was introduced in Spring 2018 and has taken the world by storm and helped a plethora of people. Something as simple as getting dressed each day can be one of the hardest struggles for the one in five Americans living with a disability. The Tommy Hilfiger team has dealt personally with this issue in their experiences and decided to uncover a solution to this issue that has never been addressed. Tommy Hilfiger has three children that are on the autism spectrum. Tommy Hilfiger stated, “I have first-hand experience with children with autism and getting dressed in the morning has been a big issue in our household forever. With Tommy Adaptive, we’ve made sure that every piece is inclusive and makes dressing easier.” They changed the way clothing was thought of to the actual production in order to get a concept that would work for everyone.
It’s not just the actual physicality of getting dressed each day that’s difficult at times, it’s more of how dress codes can leave people with disabilities out of the loop and prevent them from achieving their goals. There are very few retailers that offer professional, special occasion or clothing that makes people with disabilities feel stylish, empowering and fierce. Nadra Nittle explains more in depth of how non-inclusive clothing has impacted people with disabilities and why the unemployment rate is three times the national average than people without disabilities. Read more in her article “Clothing Can Keep People With Disabilities Out of the Workforce”.
It can be a hassle when getting dressed if you have disabilities, mainly because of how the clothes are made. For instance, closures and openings on non-adaptive clothing are difficult for people with disabilities and make it a barrier to their everyday life. “Clothes Are More Than A Hassle for People With Disabilities” by Sheena Rice-Missouri explains Kabel and Kerri McBee-Black’s research and analysis on how clothing affects people with disabilities. They interviewed a focus group and found that clothing obstacles came down to three simple categories: mechanical and functional, cultural and sensory sensitivity. Tommy Hilfiger came up with a way to address all these three things.
Hilfiger has even gone above and beyond even more than easy openings and closures, but rather with making solutions for clothing including fits for prosthetics, seated wear, and ease of movement clothing. However, the design wasn’t forgotten and still has the iconic “Tommy” look. Features such as magnetic buttons, adjustable hems, bungee-cord and Velcro-band closures were the innovative and modified details that helped shape the new clothing line to include everyone. The adjustable hems are versatile and help with fitting anyone no matter what size or height you are. The magnetic and velcro closures look like any other button and zipper fly, just without the trickiness. The new features provide easy functioning and hassle-free ease of being able to get dressed independently and confidently.
Hopefully, other brands will soon follow in Hilfiger’s footsteps. Target, who has started including adaptive clothing for children in their retail with the brand Cat & Jack, is a great new start in this movement. With bringing awareness to this issue and over time we can begin to help one of the most underserved, but largest, groups of people in the nation. You can shop the adaptive line at Tommy Hilfiger.