Inclusivity in fashion design and social sustainability finally fashion project

Abstract

Finally Fashion is the concept that led us to carry out exploratory research, in a classroom context, to answer questions posed by creating new products. The questions reveal, as a starting point, a need for fashion design to intervene. Finally Fashion stands for Finally Fashion and represents an ongoing search by a group of three wheelchair users with reduced mobility to find new products that are not unlike those usually found on the market and that follow trends. This social sustainability project seeks to include groups that, given their characteristics, are often on the margins of society in general. The challenge was set by a group of Fashion Design and Production students from Lusófona University, who sought to adapt garments already on the market to the needs of this type of consumer. In the first phase, the results were very satisfactory, and some of the questions raised regarding the project were resolved. However, they are still being studied for realising and testing prototypes later. The ideas proposed by the students were presented to the group (client), and essential input was received from the user to improve the proposals in the prototype realisation phase. The students showed a very high level of interest in realising the project, which made it possible to show the broader scope and relevance of fashion design to the community from a perspective of inclusivity and social sustainability. Keywords: Social Sustainability; Fashion Design; Modelling; Inclusivity