Adaptive Fashion Wond’ry

In episode #98 of the Raising Kellan podcast, host Marsh Naidoo is joined by Professor Alex Capps and four students from the Fab Lab at the ⁠Wond’ry Vanderbilt's Center of Innovation⁠. They discuss their work in adaptive fashion and the impact it has on the disability community and beyond. The students share their experiences and the skills they have gained through their work at the Wond’ry, highlighting the importance of collaboration and problem-solving. They also discuss the future of adaptive fashion and its potential to create a more inclusive world. The episode concludes with closing remarks from the students, expressing gratitude for the opportunity to be part of the Wond’ry and their excitement for the future of their work.

Edited Transcript

Marsh Naidoo (00:25):

Hello and welcome to the Raising Kellan Podcast. My name is Marsh Naidoo and I blog @raisingkellen.org where we curate resources for parents raising children with disabilities. As always, remember, the content on this podcast is for your information only, and if you seek advice for your specific situation for always contact a trained professional. In today's episode 98, we are joined by Professor Alex Capps, as well as a panel of four of her students from the Fab Lab. The Fiber Arts Build is part of the Wond'ry, Vanderbilt's Center of Innovation and Design. This coming week October, the 7 2023, they will be hosting the Tennessee Maker Fest. So if you happen to be in Nashville between 10:00 AM to 4:00 PM be sure to stop by at the Wond'ry to check out over 45 exhibitors. What's really interesting is that the Center brings together faculty, students as well and the community, providing them with resources and tools to bring their ideas to life. And now onto today's episode, grab that cup of coffee, put your feet up, and get ready for some awesome conversation.

(02:00):

Guys, thank you so much for joining me on the Raising Kellan Podcast This morning, listeners you will remember Professor Alex Capps. She's actually the director of the Fab Lab, the Fiber Arts Build at Vanderbilt Swan Center for Innovation. And Alex, together with Ali Smith talked to us on episode 92 about adaptive and sustainable fashion. And a lot of the topic revolved around universal design and how that relates to disability. So this morning I'm joined by CAPS as well as four of the students that are at Vanderbilt's Wondr'y Center. I'm going to start off with a brief visual description of who I am, followed by Alex, and then our panel. So my name is Marsh Naidoo. I'm a female with black short hair, brown skin, and a blue T-shirt. And I would like to welcome Alex.

Professor Alex Capps (03:13):

Good morning. I am a female white. I've got blue eyes, and blonde hair. I'm wearing reading glasses, silver hoop earrings, and a black shirt

Marsh Naidoo (03:23):

On the panel. This morning we are joined by Brinda Ambal. Hello, Brinda

Brinda Ambal (03:29):

Hi. Thank you for having me. My name is Brenda Amble. I am a female with brown skin and black hair. My hair is down and I'm wearing a brown T-shirt.

Trieu Vy Truong (03:39):

Hi,

(03:40):

I'm Thu. My hair has dyed blonde. I'm an Asian male and I have dark brown eyes

(03:44):

And I'm wearing a black T-shirt.

Sophia Potter (03:46):

Hi, I'm Sophia Potter. I am a female white and I have long brown hair and brown eyes, and I'm wearing a red shirt.

Jeremiah Crosswhite (03:56):

Nice to be on. My name is Jeremiah. I am a black male with dark brown locks, brown eyes, and wearing a black button-up.

Marsh Naidoo (04:09):

Alright guys, so Alex, we're just going to get a little into why we having this podcast this morning. So if you don't mind laying down a little bit of information on that.

Professor Alex Capps (04:21):

Sure. We recorded a podcast with Ali Schmidt and your friend Stella, about a month ago. And in it we talked about the connection of students to the adaptive fashion movement and I expressed ideas about what I felt students got out of working on our adaptive fashion projects. And I thought, really, this is about what students have to say about what they're getting out of this work. And I thought of these four amazing students we have on this podcast right now, all of whom I've worked individually and collaboratively and in various groupings with on a variety of adaptive fashion projects. Each one of these students is unique, incredibly talented, collaborative, and creative, and I just really thought it would be great for people to hear about what students get out of doing this work. and

Marsh Naidoo (05:16):

Alright, I'm going to go ahead and guys, I really would like to know what puts you on the trajectory to join the winery. Brinda, I'd like to start off with you please.

Brinda Ambal (05:29):

Sure, thanks. So my freshman year during the second semester, they offered one credit hour experience classes to gain exposure to different areas of interest. One of those areas of interest was with the Fabric Arts Lab Professor Capps ran the freshman, it's called a Commons Eye seminar, and it gives you an introduction to sustainable and adaptive fashion and it's held at the Fab Lab in the Wond'ry. And so I signed up for that and we had a project that was focused on making a raincoat for a woman who needed specific adaptations to a raincoat. So that project really drew me in and we got working on that project.

Marsh Naidoo (06:08):

Now did you collaborate with one of your peers on that project, Brinda?

Brinda Ambal (06:13):

I did actually. I met Trieu through that Common Eye seminar and we started working on that together. And then once the class was over, it was only for half a semester. Trio and I, along with some other students and Professor Capps continued working on the raincoat. So yeah,

Marsh Naidoo (06:29):

Alex, was that the Raincoat we saw at the Mega Disability Conference Conference?

(06:35):

It is. It's a raincoat for our friend Alicia Searcy who runs the fall Fashion is for Everybody Fashion show, which is an inclusive fashion show. Alicia has multiple sclerosis, she's in a wheelchair, and she came in as one of our community partners along with Ali Schmidt into our class. And the goal for our students was to design two pieces of outerwear, one for each of them. And that raincoat that Brenda is talking about was for Alicia. And I just want to emphasize that Brenda and Trieu after the class, after they've gotten their credit hour for taking the class, all their follow-up work on that raincoat was volunteer and they were very devoted. They came in when they were super busy and put in extra hours to cut, make, assemble, and help fit that raincoat on Alicia. They were just amazing. They went above and beyond.

(07:30):

So, Alex, another project that you guys worked on was the Adaptive Fashion Guide. Who was involved with that project?

(07:39):

Trieu Vy Trong

(07:39):

So just more about the guide. Sophia kind of started it and I tagged along it's a guide designed for people with disabilities to perhaps go into their tailor and then show them this guide about the adaptations or alterations that they want to be done on their clothes so that they could pick off something maybe like a retail store like Target, and then come to their tailor with this guide and then have that piece of clothing be altered specifically to their needs. And then we started expanding more about that and then expanding onto how could we make this for a larger audience like designers or for tailors to have themselves instead of just people with disabilities. And then we started adding more information and it basically covers types of alterations that you can do and then types of fasteners that are out there. We just want to spread that knowledge and have people be able to see what they can do to their clothes to have it be tailored to them.

(08:39):

I think you hit on something really important to me at least, that is being able to transfer your knowledge so someone else is able to draw on that information. So you guys also worked with a young lady called Lucy McGuire, and I'm going to let the team talk about that. So that was Sophia and Jeremiah.

Sophia Potter (09:07):

Sure. So I also took the I Commons Eye that Brinda spoke about my freshman year, and that was kind of what got me to the Wond'ry. And then the people are what helped me stay of course, but I met Lucy McGuire that freshman year and she's the cutest little girl. I think she's maybe nine years old, maybe older now, but she has an arm-limb difference. And so her mom, I think Professor Capps had been working with her before the class started, but she came into our class with her mom and we just got to hang out with her, and talk with her mom. And I think one thing that really opened my eyes was something that her mom had mentioned about the experience of going to a tailor. She talked about how it was just such a cold experience and as a nine-year-old, I could not imagine having that kind of shopping experience when a lot of kids, you're getting to that age where you can finally pick out your own clothes and you can use fashion to express yourselves. And when not everyone has a limb difference. And with Lucy trying to navigate through that experience, seeing people that don't understand what's going on and just don't have enough awareness be super cold and not just accepting that just really, really spoke to me and that's why I wanted to help her and continue with this adaptive fashion work and just illustrate or kind of use the guide to help others just use fashion so that they can express themselves and make this more of an inclusive environment when it comes to fashion.

Jeremiah Crosswhite (10:48):

So I became acquainted with the Wond'ry through another organization on campus, a fashion organization on campus called Vanity, vanity. And through that organization, we were partnering with the Wond'ry and I eventually started working with the Wond'ry. So I am a maker tech here in the fab lab, just pretty much helping out run the space and everything of this sort. While I was in the program, I got United with a Well, was a senior here at Granville, they recently graduated and they were passing on the Lucy project to me because they were working on a prosthesis for her so that she was able to go kayaking because since on her arm that has that limb difference, it doesn't have necessarily a usable hand. She's not as able to do the outdoor activities that she loves to do. So we've been working with her to create a bunch of different prostheses for her.

(11:41):

So we've done making a recorder prosthesis for her. We worked on a violin prosthesis for her and I was working on a soft prosthesis so that she's able to go kayaking so that she's pretty much able to strap that onto the one hand of the paddle and just go at it pretty much. And just working with her through that whole project was a great time doing the fittings with her, having it be adjusted perfectly for her knees just because there are products available out in the market and everything of the sort. But since everything is so expensive and everything isn't very accessible from that viewpoint, we were just trying to pretty much make it so that this is a garment that if we didn't want it to later be put into a guide, oh yeah, this was a basis, this is the basic components of what's needed to make something like this.

(12:34):

We could easily do that for something of that sort. But even just for Lucy for example, just having that garment be tailored to her needs so that she's able to go kayaking, have that fit her perfectly so it doesn't slip off and that it's easily able to be taken off for her specific needs and everything of the sort just because if she does fall in the water, she does need to be able to quick release from that. So just having that be a hands-on process to where she's coming in on a weekly basis pretty much being fitted in everything of the source so that it is tailored to her is what we were really focusing on.

Marsh Naidoo (13:08):

Each one of you comes from such a diverse background. So has fashion always been something on your radar?

Jeremiah Crosswhite (13:16):

Fashion wasn't necessarily on my radar until Covid. I would say really that's when I really got into sewing and everything of the sort and after that, it kind of just grew from there. But it wasn't really until I started working with the Wond'ry that I actually started improving my skills and becoming the seamstress I am now. And I just have to thank Alex for that really just because she's taught me so much and everything of the sort. So without her, I really wouldn't be in the adaptive field at all and I definitely wouldn't be on as deep a path I am in the fashion industry.

Brinda Ambal (13:47):

For me, I grew up in a more modest culture and so my interest in making clothes kind of grew out of not being able to find the cute clothes that I wanted that were also okay for me to wear. And so I started making clothes because of that around in middle school and I learned with my grandma. But then when I came here I realized that adaptive fashion is doing that on a broader scale, it's not just for me, it's not so much selfish that way, but it's for an entire group of people who don't see themselves represented in the mainstream fashion industry much at all. And so being able to make an impact that way is really what kept me coming back.

Trieu Vy Trong (14:27):

Yeah, so I think I was always interested in fashion, not necessarily sewing because my sisters are all fashionistas and I was always inspired by them, but I recently tried to get into sewing last year and still learning how to sew right now and just developing those skills. But I met Professor Kas through, it called Vision, so it's a group of freshmen. We all got one faculty mentor and then she was my faculty mentor. So I took the opportunity to learn more about the fundamentals of fashion and sewing.

Brinda Ambal (15:03):

Yes. So my grandmother also taught me how to sew when I was in fifth grade and had various businesses that included sewing throughout high school. And then I came to Vanderbilt not really expecting to continue that fashion pursuit kind of went toward the psych and business route, but then I saw a fashion course and I had open or a free slot to take. And so I took it and thank goodness because not only did I learn about adaptive fashion, but I've met all of these wonderful people and the people are really what everyone else said, keep me going.

Professor Alex Capps (15:40):

Can I add one idea to just highlight what they just said? Anyway, thanks, you guys. I want to highlight that we do have not a huge program. This is an area of learning about sewing, and adaptive fashion. It's very collaborative. So I want to highlight while yes, I'm teaching these students skills, I also see them teaching each other and they teach themselves. So I see an interest that comes from within each of them. Brinda came to Vanderbilt with wonderful sewing skills. Sophia had sewing skills. Jeremiah has been teaching himself relentlessly. He's been running the lab this summer. He's always in there working. These students are teaching themselves, teaching each other, working together. This is a laboratory that we're working in an experimental laboratory. We're kind of making things up as we go along and we are all collaborators on this journey. And I love that these students are interested in adaptive fashion. They're gaining life skills and empathetic skills from doing it. And I love the fact that we all are learning together because that's really what we're doing.

Marsh Naidoo (16:46):

Because you're not all necessarily taking the same coursework, are you?

Sophia Potter (16:52):

Yeah, so I am majoring in human organizational development and then minoring in business and psychology. So I want to pursue a very business-oriented path, but still pursue that passion for fashion, if you want to call it.

Marsh Naidoo (17:09):

Jeremiah,

Jeremiah Crosswhite (17:12):

I am actually a psychology and art major here and I am looking to go into child research psychology.

Trieu Vy Truong (17:21):

So I'm a human and organizational development and computer science major. And so it's not directly related to fashion, but I feel like those majors are kind of related to everything. So I'm just seeing this interest in fashion and seeing what I can do with it. Right now

Brinda Ambal (17:39):

I'm a neuroscience and child development major and I'm planning on doing a business minor, though I haven't started it yet. And yeah, it's not really related to any of this. This is just something I like to do.

Marsh Naidoo (17:52):

So Brinda, what has been your experience with regard to the disability community?

Brinda Ambal (18:01):

I think my favorite part of, I've only worked on this one project so far since I started last semester, but I think my favorite part of the whole process of human-centered design and the interview part where you sit down with the person who has a disability or the person that you're making something for and you just ask them about their lives and their lived experiences and you see what are your needs? Why are these your needs? How can we maybe broaden the changes that we're making to address your needs so that it can serve as many people as possible in a really efficient way so that maybe it's more easily adapted by the mainstream fashion industry? So those questions and just sitting down and having a moment to moment with that person and just having a conversation, that's honestly my favorite part. And second, to that is obviously being able to give a finished product and seeing how much of an impact it makes in someone's life. But I love the interview part.

Trieu Vy Truong (19:01):

I think my favorite part is Brenda. It's also being able to interview people and hear all of their stories and just being able to grow our empathy and grow our perspective on how other people view the world. And I think we work with Allie Schmidt, who you interviewed last time, and I think hearing her talk about her as a parent and then how in the morning it can be a rush and then having to put on clothes in the morning and then having that 15 minutes to spare makes a difference in the morning and how you just perceive the rest of your day.

Jeremiah Crosswhite (19:32):

Yeah, I have to agree with you and Brenda here, where Iris really love the communicative aspect of it all just because you learn from so many different people's viewpoints, a viewpoint that you don't necessarily have yourself that you could never even really see at any point in time. So just having those different ideas, those different viewpoints that you never could have even thought of just even when you were talking about things outside of the government we're making for them, it's like we're always brainstorming or ideating different things. Especially Allie when she comes in for fittings and everything of the story, we're having a whole different conversation about something completely on the other side of the universe. But even then, we're having a merger of these ideas from people with such different viewpoints and such different life experiences that have guided us to the ideologies that we have now.

Sophia Potter (20:22):

I would've to agree with all of you first off, but to add another favorite part of mine is fashion has always been meaningful to me just because my grandma taught me how to sew. But I think tapping into the adaptive fashion industry and doing these projects that help try and close that gap in the fashion industry has just made it 10 times more meaningful because we get to see real people and the real outcomes or impacts on their lives that we're making, which I just think is really, really awesome.

Marsh Naidoo (20:55):

How do you believe the experience at the Wond'ry is going to add a layer to your future work experience Sophia?

Brinda Ambal (21:06):

I think the Wond'ry does an amazing job at inspiring students and working with them to pursue careers that they might leave behind. Personally for me, my family's very business-oriented. Both my parents and my older sister are in the finance industry. And me being super creative and wanting to work in the fashion industry has always been interesting because I do love the work that they do and I am interested in that. But at the same time, I think the Wond'ry has just kind of told me in a way, Sophia, you can still do this really creative career and be very successful in it. And so I think that's how the Wond'ry is really going to help me in my future work.

(21:50):

Brinda Ambal

(21:53):

I think because the Wond'ry is kind of perceived to be a center of innovation, people come there when they have problems that need solutions. And so just the ability to have all the tools at your hands without any obstacles to be able to tinker around, try different solutions, and see what works. I think that opportunity is so valuable and it's really hard to find anywhere else

Trieu Vy Truong (22:17):

Touching on similar topics. I think a topic we talked about last semester in the course that Brenda was talking about, is that we don't really get an outlet to practice these skills working with our hands. So I think the Wondery is our outlet for that. Most of our classes are theoretical and knowledge-based, so I appreciate the Wond'ry for being there,

Jeremiah Crosswhite (22:39):

Kind of builds off what's been said. I just think that the Wond'ry really just pushes how you think necessarily. And I just feel like since I've been here, I've really just expanded my way of thinking, started thinking in a way that's more abstract in nature almost so that trying to come up with ideas, grabbing from here, here and here instead of just coming one place. And I feel like that will definitely carry on to my career in research psychology where it's pretty much the same thing, trying to come up with ideas that people really haven't thought of yet. So just being here, interacting with so many different people, having that viewpoint expanded so much is really just nice because when I am thinking of these things later in my career, it's like, Hey, I do have a different viewpoint than many other people because I have interacted with so many different groups.

Marsh Naidoo (23:31):

Alex, before we round off the discussion, is there anything that you would like to say, and then I'll pass it on for closing remarks? Yes. I just am listening to what the students say about their experiences with the Wondery.

Professor Alex Capps (23:45):

It is just amazing. I think it's an amazing place too. I love being there. I actually wanted to be there before the building was even built, and I saw a day-long presentation on it seven years ago. So this idea of being there and now having these amazing students is a dream come true to me. And I just want to kind of highlight the idea that the Wond'ry creates a structure through my classes. I create a structure, but the students come in and they are the problem solvers. They're the ones who fill that structure in. We're often kind of working in a place that doesn't have rules or steps laid out and Brinda and Trieu were both super and Sophia when she took the common seminar two years ago in Brenda, Tireu last spring, it was sort of a loosely structured class. Their goal was to design two pieces of outerwear, I think 12 students altogether, collaborative design, which isn't always a great idea by doing what Brenda's saying to have these wonderful interviews with our community partners, Allie and Alicia, and then they had to kind of figure out how to move forward.

(24:52):

And I was just in it along for the ride with them. I see us as working together and the Wondr'y gives that structure. We set up a structure and then the students are encouraged to run with their ideas, develop their ideas, and work together. And to me, that's really the excitement in academia. I mean, I always wanted to think of my classroom as a laboratory and now I'm really running a laboratory and these guys are the inventors, the scientists out-of-the-box thinkers, the problem solvers. So to hear them express these ideas is exactly what I love about education. So I'm just really grateful to these guys because, without them, I wouldn't have an adaptive fashion program. We wouldn't be doing the work that we're doing, and we're kind of on an upward trajectory. I mean, we're just beginning this. And so having these four students be spokespeople for this initiative is going to push it further.

(25:52):

And I do believe that by bringing in our community partners with physical disabilities, the students gain so much as universal citizens going out into the world. They will understand inclusivity, they might have people with disabilities in the workplace. They'll think of them as equals and maybe be problem-solving for them to make their workspace more inclusive. I just feel like the work they're doing and that we're all doing together is just very positive and serves the world moving to a more inclusive and better place. So I'm just grateful to all these students and the Wond'ry.

Marsh Naidoo (26:33):

Any closing remarks that you would like to make just in general?

Brinda Ambal (26:39):

Yeah, I am really grateful for my time at the Wond'ry and I know we have some exciting projects in the future, so I'm excited to get back to school and work on those. And I would just want to say thank you for having me on the podcast. It's been a great experience.

Marsh Naidoo (26:55):

Pleasure. Trieu

(26:57):

Yeah, so I feel like I'm very hopeful for the future and the trajectory of the Fab

(27:03):

Lab. And

(27:04):

I think it's just a lot bigger than just simply adaptive fashion because all the highly developed countries have aging populations, and as you age, you get weaker. So I think universal design doesn't necessarily just benefit people with disabilities, but literally every person who ages.

Brinda Ambal (27:20):

Yeah. I also just want to say how grateful I am, and it's been lovely being on this podcast meeting you, talking to you, and having this discussion. I think the most important thing about this kind of field is having discussions like these because I know two years ago I had no clue what adaptive fashion meant what it actually does and how you work in that field. But now in the span of two years, I've learned so much, but I do know there's so much more to learn in the future. And so I just think having these discussions, spreading awareness about what this field is and how we can really make a difference is super important. So thank you!

Marsh Naidoo (28:02):

Jeremiah.

Trieu Vy Truong (28:05):

Like what's been said, adaptive fashion isn't just fashion for people with disabilities, it's really fashion for anybody as adaptive fashion can be something applicable to you at any moment. You can become disabled at the snap of a finger necessarily. So just keep that in mind, just helping to push the field forward is really just helping everybody out necessarily, like at any moment it could be you.

Marsh Naidoo (28:30):

Well guys, thank you so much for your time this morning, Alex. Thank you for this amazing idea of bringing these bright young minds together. I mean, it's been an absolute pleasure talking and interacting with them, and I look forward to seeing you sometime this fall.

Professor Alex Capps (28:51):

Absolutely. Thank you so much for this opportunity, marsh. We've loved it and I've loved hearing what the students have to say. Just like Sophia said, we should have these dialogues more often. So this is unique, but we're going to do it again in the future. So thank you so much for the opportunity, and for the students, for being here.

Marsh Naidoo (29:08):

Alright guys, well listen, best of luck moving forward in each one of your respective careers. Just really excited to see what the future holds for you, and just keeping disability as a consideration goes towards making a more inclusive world, and I believe that's something we all strive for. So thank you again for your time.

(29:37):

Thank you for listening along on the podcast today.

(29:40):

Again, if you are in Nashville on October 7, 2023, be sure to check out the Tennessee Makerfest happening at the Wondery Vanderbilt Center of Innovation and Design. We are super excited to announce that our upcoming book, A Story of Disability, will be coming up soon in about two to three weeks’ time. So be sure to keep an eye on our website www.raisingkellan.org be sure to be on the lookout for that news release until we see you guys the next time. As always, remember, get to the top of your mountain. This is Marsh Naidoo signing off.