Adaptive fashion brand JAM The Label is partnering with A Fitting Connection to give people with disabilities new opportunities in fashion creation.
Through a new partnership – supported by funding through the Penfolds Evermore Grant Program – people with disabilities will be offered the opportunity to create or contribute to the creation of new products for JAM using an accessible felting machine. The products will be made of textile waste, therefore reducing JAM’s impact on the environment.
The Penfolds Evermore Grant will support the acquisition of a felt loom for the project.
Co-founder Emma Clegg said JAM’s relationship with A Fitting Connection goes back to JAM’s beginnings.
“As we started JAM with a background and expertise in disability and not fashion design, we really needed assistance with the whole design and production process. We reached out to A Fitting Connection who at that point was a local business that helped small fashion brands and designers connect with the services they required in the production process. A Fitting Connection helped us with everything from getting our first samples made, to connecting us with our manufacturers and helping us with our designs,” she explained.
Progress in adaptive fashion
Clegg said adaptive fashion “has come a long way since we first started JAM in 2019” – but she feels “there’s still a long way to go”.
“Mainstream fashion events like Melbourne Fashion Week and Melbourne Fashion Festival continue to invite JAM back to participate in their mainstream runways which is such a positive sign of the mainstream industry acknowledging Adaptive Fashion having a place. However, we feel like as a small business our ability to push the message of disability inclusion within the larger mainstream fashion industry is limited,” she explained.
“Most people we talk to both within and outside of the disability community have never heard of adaptive clothing because the big brands aren’t talking about it. We at JAM continue to push for further inclusion to increase the opportunities for those with disability in the fashion industry.”
The label is hoping to experience “significant growth” over the next year, she added, and hopes to use that growth to have a stronger impact on the wider fashion industry and “create lasting change” for customers with disability.
Clegg said JAM wants to “lead by example in how other big brands can be inclusive of their consumers with disability”.