Why the Adaptive Apparel Industry is Lagging in Lingerie

10 years ago, there were almost no companies that offered adaptive clothing. Despite the 600 million women worldwide that experience difficulty dressing due to their disability, the fashion industry didn't seem to care. There were no adaptive clothing pieces circling worldwide in the fashion industry or fashionable pants for wheelchair users. It's no secret that the fashion industry has never been inclusive, particularly in terms of disability inclusion. The typical runway show for any designer seems to consist of one size of models walking with no disabilities or diverse representation in models.

Thankfully, our world is evolving (even if it is slowly) to create a more diverse representation of models and people in the industry. We're thrilled that it's becoming much more comfortable for disabled people to find their place not only in the apparel industry, but also when they buy from it. Some of the adaptive brands we've mentioned before include Tommy Hilfiger, Zappos, and others, however we've seen a huge gap in the industry for disabled women: adaptive lingerie.

When shopping for adaptive clothing, it's become easier to find adaptive shirts, adaptive pants, or even adaptive dresses. However, finding a disabled-friendly bra or adaptive underwear that's actually cute is seemingly impossible. When you do a quick search of

'disabled-friendly lingerie' or 'adaptive bra' you get options similar to those featured below.

Even worse, when you search up 'adaptive underwear', these are the options you'll see.

Now don't get me wrong, I'm thrilled that anything comes up when you search this because like I said before, 10 years ago there may have been 0 results. However, these pieces just aren't as fashionable or as functional as they could be. The bras are lacking so heavily in technology and the underwear practically have no adaptive technology at all. There should be options that make women feel sexy and empowered.

In contrast, here are the images that come up when you search 'lingerie'.

So it begs the question, why are the results so different when I search 'lingerie' than when I search 'adaptive lingerie'? There shouldn't be such a disparity between the two sets of results, and our goal is to reduce that disparity greatly. There is no reason why sexy adaptive lingerie for women with disabilities should not exist.

The problem is that in the fashion industry and in life in general, a ridiculous stigma exists about sex and disability, and no one wants to talk about it. No one is asking disabled women what they really want, or what kind of lingerie would make them feel sexy.

At Liberare, this is our goal, to create incredible sexy adaptive bras and adaptive underwear that make you feel empowered. It's taken too long for this shift to happen and it's time that we finally change the industry. Big things are coming soon at Liberare and we couldn't be more excited to share them with you.

This article is one of many we have on the Liberare.co blog. To read more stories from disabled women click here, to shop our newest adaptive lingerie click here, and to join our amazing community of empowered disabled women click here!