Adapting fashion for the disabled

Not enough brands care to dress the disabled well but a few designers are creating adaptive clothing that's stylish

- + Mahalakshmi Prabhakaran

A few weeks before he was to receive the National Award for Empowerment of Divyangjan from President Droupadi Murmu in December 2023, Sai Kaustuv Dashgupta got into a serious discussion with his mother. "Receiving the award was one of my biggest accomplishments and since the event would be live on channels, I had to look my best. My mother and I had a brainstorming session on what I should wear for the ceremony," Dashgupta, 34, recalls. An accessibility advocate, TEDx speaker and happiness coach, Dashgupta was conferred the award for his contributions to improving diversity, accessibility and inclusivity.

The Bengaluru resident suffers from osteogenesis imperfecta, or brittle bone disease, which has him wheelchair bound. "As a wheelchair champion and motivational speaker, I am representing myself every time I get on stage, so I need to take care of how I look," says Dashgupta, whose singular style is pairing kurtas or T-shirts with dhotis or veshtis and matching stoles or angavastram. "It's a good combination and easy to wear," he says.

For the National Award ceremony, held in Vigyan Bhawan in Delhi on 3 December (International Day of Persons with Disabilities), Dashgupta wore a tailored paisley-patterned bright blue kurta with a red dhoti and a matching sleeveless jacket. While he credits his mother who tailors his outfits for the compliments that come his way, Dashgupta is quick to point out a glaring blind spot in the Indian fashion space: the minimal presence of adaptive fashion brands. The way he has managed to keep his wardrobe updated is by shopping—mostly online—from men's plus-size brands and customizing the clothes to fit him.