People always say that history repeats itself, and I think history also shines a light on the unknown future, or at least we can find some patterns from the past to guide ourselves in present. I recently watched Prof. Jessica Glasscock’s talk on the evolution of eyewear, which briefly covers the history of fashionable eyewear. The transformation of eyewear as objects of necessity into objects of desire enhanced my belief in inclusive design particularly in clothing and gave me a different angle to reevaluate today’s advocacy of inclusive design.

Prof. Glasscock covered the form of eyewear, and how the broad audience accepted it from functionalities and fashionability perspectives over time. A strong driving force of such transformation was the evolving technology, which I believe would culture a similar revolution in the current inclusive clothing market. The increasing perfection of eyewear design remodeled the role of it from a necessary corrective tool to a powerful design to have the privilege of augmented vision. And, the full acceptance of glasses was not until the 1930-1940s when the innovations in plastic and lens making made sunglasses a fashionable and functional accessory that was widely desired. By comparison, currently, inclusive clothing is not commonly adopted yet and still undergoes some challenges in design methodology, cost, and so on. And in my opinion, there is still a long way to go before having adaptive apparel that is accessible to a diverse population. However, I am also rooted in inclusive technology and believe that these problems will be solved as more and more people shifting their practices towards inclusivity and developing new design thinking patterns and methods. Could you imagine that eventually, technology enables practical inclusive clothing design and eliminates “bad designs”? For instance, according to Time magazine, “True sizing standards didn’t develop until the 1940s” (Stampler, 2014). Thanks to modern technology, data analysis and massive factory productions allow brands to have “petite” and “plus” sizes to make fit and inclusive clothes. Hence, I’m excited to see how inclusive design will make our clothes more functional and fashionable thus desired by everyone.

Even though technical barriers might appear to be the main obstacle in the development of adaptive apparel, we also need to raise awareness of this topic and change the public’s understanding of inclusive design. As mentioned in the talk, eyewear was initially associated with infirmity, and thus only people who “needed it” needed it. Similarly, many companies feature consumers of inclusive clothing as disabled or marginalized and not everyone considers themselves as potential customers who would be benefited from adaptive apparel. More inclusive design products would emerge and the adaptable apparel market would bloom if people recognize the harms of non-inclusive clothing design and treat them as poorly designed products. To truly make inclusive designed clothing universal, I think the key is to convey the importance of inclusivity to everyone. Just like how eyewear was later thought as a marker of the intelligentsia, we need to appeal to the general public to appreciate the elegance of inclusive clothing and make it popular. And then, designers and clothing companies would include accessibility evaluation in their design since inclusive clothing is cool!