London Fashion Week is taking steps towards greater inclusivity with a new initiative offering blind and low-vision guests the chance to experience collections through touch, sound and fabric samples. Designer Chet Lo hosted a 'touch tour' before his catwalk show, allowing a small group to feel the textures and silhouettes of his latest pieces, from spiky back panels to soft feather appliqués.
The event was organised by Making Fashion Accessible, a project launched in 2024 by the non-profit Hair & Care, founded by celebrity hairstylist Anna Cofone. After the tactile preview, guests were seated front row with headphones delivering live audio descriptions of each look, alongside booklets containing swatches of the fabrics used. Attendees described the impact of the experience, with Jane Manley, a data analyst at the Royal National Institute of Blind People, saying that as a fully blind person, she could 'connect the energy of the room with the swatch booklet and audio description to create a picture of each look in my mind.'
Model and beautician Livi Deane, who lost her right eye to cancer at age 12, noted that without the swatches she would 'struggle to see texture' due to poor depth perception. Disability activist Catrin Pugh, who has vision loss from a 2013 accident, said the experience gave her 'the feeling that sight loss takes away', enabling her to sense details she would otherwise miss.
Cofone, whose father was blind, said the initiative challenges the misconception that blind or low-vision people do not care about fashion. 'Dressing well really helped him retain his identity and independence,' she explained. She began with hair and self-care workshops before expanding to make fashion week more accessible, teaming up with designers including Roksanda, Erdem and SS.Daley.
Chet Lo, known for tactile garments worn by celebrities such as Doja Cat and Kylie Jenner, has been involved from the start. He said blind and low-vision people are 'really overlooked' in the industry, adding: 'I wanted to prove to other designers that it is really easy to integrate this demographic into our work.' The move comes as the so-called 'purple pound' – the spending power of disabled people and their households – was estimated to be worth £274bn in 2023, a cohort the fashion industry has often failed to serve.
