Friday 11 September 2015

Who are the experts on hardwearing clothing?



Do you want to know how to make sure your clothes are as hardwearing as possible? 

Which brands you can trust to sell you stuff that won't fall apart after a couple of washes?

I think I've identified the right people to go to for advice!

If you are a regular reader you'll know that I'm finding it tough to manage the challenge of sticking to 35 items of clothing for the full year. Not because I'm bored (though sometimes I am), but because my clothes don’t seem to be up to it - not even 4 months in and my t-shirts are limp, and one of my pairs of shoes has basically disintegrated. It is all in all a bit disappointing. (It also led to me having this rant about feminism and fashion)

Any way a couple of weeks back I was at a work meeting and hung around at the end to catch up with some colleagues. We got to talking about the challenge and my reasons for doing it. We were laughing about the fact that despite me having been in the meeting for ages I was still soaking wet. 

One of my colleagues started to tell me about the clothes he was wearing. And for once I listened to a man giving clothes recommendations rather than just tuning him out.

Now usually when men talk to me about what I should wear I smile nicely and ignore them. There is really only two ways they can go with this:

1) Telling me what they think 'looks nice'. *takes a deep breath* Stop right there. I don't exist to ornament your life. Consider how long you want to live before you say another word. 

2) Telling me how they make their clothes last longer. I’m pretty cynical about this as a result of 14 years in a relationship with a man who fixes his clothes with cable ties and gaffer tape. I mean the clothes still technically function but......

So why did I listen to this particular man? I'd love to say it's because he's a trusted colleague, wise and forward thinking all of which he is, and that's why I listen to him on work matters. But I listened to him on clothing for a different reason. He's a wheelchair user.

Why do I mention this? Because over the course of my career I've known a lot of people who use wheelchairs and I've learnt their clothes have to be very very robust. In fact Scope reckons clothes cost an extra £100 a month in wear and tear if you use a wheelchair, £1200 a year! So you can imagine having hardwearing clothes becomes a real priority.

If you are a wheelchair user starting a capsule wardrobe try reading this blog from wheelchair mommy

Dependant on the level of mobility you have in the rest of your body it can actually be quite a workout getting your clothes on. So your clothes need to be easy to get on & off, ideally waterproof or water resistant, they need to be breathable, and they need to be pretty tough. Wheelchairs have all manner of parts you can catch you clothes on and transfers on and off the chair provide loads of opportunities to damage your clothing.

So in a conversation about hardwearing practical clothes, I knew Phil had some real knowledge to share - if he was recommending clothes he'd been on Safari in - they'd definitely have the toughness they'd need for a year with me.

The brand he recommended (Rohan) do some pretty nice stuff too.

But it got me thinking that rather that looking all over the internet for advice about hardwearing clothes I should be talking to the people I know put their clothes through their paces about what works for them. So if we're out together and you use a wheelchair you are going to get asked where you buy your clothes - be warned!

Where do you suggest I find hardwearing (& nice) clothes?


If you want to read more about the extra cost people with disabilities face the extra costs commission report is here.



Did you know Contact a Family’s 2014 Counting the Costs research found that 65% of families of disabled children are going without essentials like clothes to cover these extra costs? 



Some of those families who go without clothes to cover the extra costs have children who use wheelchairs - many do not. I'm always reluctant to talk about the challenges faced by wheelchair users because I'm wary of that 'ramps are the answer to equality' chain of thought that used to be how we thought of accessibility. Some of the extra costs families face are because of entirely different types of additional needs. Sometimes their children's childcare costs more, because they need adaptations to their homes not just ramps, but things like blackout blinds to minimise the impact of their child's sleep condition, or because travel to appointments is expensive and parking costs when you get there even more so.



You can help by donating to contact a family here.


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