Allison Steffen, a junior Apparel and Textile Design major and Citizen Scholar, received second place and a $2,500 scholarship in a national design competition that challenged students to reimagine fashion and function for wheelchair users.

The Fashion For All Student Design Competition, sponsored by the Runway of Dreams Foundation and the American Association of Textile Chemists and Colorists (AATCC), prompted students to design clothing or accessory items for wheelchair users. The students were asked to research their target market and reflect that knowledge into their designs while making them both fashionable and functional.

Steffens’ award-winning design, titled “Sea Stars,” is a water-resistant jacket for women inspired by starfish.

It’s important to create accessible pieces such as this one because the fashion industry often does not create garments that meet the needs of wheelchair users while also staying fashion forward and on trend.

“I chose starfish as my concept because they are resilient and can re-grow a lost arm,” said Steffen, who translated the starfish concept into her design by creating a jacket with detachable sleeves.

This multifunctional garment can easily be turned into a vest by removing the sleeves and becomes a jacket with the sleeves. 

“It’s important to create accessible pieces such as this one because the fashion industry often does not create garments that meet the needs of wheelchair users while also staying fashion forward and on trend,” Steffen said.

Steffen first producing and submitting a storyboard where she conceptualized her idea and showed inspirational images, colors, and specific fabric swatches. Once she was selected as a finalist, she created the garment out of fabric and produced a video documentation.

MSU’s ATD program is an avant-garde program that really pushes me to be creative even when designing a ready-to-wear garment.

What really made Steffens’ piece stand out was the detachable sleeves, “it’s a creative element that adds another layer of function to a single garment,” she said. 

The modifications made to the jacket also helped make the design stand out. Steffen added magnetic buttons and velcro at the closures instead of zippers, shortened sleeves so they wouldn’t get caught in the wheels of the chair, and made the garment shorter in the back and longer in the front to cover the user’s knees.

“The Apparel and Textile Design program at MSU enabled me to create the pattern for the jacket,” Steffen said. “MSU’s ATD program is an avant-garde program that really pushes me to be creative even when designing a ready-to-wear garment.”

This is the second year for the Fashion For All Student Design Competition. For more information on the competition, visit the AATCC website.