“Clothes are not a frivolous subject, and the conversation around them should not be belittled.” – Sinead Bourke

Clothing makes you feel things. It’s how we express ourselves and has a huge impact on the way a person interacts with the world. At JAM, we believe in the power of fashion and believe that everybody deserves to feel cool in the clothes they wear. 

So who is JAM?  JAM is an inclusive fashion brand designed with people with disability in mind. All of JAM’s product have design features that make getting dressed easier, or out items more comfortable to wear. JAM was founded by us, Emma and Molly, two Occupational Therapists working in the disability sector. We created JAM for two client’s who we worked with as disability support workers, Jack and Maddie (hence our name – JAM!). Dressing was a daily struggle for Jack and Maddie, and as teenagers they were often forced to dress outside their age bracket and style, simply because items were easier to put on. 

As OTs we were always taught that if you can’t change the way a person does a task, you change the equipment. We look at what the difficulties are with dressing for a wide variety of people and use universal design principles to create inclusive fashion options that everyone can wear with pride. 

Often when people think of adaptive fashion, they think it will benefit those with physical disability, such as a wheelchair user. And that’s completely true. However, we encourage therapists to think about how adaptive fashion can benefit all their clients in different ways. 

Adaptive fashion can assist:

• Those with intellectual disabilities (may experience difficulty with matching up buttons or doing up zips)
• Those with chronic fatigue or pain (doing up a shirt may take all their energy and mean they’re not able to participate in other meaningful activities)
• Those with sensory differences (for whom tags and seams can be incredibly distressing or frustrating)

As adaptive and inclusive fashion assists with the act of dressing, it is therefore considered Low Cost Assistive Technology by the National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS) and can be purchased through participants plans. 

We are offering information / PD sessions where we can show therapists our products in-person and provide education around the benefits of adaptive fashion. Please reach out to us at hello@jamthelabel.com for more information.