As a blind student, I had never expected to sit in the front row in the London Fashion Week

I grew up surrounded by fashion. My mother was fashion designer, so we had stacks of fashion Around the house. I liked the color and texture of clothing in all recordings. Then I studied architecture at Central Saint Martins, which has one of the best fashion design programs in Great Britain.

CSM is full of creatively dressed fashion mode students, but sometimes I felt that I noticed more than everyone, simply because I was one of the few visibly disabled students on college. I am blindly registered – I am at the sight of blind, so I have a usable vision, but I rely on a blind dog. My friends would be happy about all the fashion shows and exhibitions, but for me the models were like blobs in the distance. I never really felt locked.

So when I received an Instagram DM from Hair & Care who invited me to the Roksanda show at London Fashion Week, I couldn’t have been more excited. Hair & Care is an incredible organization that offers workshops for hairdressing shops for women with blind and low vision. In 2024 they started working with fashion designers to make their shows accessible to blind and sensitive guests.

The program actually started with a visit to the studio about a week before the show when the designer Roksanda Iinlincic welcomed us to her busy studio East London. She faced a large rail of show outfits and presented the collection. She explained that she was a special one because she marked the 20th anniversary of her brand. She brought the clothes to us and talked about why she had made certain decisions. It was incredible to become practical and actually feel the construction and extent of the details and the complexity of each piece. It was an astonishing opportunity to feel the details that I can’t see.

She also told us that she studied architecture and applied art before turning to fashion design. I am an architectural designer and researcher who studies in architecture for my MA – my ethos is that the design should not simply be functional for disabled people. It should also take joy, pleasure and beauty into account, just like for everyone else. I could really see the influence of architecture on Roksanda’s design to improve the building and make it visible. So I felt this unexpected affinity for Roksanda based on our joint training.

The power of fashion

There is a misunderstanding that blind and sensitive people are not included in fashion or do not take care of what we look like, because fashion is so visual. But that’s completely wrong. Why didn’t we want to be involved? Blinds want beautiful things. If at all, we are more tactical and are interested in the multi -sensory, so we often take care of how things feel. We want to feel good and we want to look good. Even if it is visible to everyone in a way, it has something that has an impact on how we are perceived and treated by other people.

When it comes to my style, my disability has an impact on how I get dressed. I think that as a visibly disabled person I don’t just go out of the house in occasional clothing and that I can get the same treatment as everyone else. When I go to the supermarket in my pajamas, everyone will think: “Oh, look at this poor blind girl.” I tend to dress smarter because I think I get more respect from people when I am disguised. I slid more smoothly in London.

Of course, I spent a lot of time to think about what to put on for the show. The starting point of my outfit was a vintage -muster blazer from the 1980s that belonged to my grandma. It suits me like a glove and it felt like such a beautiful connection to her; It was almost like she was with me at the show. I wore it with a pants with wide legs in dark green from Zara and some mustard pumps that match the blazer. I like to color things when I can. I think many people expect blind people to wear a random mix of clothes, do not wear suitable socks, such things. So many of us work so hard to look together, and I would like to express it in my outfit. I know that people will stare at me, whatever I wear. I am usually the only visibly disabled person in a certain room. The appearance in rooms in which people do not expect to look cool and the appearance of microactism as a tiny way of being visible and slowly changing, one person after the other.

The big day

I was very excited to arrive at the Chancery Rosewood, the Central London Hotel, where Roksanda held her show. All hair and care guests arrived at the venue a few hours earlier so that we could talk and get to know each other before an audio session before the show. The Hair & Care team gave us a book with fabric patterns so that we could feel the textures and explore the fabrics up close – we heard an introduction of Roksanda and an audio description of the most important substances in the collection.

Then it was time to go to the show room, a huge ballroom. Experience Roksanda’s designs on the show itself was definitely different from meeting them in their studio. It was much more dramatic to see everything on the runway. Each aspect was taken into account and directed and connected.

I benefit from the contrast so that the lighting was useful to convey a feeling for the shapes of the clothing. One of my favorite pieces was a blue dress with excerpts over the chest and around the bust – it was so beautifully built. But the real highlights for me were the dramatic silhouettes. A large, light blue coat cape had the most amazing shape and sucked down on the runway. Other outstanding dresses were the dresses that looked like simple black dresses from the front, but when the model was over, their movement revealed this unexpected flash of red and orange.

It really contributed to having the reason for the Touch Tour and some previous knowledge of the materials. My eyesight is about getting my brain in what I see and try to find out what it is ahead of me. After I felt some of the clothes before and heard the audio descriptions of hair and care, I really helped me to process what I was looking at. The audio reminded me of the materials and provided further information about styling. There was information about aspects that I would have tried to perceive – things like the hair and shoes and the other small details that pull together a look.

I also loved it to lose the atmosphere. I had no idea how multisensory the fashion show would be. When we penetrated the doors into the ballroom, there was a completely different fragrance than in the lobby. The music added a feeling of drama. And the Raffia dresses! They could hear them when they rustled.

What the experience really made something special was to share her with the other blind and sensitive guests of hair and care. I am used to being the only blind or disabled person in most rooms. The only person in a room can require a lot of emotional determination. So sit next to three other blind girls, talked about life, share stories, compared sticks and blind dogs and is not the only person in this room – it was just so refreshing and confirming. Only the best. I felt like I was there.

As far as I know, there are currently no blind architects who practice in Great Britain. I don’t have someone to look at this way. I think it’s similar in fashion. When I was sitting in the front row, I introduced myself to a younger blind girl who learned about hair and care and thought: “One day I can perhaps go to a fashion show.”

I don’t actually buy much fashion, mainly as a sustainability consideration, but also because a capsule wardrobe is facilitated. Beyond the internship, there is a lot of what I wear is based on emotions and sentimentality – that’s why I love my grandmother’s blazer. After today I think I may need something from Roksanda in my wardrobe.

Mohn Levison is a disabled activist, architecture designer, researcher and tutor. As Emily Cronin tells

Find out more about Hair & Care’s workshops and accessible hairandcareprroject.com And on Instagram @Hairandcareproject And @Makingfashionacessable.