M&S launches first high street range for kids with disabilities

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Sep 28, 2018

M&S has launched its newest kidswear range, called Adapted for Easy Dressing. Following its Easy Dressing schoolwear range and specialist sleepsuits, it said it’s the first high street retailer to launch daywear for kids with sensory or physical disabilities in Britain. And the range, which is available online-only, is made in sizes up to age 15-16.

The company said that it started with a survey of 300 parents and the kidswear range was in development for more than two years, being “conceived, designed and developed in partnership with customers including parents from three specialist schools.”

All the clothes have been made with “the softest materials, fewest seams possible and hidden care labels. They’ve also been created to have a nod to fashion without adding unnecessary detail,” we’re told. 

Rebecca Garner, Kidswear Designer at M&S, developed the range with Buyer Emma Chang and Technologist Charlotte Hunt. Garner said: “Parents told us that disabilities don’t define their children, so the adaptations shouldn’t define their clothes, it’s why all the products are inclusively designed and modelled closely on our main collection. So whilst big sister might wear a dress with sequins, the little one who wants to match but has sensory needs will have a softer glitter. And parents purchasing Easy Dressing products will never pay more.”

Specific product innovations include trousers and shorts with the zips and buttons replaced by a straightforward popper; leggings with flat-lock seams that are mainly used in sports leggings; T-shirts with a soft velcro fastening at the back of the neck for easy over-the-head dressing; T-shirts and dresses with discreet pockets for a feeding tube; coats and gilets with Velcro down the front and back so they’re easier to put on by those in a wheelchair; shirts with soft Velcro behind the buttons; and baby onesies with dimensions to allow for a cast, suitable for babies with hip dysplasia.