New TV show ‘Fashion Dis’ showcases people with disabilities

When Ardra Shephard introduced home her first rollator from a health care source store in 2017, she cried. “It was so geriatric and medical,” suggests the Toronto-dependent Shephard, who writes the weblog “Tripping on Air” and has come to be a very well-acknowledged advocate for persons residing with a number of sclerosis given that she been given her analysis in her early 20s. Even after portray it with gun-metallic grey Dior nail polish, it nevertheless did not seem like one thing she would have picked for herself. In her mid-30s at the time, Shepherd was a lot more fond of accessorizing with statement necklaces and knee-superior boots than mobility aids. But she was established not to allow her disability have an impact on her perception of fashion and managed to source a sleek rollator from Europe that seemed like a modernist sculpture. To commemorate her new appear, she hired a photographer, makeup artist and stylist to help her execute a superior-manner picture shoot that she posted on Instagram, hashtagging the shots #babeswithmobilityaids.

Out of this knowledge arrived the thought for “Fashion Dis,” a new makeover display premiering Feb. 9 on AMI-tv set, a not-for-gain digital Television channel with programming that focuses on disability and broadcasts with closed captions and explained audio for people who are hearing or visually impaired. “‘Fashion Dis’ speaks to the way the disability community has been dissed or excluded from the mainstream fashion and beauty market,” states Shephard, who serves as host.

Each episode follows a diverse makeover-deserving applicant whose incapacity complicates their potential to order the kinds of outfits they would like to use. On one particular episode, Melissa Asselstine, a female with dwarfism who is worn out of shopping in the childrens portion, wishes a new wardrobe to replicate the glamourous, alluring female she is.

On a different, Christa Couture, who has an opulent floral prosthetic leg, asks the glam team, which involves renowned adaptive designer Izzy Camilleri, to elevate her out of her “mom rut” and develop a polished, assured glimpse that’s just as wonderful as the prosthesis she wears every working day.

Discovering individuals to surface on the display was not hard. Following placing out an open up casting contact, Shephard says, the response was “overwhelming.”

In contrast to classic makeover shows this sort of as “The Swan,” “Extreme Makeover” and “What Not to Don,” “Fashion Dis” isn’t trying to repair anyone. Alternatively, “it’s about offering a system to people today to truly feel elevated and celebrated,” Shephard claims. “The photograph shoot element of the show was really significant to me simply because the canon of higher trend photographs that exist [depicting] people with disabilities is practically nonexistent.”

1 of the most progressive components of the present is its refusal to pander to popular tropes pertaining to disability. Rather of recounting a subject’s harrowing psychological journey, “Fashion Dis” focuses on the positive, uplifting factors of each and every makeover. We view subjects find out how to place on the perfect purple lip and store for apparel that operates for their bodies. The present is permeated by an in general feeling of pleasure. In every scene, it is clear how significantly pleasure every single participant is obtaining from the practical experience. When brief-statured Asselstine’s hair goes from primary blonde to flirty fire-motor purple and she trades in her casual leggings for a vampy, human body-conscious outfit replete with a alluring pair of pumps — an product she’s under no circumstances been able to find in her dimension — her confidence goes, she says, “from zero to 100 actual fast.”

“The disability local community has not usually benefited from accountable or correct storytelling in the television and entertainment business,” states Shephard, who sees “Fashion Dis” as an option to suitable these wrongs.

The intent of the series is to deliver a lot-necessary representation for disabled men and women as very well as showcase the wealth of variety that exists within just it. Just about every makeover is intended to be an empowering practical experience since it creates aspirational illustrations or photos that give other “people with disabilities examples of who they could be,” states Shephard. Outside of representation, the exhibit “is a way to assist stimulate advocacy and a delight in the neighborhood itself.”

And this is only the beginning. “Hopefully we get extra seasons,” Shephard suggests, “because there are a good deal additional tales to be advised.”