If Sema Gedik is allowed to edit Mick's back with needles, she is in her element. She kneels in front of a mirror in the Berlin University of Applied Sciences and puts a shirt on the back. The back should be narrower. Her model is the 23-year-old Mick. He measures 1.30 meters. He is one of about 100,000 young people in Germany, and like almost all he has difficulty finding suitable clothing.
"What I want is for me to communicate with my customers: which products are missing, which clothes have to be tailored, and how do we meet at eye level?" Says Gedik. "At eye level" is the name of her fashion label. She has already designed dozens of special size clothing. She is one of the first designers in the world to take on this topic. Large brands often only produce standard sizes, which is a real frustration factor for the little ones. And the children's department is no solution for the clothes shopping.
"As a woman, I can not go there," says Model Janina, who is also there to try on today, "because the dimensions are not right up there, because there's no extra space for the chest, which just does not suit me." For adults, shopping is a torture: "Most salespeople have no idea about our physique," says Mick, "they send you to a tailor, which is expensive and frustrating."
The problem: In most forms of short stature, the proportions of the body are different than in large people. The most common form is achondroplasia. The butt is a bit more expansive in the affected person, arms and legs are shorter than in people without short stature. When the sweater fits the shoulders, it is often too long on the arms. Gedik wants to change that. She has developed her own clothing size chart for young adults and measured hundreds of people - from 80 to 140 centimeters in height.
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Fashion for the little ones: "As a woman I can not go there""Overall, the body is rounder and shorter in short people, so I place wrinkles, darts, and the cut differently," says Gedik. "I also had to find out which cuts and styles look really good, such as low-waisted trousers and oversize clothing, as well as flounce blouses or calf-length overcoats, which are rather unfavorable."
In the future she wants to systematically scan her models and work with 3-D avatars. Special shoes for small people are in the planning, and Gedik already has his own tailor doll in the studio.
It all started with a university project and her cousin Funda, who is also short-lived. "She was my inspiration," says the designer. In the meantime, she has even presented her fashion at the Berlin Fashion Week. The fashion show was also a protest. "I wanted to show the fashion industry: You've missed something completely here! Look at these beautiful people who present themselves here professionally, and we give them a voice here."
The appeal for more diversity in fashion is having an effect: The fashion company Tommy Hilfiger is now supporting Gedik's work financially and through coaching. Two former classmates help with the marketing. So far, the collection is only sold via a website and on order. But Gedik firmly believes that "at eye level" can get even bigger. Their goal: living inclusion in haute couture and mainstream fashion: "Anyone can have a disability tomorrow, and my dream is to make it possible for all people to be 'normal', even outside the home standards. "
Even large labels are starting their first attempts with so-called "adaptive fashion", fashion for people with physical limitations. The British label "Asos", for example, has launched wheelchair-friendly overalls with Paralympic athlete Chloe Ball-Hopkins. The American fashion retailer "Zappos" has a whole line of easy-to-open clothes on offer. And in Germany, the label "Rollimoden" sells garments that are specially designed to meet the needs of wheelchair users: The designers avoid, among other things, pockets, rivets and leather labels that can lead to bruises.
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The potential market for such products is hundreds of millions, according to the American consultancy Coherent Market Insights. At eye level "could be just the beginning of a big trend.
Fitted fashion in style instead of Mickey Mouse and Batman sweaters. For Mick and Janina, the designs by Gedik are already a stroke of luck: "That gives me a lot more self-confidence and a better self-awareness," says Janina. She wears a dark green culotte pant from Sema's new collection today. In addition a striped top.
Gedik is obviously proud. She has just shown her collection at the first "Diversity Fashion Days" in Hamburg. She is convinced: size, weight, skin color - all this will no longer matter in fashion.
