For Anna Cofone, a celebrated hairstylist to stars, the drive to make fashion accessible began at home. Growing up with a father who was blind, she saw how his meticulous approach to dressing helped him retain his identity and independence as he lost his eyesight. “There is this preconceived idea that a blind or low-vision person won’t care about how they look and actually that couldn’t be further from the truth,” Cofone says. This personal insight led her to found the non-profit Hair & Care in 2019, and from it, the “Making Fashion Accessible” initiative which launched in 2024, aiming to tear down barriers in an industry often defined by the visual.
Her initiative is now bringing a multi-sensory revolution to the front rows of London Fashion Week. At a recent show by designer Chet Lo, six guests with low vision or blindness were first invited to a private “touch tour.” They stood huddled around Lo as he talked them through his new collection, passing around garments for them to feel. “If you put your hands out and run your fingers along this skirt, you’ll feel that there are soft feathers appliquéd on to it,” Lo explained of an emerald green piece, demonstrating how tactile understanding can replace sight.
This hands-on preview was just the first layer. Guests then took front-row seats equipped with headphones for live audio descriptions of each catwalk look, alongside a booklet containing physical swatches of the fabrics used. The combination creates a rich, inclusive experience. “I am fully blind so I got so much out of it,” said Jane Manley, a data analyst at the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB). “I can connect that energy with the swatch booklet and the audio description to create a picture of each look in my mind.”
Piecing Together the Puzzle
For the participants, each with different levels and causes of vision loss, the service restores a sense of full engagement often denied to them. Model and beautician Livi Deane, who lost her right eye to cancer at age 12, said her depth perception is poor. “With the swatch booklet and audio descriptions, I feel I am not missing out on anything,” she noted.
Disability activist Catrin Pugh, who has vision loss due to burns sustained in a 2013 accident, found the tactile element filled in crucial gaps. “I have enough vision that I can kind of see the general silhouette… So I used the fabric swatches when I could tell there was some detail I was missing,” she said. “Having the capacity to feel, imagine and sense the detail opened the whole show up to me so I could feel completely part of it.”
Vix Seffens, a brand strategist with Stargardt’s disease—a genetic eye condition that deteriorated her sight from age 11—described the event as “a multi-layered sensory experience.” She compared the process to solving a puzzle: “You have felt the fabric at the touch tour so you also know how heavy it is and how it moves… Then you hear the audio so it’s all those pieces coming together. Suddenly the experience of seeing the show is so much richer.”
The Overlooked ‘Purple Pound’
The initiative tackles a stark oversight in an industry sitting on a vast economic opportunity. The spending power of disabled people and their households in the UK—termed the “purple pound”—was estimated at £274 billion in 2023. Yet, fashion has been slow to adapt. Physical shops can be difficult to navigate, while online retail often fails to provide the detailed alternative text on images needed for screen readers. Adaptive features like braille clothing tags, easy magnetic fastenings, and thoughtfully chosen fabrics remain rare from both luxury designers and the high street.
For disability activist and content creator Lucy Edwards, who lost her sight at 17 due to a rare genetic condition, this exclusion meant a part of her identity was abruptly locked away. “Fashion was part of my identity and suddenly I couldn’t access it. Fashion is also a massive part of our wider culture and I felt I had lost that too,” she said. At Lo’s show, her guide dog Miss Molly by her side, Edwards particularly loved the feathered looks for being “massively tactile.” The experience, she said, has made her more daring: “Now, it’s like we can do whatever we want and we can be whoever we want to be.”
Designers Embracing Change
New York-born, UK-based designer Chet Lo, known for his spiky, tactile pieces worn by celebrities like Doja Cat and Kylie Jenner, has been a partner from the beginning. He aims to lead by example. “Low-vision and blind people are a demographic that are really overlooked in the industry,” Lo stated. “I wanted to prove to other designers that it is really easy to integrate this demographic into our work. It’s not difficult to consider what their needs are.”
He is not alone. Making Fashion Accessible has also teamed up with prominent designers including Roksanda, Erdem, and S.S. Daley. For their Spring/Summer 2026 shows in September 2025, both Roksanda and Erdem collaborated with Hair & Care. Roksanda’s show, known for dramatic tailoring, welcomed guests like Victoria Seffens-Mepsted, while Erdem offered an intimate pre-show touch tour at his studio. S.S. Daley has also hosted similar accessible events.
This movement aligns with a broader shift towards adaptive fashion—clothing designed with functionality and accessibility at its core—pioneered by brands like Zappos Adaptive, Tommy Hilfiger Adaptive, and ASOS. It also parallels growing representation on the catwalk itself. In a landmark moment, Lucy Edwards made history in August 2024 as the first blind model to walk at Copenhagen Fashion Week, wearing a design by Sinéad O’Dwyer.
For founder Anna Cofone, who has worked with clients including Dua Lipa and Lana Del Rey, the mission is clear. “If we think about fashion as a whole, especially catwalk shows, they are so not inclusive,” she said. By transforming the front-row experience into one of touch, sound, and detailed description, her initiative is ensuring that the energy, artistry, and identity forged by fashion are truly available to all.
