A Romantic’s Journey Towards Independence | Dr Navin
People come to us with customisation requests for many different reasons. However, this is the first time someone approached us because we can take him one step closer to the love life he dreams of!
Dressing for Love
Dr Navin Nair is an advocate for inclusivity and diversity and has been an active voice for disability rights. With cerebral palsy (CP), he faces dressing challenges such as not being able to button his shirt or requiring a caregiver to assist with putting his pants on. Trung, our mutual friend (and the saviour who helped Elisa navigate the massive textile markets in Vietnam), knew of these challenges and introduced us to Dr Navin.
For Dr Navin, independence and love go hand in hand. In fact, being able to dress independently is step number one towards the love life he dreams of. Dr Navin is single now, and looks forward to meeting a partner and starting a family! But, he does not want to bother his future partner with his dressing challenges and has been looking for a solution that enables him to dress independently.
We were instantly on board. We never thought that Will & Well could be part of someone’s journey toward companionship.
A photo of Dr Navin Nair after we grabbed lunch together. The sun is shining on his face as he smiled at the camera.
A Mag-Over
One of the first things we did was to replace the existing buttons on Dr Navin’s shirt with MagSnap buttons, a quick and effective solution to regular buttons. However, we realised that with bigger movements, like when Dr Navin wheels himself, a button might pop for a moment. The good news is that they are magnetic, so they snap right back! With this insight, we continued to explore further iterations that take into account Dr Navin’s movements and needs.
Swipe right for SwipeFit
Dr Navin loved how SwipeFit works, how it conceals the openings and it’s adjustable features. So there was no question that his shirt, too, was modified using the SwipeFit system!
Working with Dr Navin was such an engaging experience. It’s easy to think that we are just making clothes, but once in a while, people like Dr Navin comes along, and we are reminded that clothes are much more than just what we choose to wear. Sometimes, how we wear them can also define who we are.
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