The Guardian: Azerbaijani adaptive clothing brand plans to hold fashion shows abroad

Azerbaijani adaptive clothing brand for people with disabilities Kekalove plans to create a supply chain to sell products in Western countries, Report informs referring to The Guardian.

Mahammad Kekalov, a 21-year-old student, is contacting representatives and fashion designers in Georgia, Turkey and Uzbekistan, countries with “similar disability ecosystems”. The team plans to stage a series of shows this year in each of these countries, using disabled models.

“It will help us better understand how fashion can bridge disability and geographical cultural aspects,” says Kekalov.

Kekalov was inspired to start the business by his late grandmother, Salimat Kekalova. She was visually impaired, so getting dressed could be a challenge. Coupled with a year spent with an American family who looked after disabled children, he was driven to think of adaptive clothes as a solution.

During the summer, Zinyet Veliyeva was one of 20 models who took part in the Kekalove adaptive fashion show at the Marriott Absheron hotel in Baku.

When she was still at school, Veliyeva had a stroke that led to paraparesis, the partial loss of movement in the legs. She became Azerbaijan’s first paralympic female athlete, qualifying for the 2012 London Paralympics in archery. Her husband also has a disability, having lost a leg when he stepped on a land mine during the first Karabakh war.

This is one reason he organizes catwalk shows – he has now done three – he believes those who perform feel more confident about their bodies. “They move away from body stigma and that is the main reason why we do it,” he says.