Ep 80: Fashion

  Today’s episode is about fashion with Stephanie Thomas. Stephanie is a Disability Fashion Styling Expert and Founder and CEO of Cur8able, a business dedicated to the art and science of dressing with disabilities. For over two decades she’s researched clothing and retail trends exclusively for people with disabilities. As an amputee herself, Stephanie believes this is more than her profession, it’s her lived experience. You’ll hear about how she got into fashion, what it’s like being a disabled entrepreneur, what it means to be a stylist, and more. Transcript [Google doc]     [PDF]   About Stephanie Thomas, a Black woman with oval shaped eyes, round nose, smiling. Her chin is resting on her clasped hands. Her hair locs are pulled up in a high bun and wearing a sleeveless black top. The background is a grayish black backdrop. My condition’s name is Symbrachydactyly. I am a congenital amputee missing digits on my right hand and feet. Photo credit: Benjo Arwas @benjoarwas   Born a congenital amputee missing digits, Los Angeles-based Stephanie Thomas is the CEO of Cur8able, a disability fashion stylist, and editor of Cur8able.com a lifestyle blog at the intersection of fashion and disability. She curates the blog according to her disability fashion styling system. Also, Stephanie is a trusted voice actor, audio describer, and member of the SAG AFTRA actors with disabilities committee. Stephanie holds graduate degrees in communication and fashion journalism. She is also the author and editor of Fitting In: An Anthology of the Social Implications of Fashion and Dressing with Disabilities, coming August 2020. Recently Stephanie participated in the Instagram based #sharethemicnow campaign where she was matched with Selma Blair and took over Selma’s Instagram account for a day. The premise of the #sharethemicnow was to give black women access to audience of the women they were matched with.    New Textbook:  Fitting In: The Social Implications of Fashion and Dressing with Disabilities (Coming Spring 2020) Features:  The Business of Fashion:  BoF500 Creative Class List 2019 Papermag.com Stephanie Thomas Puts in the Work to End Fashion Ableism Yahoo.com: Gwyneth Paltrow, Hillary Clinton among white influencers sharing their platforms to amplify black voices Dazed Beuty: Being More Radical About Diversity in the Beauty Industry The New Yorker: Adaptive Fashion on the Red Carpet   Highsnobiety Podcast- Fashion Identity: Disability Vogue Business: The $400 Billion Adaptive Clothing Opportunity Los Angeles Times: Filling the Fashion Void for Shoppers with Disabilities The Guardian: Why are there more clothing lines for dogs than disabled people? People Magazine Online: Stylist Works to Make Disability Clothing More Accessible Huffington Post: Fashionable World Games at UCLA Vox: Traditional Clothes don’t work for some people with disabilities – and that’s a major problem CCTV_America Video: Stephanie Thomas Discusses World Disabled Day KCAL 9 Los Angeles Video: Disability Employment Awareness Month with Stephanie Thomas   Vox Video: Consider It- How Adaptive Fashion Benefits Everyone Lightworkers Video: Fashion Styling for People with Disabilities Website : www.cur8able.com Instagram | Twitter | Facebook @cur8able Stephanie Thomas Instagram @disabilityfashionstylist    TEDx TALK: Stephanie Thomas: Dressing with Disabilities   Support Disability Media and Culture DONATE to the Disability Visibility Project®   Credits Cheryl Green, Audio Producer and Text Transcript Alice Wong, Writer, Audio Producer, Host Lateef McLeod, Introduction Mike Mort, Artwork Theme Music (used with permission of artist) Song: “Dance Off” Song: “Hard Out Here for A Gimp” Album: NO BIG DEAL Artist: Wheelchair Sports Camp Music “Onwards Upwards” by Ketsa.  (Source: freemusicarchive.org. Licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 License.) Sounds “VOCODER countdown” by Jack_Master. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License. “8 Bit Beeping Computer Sounds” by sheepfilms. This work is licensed under the Creative Commons 0 License.