Clothing - Raising Awareness

Having seen a tweet from @SquarePegCIC on twitter about hoodies and t shirts using fashion to educate about special needs, some of which are hidden as not every disability equates to being in a wheelchair.  When we took a look at the site there was no yellow option, so J was not interested.  Following a twitter exchange, Lauren at Square Peg Clothing agreed to look into the colour options with her suppliers.  It was great to hear, a few weeks later, that they were able to offer yellow hoodies and J was then keen to try one. 

There are t shirts and hoodies available, in child and adult sizes with various slogans.  J had a look at the website and all that was on offer.  Athough he liked "You can't get my designer genes just anywhere", he chose the message "Somewhere over the spectrum".  This was because he likes the concept of spectra (both electromagnetic and also the 'autistic one') as well as the use of the linking jigsaw pieces. Jigsaw pieces are used by Ehlers-Danlos Support UK (which is another of his diagnoses) in their message about the various symptoms and types of EDS.


In the pictures you can see that J was very keen on the top... in fact, since it arrived, he has worn it every day!   The colour of the hoodie in the pic on the left (with J's pal Peppie in) is the best for demonstrating the shade of yellow it is - a deep sunflower, "happy" colour.

 
Today at his aquatic therapy session, which is held in a special school, J was delighted to get a couple of lovely comments from the staff and his favourite physio particularly liked the shade of yellow saying it had brightened up her day.

Initially, we had talked around the topic of whether J wanted to bring attention to himself with the slogan and came to the conclusion that people stare and question anyway so they may as well have something nice to look at when doing so... it also opens up J's lines of communication as gives him a 'topic' to use as "chit chat" which is part of his Speech and Language therapy.

The photo to the left is J demonstrating the hoodie part...  he says it's lovely and soft and keeps the chills out.   He also likes the 'pouch' on the front (which can be seen best in the photo at the top) as he can snuggle his hands in and keep them warm.

J is a slight 14 year old and we were sent a 12-13 (34" chest) hoodie by @SquarePegCIC   Taking a parent's view, the fabric is lovely and thick (80% cotton, 20% polyester) and washes at 30ºC... amazingly, given J's usually messiness, it hasn't had to be washed yet.  Hopefully, it will still look as good once it's gone through the machine.

Thank you Square Peg Clothing, this top is a great success! 

Disclosure - J was sent a hoodie by Square Peg Clothing, the opinions are our own and we have not been paid for this post.