On Wednesday, Anthropologie is announcing its first foray into adaptive apparel through a collection of eight existing best-sellers reworked to better fit the lives and needs of members of the disability community. The idea was born internally from the URBN Adapt employee resource group, which is dedicated to promoting accessibility and inclusivity across the company’s portfolio of brands, which includes Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People and Noori.
In 2021, Glossy reported on the growth of adaptive fashion, noting new collections from brands like Universal Standard and JCPenney. Tommy Hilfiger has also been a pioneer in this field, having a child with a disability himself. One billion people, or 15% of the world’s population, have some kind of disability.
To develop the collection, Anthropologie tapped Lucy Jones, founder and CEO of FFORA, a fashion lifestyle brand primarily for people with disabilities. Jones helped the brand connect with three members of the disability community to fit-test the garments. To promote the collection, the brand tapped influencers Allison Lang, Maya Moore, April Lockhart and Bri Scales as models and ambassadors. The influencers were also given the opportunity to try on the collection before it was completed. A total of seven people fit-tested each garment before it was released, according to Richa Srivastava, chief creative director at Anthropologie.
“Our collaborators tried on all the garments and gave us feedback on technical aspects like wearability, comfort and ease of putting on and taking off the products,” Srivastava said.
While the team was working on the project, they received feedback that members of the disability community often don’t buy adaptive fashion because the options for people with disabilities often prioritize functionality over fashion, leaving them no room to express their own style.
Anthropologie’s first Adaptive Collection includes two of the brand’s most popular SKUs: Maeve’s Colette Cropped Wide Leg Pants, which have been added to customer carts 893,000 times and have been the company’s best-selling pants for over two years, and Maeve’s Somerset Dress: Mini Edition, which has been added to customer carts 340,000 times and has been the brand’s best-selling dress for the past six months. The Adaptive Collection also includes denim wide-leg pants, a henley t-shirt, a denim jacket, two other dresses, and a button-down shirt.
“We got the most technical feedback on pants and denim because the needs are very different,” Srivastava said. In response, the Collette pants were made in different versions to meet the needs of both those who stand and those who use wheelchairs.
Starting Wednesday, the PDP on Anthropologie’s site will give shoppers the option to choose between “standard,” “petite,” “plus” and “adaptive” fits for available styles. [part of the] Same shopping experience, [community’s] “The feedback has been extremely helpful,” says Holly Thrasher, Anthropologie’s chief merchandising officer.
The influencers visited Anthropologie’s Philadelphia headquarters for a photo shoot for the collection, spent time with the brand’s creative team and discussed how to market the collection. Anthropologie will let the content created by Lang, Moore, Lockhart and Scales do most of the talking. The four influencers will share on their social platforms how they were involved in the collection’s development.
“We’re being very careful about talking about it in a way that celebrates us. [creating this collection]”We are these [eight] Products that are already brand and customer favorites [and we wanted to make them] Making it accessible to more people felt like a win, and we want to build on that win.”
According to URBN’s first-quarter 2024 earnings released in late May, Anthropologie achieved double-digit revenue growth year over year. New and active customers increased by more than 18%. The brand plans to open 13 new stores in 2025, including a new store in New York’s SoHo district next week.