Recondition- Accessible Clothes Brand

When a fashion student broke her ankle, she suddenly realised how inaccessible everyday clothes were.

The revelation after Ellie Brown’s injury in 2021 led to her setting up Recondition, a disability friendly clothes label.

The brand works with people with disabilities to create adaptable jeans, stoma bags, and other pieces of clothing.

Brown, from Manchester, said people – including herself before her injury – could be “naive” when it came to what accessibility looked like, yet subtle changes such as replacing buttons with poppers was “not rocket science”.

She said: “A lot of people who don’t have someone necessarily close to them or they don’t have a disability themselves are quite naive to what accessibility looks like.

“I definitely was.”

She looked into how the relationship between disability and fashion worked and “found this whole area of fashion that I had no idea even existed”.

From that light bulb moment, Recondition, which Brown said created every piece with accessibility and style in mind, was born.

“People want something that physically works for them, the function is there; with Recondition, it’s all about like marrying those two together.”

She said many of the features they had added to clothes were “not rocket science”.

Julie Blagbrough became a wheelchair user seven years ago and, overnight, she said she had to rethink her wardrobe.

“There isn’t any fashion for wheelchair users.

“You’re mainly in things like jogging bottoms and pyjamas, stretchy, elasticated waist.

“It made me feel like I’d lost my identity in a way.”

She is part of the Recondition codesign group, who make small changes to make fashion feel good again.

Julie said she loved not only the look of the jeans they produced but – with features like pockets on the front to make them really accessible and straps so she can lift her legs and a hook on the zip – they made “it really easy to get dressed”.

“They also look really trendy as well.”

She added: “It just makes me feel really happy to be able to walk outside and feel like I’m part of society.”

One of Recondition’s best-selling items are stoma bag covers.

Lucy Smith-Butler, from Rochdale, Greater Manchester, was diagnosed with ulcerative colitis in 2017.

The Recondition model and fashion blogger said: “When I was lying in the hospital bed I was like ‘what am I going to wear; this is going to change my body how do I adapt to that?’.”

“I always say my stoma bag is just new accessory. It’s just another bag and that was where the whole idea came from to like make covers for it and have it as an accessory.”

Paige Dease is a Recondition customer and loves the label, which she says “allows her to rock her jeans”.

She said: “Seeing stoma bags that are glittery and frilly it shows people that we’re not just patients we’re actually people.”