I love fashion. I actually go to bed every night thinking about what I'm going to wear the next day. Clothing transforms me, defines me, gives me confidence. You may not feel the same way about fashion, but I bet you have a favorite T-shirt or a pair of jeans that transforms you -- makes you feel good, makes you feel confident, makes you feel like you.
我热爱时尚。 事实上,我每晚上床时都会思考 明天穿什么。 服装改变了我, 定义了我, 给了我自信。 可能你对时尚持不同看法, 但我打赌你有最喜欢的一件T恤 或一条牛仔裤,它改变了你—— 让你感觉舒服, 使你觉得自信, 让你感觉像自己。
When I was younger, I wanted to be Betsey Johnson. I thought we were kindred, crazy-hair spirits together. I did go to fashion design, I worked in the industry for years and loved it.
当我年轻的时候, 我曾想成为 Betsey Johnson (美国著名服装设计师)。 我感觉我们是同类, 都有疯狂发型的灵魂。 我确实曾进入时装设计行业, 工作了很多年, 并深爱着它。
I married, I had three kids. But life can be heartbreakingly ironic. My middle child, Oliver, was born with a rare form of muscular dystrophy, or MD. MD affects his muscle strength, his pulmonary system, distorts his body and makes everyday life more challenging than most. From the time he could walk, which wasn't until about two and a half, he had to wear leg braces for stability. Because he wasn't growing appropriately, he had to wear a feeding tube that was placed on his face. He endured stares, and so did I.
后来我结婚了, 有了三个孩子。 但生活竟如此令人心碎的讽刺。 我家老二 Oliver 出生的时候 就患有罕见的肌肉萎缩症, 简称为 MD。 MD 影响他的肌肉强度, 他的肺部系统, 让他的外形扭曲, 让他日常的生活 比多数人更有挑战性。 自他可以走路时开始, 也就是还不到两岁半的时候, 他就必须使用腿部支架保持平衡。 因为他不能正常地生长, 他不得不在脸上带着导食管。 他承受着来自旁人的打量,我也是。
But my husband Greg and I told him that no matter what, he was just like everybody else. But everyday tasks for Oliver that we all take for granted were incredibly challenging. That simple act of dressing yourself -- the very thing that I adore -- was a nightmare for him. His form of MD does not affect his mind. His brain is an A-plus, which means he's acutely aware of his shortcomings. This became very evident when he started school, and that daily act of dressing yourself was a constant reminder of what he could and could not do. So our solution was for Oliver to wear sweatpants every day: to school, to parties, on vacations -- his uniform. For special occasions, he would wear proper pants. But many times, because he couldn't manage the button and zipper, I would have to take him to the men's room, which was incredibly embarrassing for him and the other men that were in there. But them -- I said, "Oh, please. There's nothing I haven't seen before."
但我和丈夫 Greg 都告诉他, 不管怎么样, 他都和其他任何人是一样的。 但我们认为理所当然的日常生活, 对于他来说 都非常有挑战性。 给自己穿衣服这么简单的事—— 这件我极其喜爱的事—— 对他来说就是噩梦。 他这种类型的 MD 并不影响大脑。 他非常聪明, 就是说,他完全能意识到自己的缺陷。 这在他开始上学的时候变得非常明显, 每天给自己穿衣服这件事 都在提醒他, 知道自己能做和不能做什么。 后来,我们的对策 是让他每天穿运动裤: 去学校, 去派对, 去度假—— 这就是他的“校服”。 在特殊的场合, 他会穿得体的西裤。 但经常因为他搞不定扣子和拉链, 我不得不带他去男盥洗室, 这对他来说非常难为情, 对其他在场的男性来说也是。 但我说,“哦,拜托! 好像我以前没见过一样。”
(Laughter)
(笑声)
For years we muddled through. But when Oliver was in third grade, I found out he was more like me than I ever imagined. Oliver, too, cared about fashion. He came home from school one day and said very definitively that he was going to wear jeans to school like everybody else gets to wear. Well, I certainly couldn't go to class with him and take him to the boys' room, but there was no way I was telling my eight-year-old that he couldn't wear what he wanted to wear.
我们应付着过了很多年, 但当 Oliver 上三年级的时候, 我发现他比我想象中的更像我了。 Oliver 也关注时尚。 有一天他从学校回来, 很确定地说, 他要像别人那样穿牛仔裤去学校。 当然了,我肯定不可能 和他一起去学校, 并带他去男盥洗室, 但我没办法告诉我 8 岁的孩子, 他没办法随心所欲地穿他想穿的。
So that night, I MacGyvered the hell out of his jeans. I remembered when I was pregnant and unwilling to stop wearing my own favorite pants, even though I was busting out of them, that rubber-band trick. You moms remember what I'm talking about? The rubber band through the buttonhole, around the button and back? Instant stretch. So I removed the zipper so he could pull it up and down on his own. I cut up the side seam of the bottom of his pants to accommodate for his leg braces, applied Velcro -- hold your ears, everybody: peel and stick, mind you -- so that it would close around it. When I showed Oliver my arts and crafts project, he absolutely beamed. He went into school with his head held so high. Those jeans transformed him. He was able to get dressed on his own, he was able to go to the bathroom on his own; those jeans gave him confidence.
所以那天晚上, 我改造了他的牛仔裤。 我想到了当我怀孕的时候, 我不想放弃穿我最爱的裤子, 即使我要把它撑爆了, 当时那个橡皮筋的妙用。 在座的妈妈们理解我在说什么吗? 用橡皮筋穿过扣眼 绕着纽扣缠几圈? 瞬间裤子就撑大了。 所以我去掉了拉链, 让他可以自己穿上去或脱下来。 我把侧面裤脚的线剪开, 让腿部支架也能塞进去。 我用了钩毛搭扣—— 仔细听听,各位, 得扯下来又贴上去, 它就能包裹在周围了。 当我把这项手工艺品 展示给 Oliver 时, 他非常开心。 他高昂着头去学校了。 这些牛仔裤改变了他, 让他能够自己穿衣服, 他能自己去洗手间了, 这些裤子给了他自信。
I didn't realize it at the time, but this was my first foray into the world of adaptive clothing. Adaptive clothing is defined as clothing designed for people with disabilities, the elderly and anyone who struggles with dressing themselves. Adaptive clothing did exist, but it was missing that mainstream fashion component. It was very medicinal and very functional but not stylish. And that's a huge problem, because what you wear matters. Clothing can affect your mood, your health and your self-esteem.
那时我还没意识到, 但这却是我进入可适应性 服装领域的初次尝试。 可适应性服装被定义成为残疾人, 老年人, 以及任何在自己穿衣服方面 有困难的人设计的服装。 可适应性服装确实存在, 但它缺失了主流时尚的成分。 它在医疗方面很实用, 但并不时尚。 这是个很大的问题, 因为你穿什么很重要。 衣服会影响人们的情绪, 健康 和自尊。
Now, being a fashion lover, I've known this forever, but scientists actually have a name for it. It's called "Enclothed Cognition," the co-occurrence of two factors: the symbolic meaning of clothing and the physical experience of wearing the clothing, both of which have a direct correlation to how you feel about yourself. There's actually a professor in the UK by the name of Karen J. Pine. She wrote a book called "Mind What You Wear: The Psychology of Fashion." She states in her book that when you put clothes on, you adapt the characteristics of what you're wearing, whether you realize it or not. That's why you feel like a rock star when you put on those perfect-fitting jeans. That's why you feel invincible when you put on that power suit, and that's why you feel beautiful in that little black dress. But that's exactly why Oliver felt so isolated when he couldn't wear what he wanted to wear. He even said to me one time, "Mom, wearing sweatpants every day makes me feel like I'm dressing disabled."
其实,作为时尚爱好者, 我一直都知道这种感觉, 科学家们实际上对此 有个特定术语, 叫“穿衣认知”, 包含两个因素: 衣服象征性的意义 和穿着衣服时的身体感受, 两个因素都和你 对自己的感觉直接相关。 实际上,英国有一位教授 叫 Karen J. Pine。 她写了一本书, 名为《注意你的穿着: 时尚心理学》。 她在书中强调, 当你穿上衣服时, 就通过穿着展示了你的个性, 无论你是否意识到了这个事实。 这就是为什么当你穿上 非常合身的牛仔裤就会 觉得自己像摇滚明星。 这就是为什么当你穿上那套 权力套装时感到战无不胜, 这就是为什么你穿上小黑裙 就觉得自己很美。 但这也就是为什么 当 Oliver 无法穿上 他想穿的衣服时,感到被孤立了。 有一次,他甚至对我说, ”妈妈,每天都穿运动裤, 让我觉得我在穿衣方面很无能。”
There are one billion people on our planet that experience some type of disability. One billion. If 10 percent of that billion experience clothing challenges, that's an enormous amount of people that may not be as confident, as successful or even as happy as they could be. The morning after Oliver left for school wearing those jeans, I realized that I could do something about that. And so I did.
我们的星球上共有 10 亿人 在经历不同种类的残疾。 10 亿! 如果 10 亿人中的 10% 在经历穿衣困难, 那就是一个巨大的群体, 他们无法得到应有的自信, 成功, 甚至幸福感。 那天早晨,当 Oliver 穿着 那条牛仔裤去学校, 我开始意识到, 我可以就此做点什么。 于是我开始行动了。
In 2013, I founded an organization called Runway of Dreams. The mission was to educate the fashion industry that modifications could be made to mainstream clothing for this community that has never been served. And it began with an entire year of research. I went to schools, I went to facilities, I went to hospitals. I literally chased down people on the street who were in wheelchairs or if they had walkers or even if they had a slight limp.
在2013年,我成立了一个机构 叫做“梦想跑道”。 目的是为了告诉时尚产业, 可以在主流服装上做出些修改, 供给这些从未被服务过的群体。 为此,我还展开了 为期一整年的研究。 我去过学校,社区,医院。 我真的会在街上追上那些使用轮椅, 或者使用步行器, 哪怕是看起来有一点跛脚的人。
(Laughter)
(笑)
I know I must have looked insane, but I knew that if I was really going to make a difference, I had to truly understand the clothing challenges of as many different people as I possibly could.
我知道我看上去像是疯了, 但我知道如果我真的想做点什么, 我必须尽我所能真切地理解 不同的人在穿衣方面面对的困难。
I met a young man who was 18 who has cerebral palsy. He was going to Harvard University. He said to me, "Can you imagine? I got myself into Harvard, but my dream is to be able to wear jeans on campus, like the other freshmen will wear." I met a little girl named Gianna, who was missing her left forearm and her hand. Her mother told me she could not bear to see her daughter's difference magnified by a dangling sleeve, so she had every single long-sleeve shirt professionally tailored. Can you imagine the time and money she spent? I also had the great privilege of spending time with Eric LeGrand, former Rutgers football player who was paralyzed during a tackle in 2010. I had, at this point, seen some unfathomable things, but this, by far, was the most heart-stopping.
我遇到一个 18 岁的小伙子, 他患有脑瘫, 即将去哈佛大学读书。 他对我说, “你能想象吗? 我进哈佛了。 但我的梦想是 能在学校穿牛仔裤, 就像其他新生那样。” 我遇到了一个叫 Gianna 的小女孩, 她没有左前臂和左手。 她妈妈告诉我, 她无法忍受看到 女儿的与众不同 被空荡荡的袖口放大。 所以她将每件长袖衫都 进行了非常专业地剪裁, 你能想象她所花费的时间和金钱吗? 同时我也非常荣幸, 能与 Eric LeGrand 交谈, 他是罗格斯大学的前橄榄球员, 2010 年在断球过程中导致瘫痪。 在认识他之前,我已经见过了 很多难以料想的事情, 但看到他时,他的状况最令我担心。
You see, Eric is a really big guy, and it took two aides and a lifting machine to get him dressed. I sat and watched this process for over two hours. When I expressed my shock to Eric, he looked at me and said, "Mindy, this is every single day. What can I say? I like to look sharp."
Eric 块头非常大, 为了给他穿衣服, 需要用到两个助手 和一台起重机。 我坐在那儿,看着这个过程 进行了两个多小时。 当我向 Eric 表达我的震惊时, 他看着我说, "Mindy,这是我每天的生活。 我能说什么? 我也想要快一些。”
Research done.
调研结束了。
I knew that if I was going to make a change in the industry, I had to use my background and really figure out how to make these clothes modified. So I took the information I gathered over that past year, and I figured out that there were actually three categories that were affected across the board. The first were closures. Buttons, snaps, zippers, hook-and-eyes were a challenge for almost everybody. So I replaced them with a more manageable technology: magnets. Magnets made our Harvard freshman able to wear jeans on campus, because he could dress himself.
我知道,如果我试图 在行业里做出些改变, 就必须要用到我的背景, 并且真正去解决 如何改良这些服装的问题。 因此,我整理了 去年收集到的所有信息, 之后我发现, 实际总共有三类因素 在影响大家。 第一,是扣扣子的问题。 不管是纽扣,按扣,拉链还是钩扣环, 对所有人来说都是个麻烦。 所以我用更易掌握的技术 替换了它们: 磁铁。 磁铁让我们这位哈佛新生 能够穿牛仔裤去学校, 因为他能自己穿衣服了。
Second: adjustability. Pant lengths, sleeve lengths, waistbands were a challenge for so many different-shaped bodies. So I added elastic, an internal hemming system. This way, Gianna could wear a shirt right off the rack and just adjust the one sleeve.
第二,是可调整性的问题。 裤长,袖长,裤腰 对于这么多不同的身形来说 确实是个问题。 所以我增加了它的灵活性, 内置了卷边系统。 这样 Gianna 就可以 直接穿上现成的衣服, 并只需要调整一只袖子。
Last: alternate ways to get the clothing on and off the body, outside the traditional way of over your head. So I designed a way to go in arms first. This, for somebody like Eric, could actually take five steps off his dressing process and give him back the gift of time.
最后:穿衣和脱衣的替代方法 并非你脑中所想的传统方式。 我设计了一种方法, 先把胳膊穿进衣服。 这一点对于像 Eric 一样的人来说 能减少穿衣步骤中的五步, 帮他节省更多时间。
So I went out, I bought clothing right off the rack, I sat at my kitchen table, ripped them apart, did prototype after prototype, until I felt I had great modifications. And then I was ready for the big leagues: the fashion industry. Rather than designing my own collection, I knew if I was really going to make a difference, I had to go mainstream. I believed that I just needed to educate the industry of the enormity of this population and the fact that these were consumers that simply weren't being considered.
于是,我上街 买了很多成衣, 坐在厨房的桌子旁 把它们拆开, 做了一件又一件样品, 直到得到了令我满意的改良。 之后,我准备好了 迎接更大的挑战: 时尚行业。 除了只做自己的设计, 我知道,如果我真的想 为大众做出点什么, 我还必须进入主流。 我坚信只需要告知这个行业 这个群体有多么庞大, 而这些消费者 根本没有被考虑到。
And I am thrilled to say that the industry heard me. Runway of Dreams collaborated with the most amazing, forward-thinking brand on our planet --
让我激动的是, 时尚产业听到了我的声音。 “梦想跑道”和全球许多最棒, 最有前瞻性的品牌展开了合作——
(Applause)
(掌声)
who took my vision to market and made fashion history by launching the first mainstream adaptive collection. And the rest is yet to come.
他们将我的视角带入市场, 通过发布首批 主流可适应性服装系列 创建了时尚界的新纪元。 之后的也会渐渐到来。
(Applause)
(掌声)
So --
所以——
(Applause)
(掌声)
Fashion holds the key to a vital lifeline. Clothing can be transformative. Clothing equals confidence. So tomorrow, when you are starting your day and you're thinking about what you're going to wear, I hope you appreciate the process and think about how what you chose makes you feel.
时尚掌握着生命线的钥匙。 服装改变人, 服装创造自信。 所以明天, 当你开始新的一天, 你在思考要穿什么的时候, 我希望你能珍惜这个过程, 并想想你的选择 如何影响你的感受。
Today, Oliver is 13. He wears his adaptive khakis, his magnetic button-front shirt -- feels like the coolest kid around. My boy has total swagger.
现在 Oliver 13岁了 他穿着改良后的卡其裤, 正面有磁铁扣的衬衫-- 感觉自己是最酷的孩子。 我儿子现在时髦又自信,
(Laughter)
(笑)
As I mentioned, Oliver's disease is degenerative, which means his muscles are going to break down over time. This, by far, is the most devastating part for me. I have to sit on the sidelines and watch my boy deteriorate. And there's nothing I can do about it. So I am looking up from the things that I cannot control to the things that I can, because I have no option.
就像我提到的, Oliver 的疾病是会不断恶化的, 这意味着,随着时间的推移, 他的肌肉会越来越萎缩。 目前为止,这是最让我心碎的事情。 我只能坐在一旁, 眼睁睁地看着 他的情况不断恶化。 我却无能为。 所以,我将注意力从 那些我无法控制的事 转移到我可以控制的事上, 因为我没有别的选择。
And so, I am looking up. And I'm asking the fashion industry to look up. And now, I'm asking all of you to look up, too.
因此,我要向前看。 同时,我请求时尚行业向前看。 现在,我也请求你们 也向前看。
Thank you.
谢谢。
(Applause)
(掌声)