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.
我愛時尚。 我每天晚上上床睡覺時 真的都會想著明天 我要穿什麼。 衣服能改造我、 定義我、 給我信心。 你對於時尚的感覺可能不同, 但我打賭你一定有最愛的 T 恤或牛仔褲,它能夠改造你、 讓你感覺很好、 讓你覺得有自信、 讓你覺得你在做自己。
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.
我比較年輕時, 我想成為貝絲強生。 (註:時尚設計師) 我以為我們都是志趣相投、 頭髮搞怪的人。 我確實去做了時尚設計, 我在那個產業工作了數年, 我很喜歡它。
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.
我結了婚, 我生了三個孩子。 但,人生有時諷刺得讓人心碎。 我的第二個孩子,奧利佛, 出生時就有一種罕見的肌肉萎縮症, 簡稱 MD。 MD 影響他的肌力、 他的呼吸系統, 扭曲他的身體, 讓他連過日常生活 都比大部分人更辛苦。 從他能夠走路開始, 大約是他兩歲半時, 他得要穿上腿支架來協助穩定。 因為他沒有妥善的成長, 他得要戴著鼻餵管,裝在他的臉上。 他要承受別人的目光,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."
但我和我先生葛雷告訴他, 不論如何, 他都和其他人一樣。 但,我們覺得理所當然的日常差事, 對奧利佛而言, 卻是非常有挑戰性的。 自己穿衣服,這麼簡單的動作 ——我很喜歡做的動作—— 卻是他的惡夢。 他得的那種 MD 不會影響他的心智。 他的頭腦是 A+ 等級的, 那就表示,他能 很敏銳地察覺他的缺陷。 當他開始上學時,這狀況就很明顯, 每天幫自己穿衣服的時候,總會想起 他能夠做什麼、不能夠做什麼。 我們為奧利佛想的解決方案, 就是每天穿寬鬆長運動褲: 穿去上學、 穿去派對、 穿去渡假—— 那是他的制服。 針對特殊的場合, 他會穿得宜的褲子。 但,好幾次,因為他無法 扣上釦子或拉上拉鏈, 我得要帶他去男洗手間, 這對他而言非常丟臉, 且男洗手間還有其他男性在。 但他們——我說:「喔, 拜託。沒什麼我沒見過的。」
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
我們就這樣胡亂應付了很多年。 但,當奧利佛上三年級時, 我發現,他比我想像的還要更像我。 奧利佛也很關心時尚。 有天,他從學校回來,非常肯定地說 他要穿牛仔褲去上學,和大家一樣。 嗯,我絕對不可能跟他去上課、 帶他去男洗手間, 但我也不可能告訴我的八歲孩子 他不能穿他想要穿的。
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,那晚, 我發揮馬蓋先精神 做出了他的牛仔褲。 我記得,當我懷孕時, 我不願意放棄穿我最喜歡的褲子, 雖然我根本無法把自己塞進去了, 那橡皮筋絕招。 在座的媽媽們知道我在說什麼嗎? 用橡皮筋穿過釦子洞, 繞過釦子纏回來? 立即延伸。 所以我把拉鏈移除, 讓他能自己把褲子拉起來和脫下去。 我剪開褲子底部的側縫 讓他的腿支架能放得進去, 加上魔鬼氈, 摀上耳朵,各位: 撕開和黏上,請注意—— 這樣就可以把隙縫黏起來。 當我給奧利佛看我的藝術工藝作品, 他完全是眉開眼笑了。 他頭抬得高高的走進學校。 那件牛仔褲改造了他。 他能夠靠自己穿脫, 他能夠自己去上廁所; 那件牛仔褲給了他自信。
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.
我當時還不知道, 但那就是我進入無障礙 衣服世界的初步嘗試。 無障礙衣服的定義是 設計的著衣對象是殘疾者、 老人,以及任何 自己穿衣服有困難的人。 無障礙衣服確實存在, 但它們缺乏了主流時尚的元素。 它們非常醫療取向、非常功能性, 卻不時髦。 那是個很大的問題。 因為你的穿著是有重要性的。 衣服能影響你的心情、 你的健康, 以及你的自尊。
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."
身為時尚愛好者, 我一直都知道這一點, 但,實際上科學家給它取了名字。 它叫做「穿衣認知」, 也就是這兩個因子同時發生: 衣服的象徵意義, 以及穿著該衣服的實際體驗, 兩者都和你對自己的感受直接相關。 在英國,有一位教授 名叫凱倫 J. 佩因。 她寫了一本書,書名是 《留意你穿什麼:時尚心理學》。 在她的書中,她寫到, 當你穿上衣服時, 你就會調整自己去配合 那件衣服的特徵, 不論你自己是否有察覺。 那就是為什麼當你 穿上完美合身的牛仔褲時, 你會覺得自己像個搖滾巨星。 那就是為什麼穿上動力服時 你會覺得自己所向無敵, 那就是為什麼你穿著黑色小洋裝時, 會覺得自己很美。 但,那也正是為什麼奧利佛 無法穿他想要穿的衣著時, 會如此感到被孤立。 有次,他甚至對我說: 「媽,每天穿寬鬆長運動褲 讓我覺得穿著殘疾。」
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.
在地球上有十億人 有著某種類型的殘疾。 十億人。 如果那十億人中有 10% 有穿衣服的困難, 那就表示有相當多人, 其實都沒有達到他們 應該要能夠達到的 自信、成功,或甚至快樂。 那個早晨,在奧利佛穿著 牛仔褲出發去學校之後, 我發現,原來我可以 為這個狀況做點貢獻。 於是,我就做了。
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.
2013 年,我成立了一個組織, 叫做「夢想的伸展台」。 組織的使命是要教育時尚產業, 可以針對主流衣服做些修改, 來服務這個未曾被服務過的社群。 一開始,我們做了一整年的研究。 我去拜訪了學校、機構、醫院。 我真的上街去尋找坐輪椅的人、 用助行器的人, 或甚至有一點跛腳的人。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
我知道我看起來一定像是瘋了, 但我知道,如果我 真的想要造成不同, 我就必須要真正了解穿衣服的困難, 能接觸越多不同的人越好。
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.
我遇到了一個十八歲的 年輕男子,他有大腦性麻痺。 他要去唸哈佛大學。 他對我說:「你能想像嗎? 我拼進了哈佛, 但我的夢想卻是能 在校園裡穿牛仔褲, 和其他新鮮人一樣。」 我遇到了一個小女孩吉安娜, 她沒有左前臂和手掌。 她母親告訴我, 她無法忍受看到懸在 半空的袖子將她女兒的 不同之處給放大, 所以她把每一件長袖衣服 都讓專業的裁縫修改過。 你能想像她花的時間和金錢嗎? 我也很榮幸能和艾瑞克樂格德聚首, 前羅格斯的美式足球員,2010 年 因為比賽中的擒抱摔倒而癱瘓。 在這個時點,我已經看過 一些不可理解的事了, 但,他的情況, 是目前為止最驚心動魄的。
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."
艾瑞克是個高大的傢伙, 要用到兩個助手和一台起重機 才能幫他穿好衣服。 我坐著看這個過程看了超過兩小時。 當我向艾瑞克表示我的震驚時, 他看著我,說: 「敏蒂,這是每天的日常。 我能說什麼? 我想要看起來很時髦。」
Research done.
研究完成。
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,如果我想要 在這個產業中造成改變, 我得要用上我的背景, 並真正去想個辦法來修改這些衣服。 所以,靠著過去一年收集到的資訊, 我發現,全面來看,其實有三種類別 會受到影響。 第一類是闔起來。 釦子、四合釦、拉鏈、鉤釦 對幾乎所有人來說都是很困難的。 所以,我用更好處理的 技術來取代它們: 磁鐵。 磁鐵讓我們的哈佛新鮮人 能夠在校園裡穿著牛仔褲, 因為他自己就能穿上。
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.
第二類:可調整性。 褲長、袖長、腰帶 對於這麼多種不同形狀的 身體而言是個挑戰。 所以,我加上了鬆緊帶, 以及一個內部摺邊系統。 用這種方式,吉安娜就 能夠穿現成的衣服了, 只要調整一隻袖子就好。
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.
最後一類:穿脫衣服的替代方式, 不同於傳統從頭上穿脫的方式。 所以我設計了一個方式, 從手臂先穿進去。 對於像艾瑞克這樣的人, 這設計就能讓他的穿衣 過程少掉五個步驟, 讓他省下寶貴的時間。
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.
所以,我出去買了現成的衣服, 坐在我家餐桌旁把這些衣服解體, 我做了一個又一個原型, 直到我覺得修改得夠棒為止。 接著,我準備好要進大聯盟了: 時尚業。 不是去設計我自己的系列作品, 我知道如果真想造成不同, 我得要進入主流。 我相信,我只需要讓這個產業知道 這類人口的數量有多巨大, 且這些人都是消費者, 沒有被考量到的消費者。
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 --
而我非常高興能夠告訴各位, 這個產業聽到了我的聲音。 「夢想的伸展台」的合作夥伴 是地球上最了不起、 最有前瞻性思維的品牌。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
who took my vision to market and made fashion history by launching the first mainstream adaptive collection. And the rest is yet to come.
他們把我的遠景帶到市場上, 寫下了時尚的歷史新頁, 推出了第一個主流無障礙系列。 還有其他的在後頭呢。
(Applause)
(掌聲)
So --
所以,
(Applause)
(掌聲)
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.
時尚掌握著維生的生命線。 衣服是有改造作用的。 衣服等同信心。 所以,明天, 當你開始你的一天, 你在想著你要穿什麼, 我希望你能夠珍惜這個過程, 然後想想看,你選擇的穿著 讓你有什麼樣的感覺。
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.
今天,奧利佛十三歲了。 他穿著無障礙卡其褲、 前面有磁鐵釦的上衣- 覺得自己是附近最酷的孩子。 我的孩子昂首闊步、神氣活現。
(Laughter)
(笑聲)
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.
如我先前提到的, 奧利佛的疾病是退化性的, 也就是說,他的肌肉 會隨著時間越來越糟。 目前,這是最讓我悲痛的部分。 我得要旁觀, 看著我的孩子狀況惡化。 我什麼也做不了。 所以,我抬起頭向前看, 把焦點從我無法控制的事情上移開, 看向我能控制的事情上, 因為我沒有選擇。
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.
所以,我向前看。 我也請求時尚業一起向前看。 現在,我也請在座所有人, 也一起向前看。
Thank you.
謝謝。
(Applause)
(掌聲)