Encountering Chromatics - A Collaborative Project by May Marigold
Encountering Chromatics Collection at Graduate Fashion Week (2025), Photo By Fil Mazzarino
May Gauntlett, founder of May Marigold CIC has the approach to adaptive fashion we have all been waiting for. Adaptive fashion for the longest time has looked medical and monotonous. May is pushing back on this, and is bringing the colour, personality, and functionality we all need into adaptive fashion!
The project involved co-designing an adaptive outfit that met both the individuals accessibility needs, as well as their style. Two things that unfortunately are not often seen together in the fashion industry. Each individual that May collaborated with was thoroughly included in the design process - including choosing adaptive features, themes, materials, embellishments, fonts, and more. May was incredibly inclusive, and really embodied ‘nothing about us without us’ throughout the project.
Over several months, May and I collaborated on an outfit which had themes of disability advocacy and disabled joy. In fact, my cat Stanley (pictured to the right), became an active participant in this project. As I was travelling back from our first in-person session in Norwich, I stopped by London, where I ended up meeting Stanley, who at the time was a neglected and ill kitten on the streets. Once he was on the mend, he learnt to travel with me, thus joining our second in-person session.
Let me take you through the outfit. The star of the show was the adaptive knitted jumper. I absolutely love flared sleeves, however unfortunately they aren’t compatible with a manual wheelchair, as they make it hard to grip the pushrims and get dirty very quickly. This is where May comes in with an ingenious solution; having a pull-up system fed through the sleeve so that the flared sleeves can be retracted when pushing but are there for when I’m not moving. In terms of style, we chose a checkered pattern featuring colours that bring me joy, with various disability symbols within the pattern and the phrase “nothing about us without us” on the front.
Second in-person co-design session with May and Stanley (2025).
The purple trousers have an elasticated waistband, for easy dressing with no fiddly zips or buttons my fingers can’t do up. We discussed how pockets are never accessible on trousers for wheelchair users, so May designed them to sit with easy access on my lap. The orange cat face pockets lower down on the trousers are a reference to Stanley. There are a few other items that make up this outfit, including a raincoat, compression top and a bandana, all radiating the theme of disabled joy.
As part of the collection, May designed with a diverse group of people with different accessibility needs. There are too many adaptive features that they designed to list, but to name a few: a noise cancelling hood, a skirt with that capability of shortening at the pull of a string on the go, weighted garments, and more.
A massive thank you to May for their incredible work empowering the disability community!
Photo of Luca on the London Fashion Week (2025) runway, Photo By Ange Harper
Backstage photo of Luca and Kate Stanforth at London Fashion Week (2025), Photo By Ruth Virgo
Backstage photo of the Encountering Chromatics Collection modelled at London Fashion Week (2025) and designer May Gauntlett, Photo By Adam Billings
Backstage photo of Luca wearing an adaptive raincoat designed by May at London Fashion Week (2025), Photo By Adam Billings
Backstage photo of Luca at Graduate Fashion Week (2025)