Polly Rogers explores the world of adaptive fashion, an up and coming section of the fashion industry, allowing those with medical conditions and disabilities to feel stylish, trendy and fabulous without foregoing functionality or feasibility!

By Polly Rogers | Dec 28 2025

With fashion in the forefront, many smaller brands in 2025 have gone further than simply adding inclusivity into their designs. Brands such as Vertige Adaptive and Recondition create collections packed with products specifically designed for those who live with medical conditions or disabilities that impede their use of stereotypical high street clothing and garments. These brands allow freedom of style, while ensuring functionality in order to allow the use of medical devices freely. From jackets to jeans, skirts to stoma covers, everything is an accessory and a statement, why should someone be forced to dress in aged and unappealing garments, because it's their only option? Fashion is an important form of self expression and these brands are doing incredible work to allow and inspire all to dress as they desire!

Stoma bags; these long-term medical devices, paired alongside the mid to low rise trends of late, leave an apparent gap in their design, available in hues of peach, beige, white and black; they are medically efficient, but, visually they are stylistically bland and basic. Stoma bag covers, while preexistent, have become a statement piece, an accessory that furthers an outfit. Influencers online use these to promote awareness while simultaneously looking chic! Influencer Lucy Jane, @LucyJaneFashion on Instagram, has worked closely with the brand Recondition, posting fit checks and dumps full of quirky and cool outfits, her stoma bags are seen in vivid colours and trending prints such as leopard, gingham and more! Bedazzling stoma bags across platforms like Instagram and TikTok shows others, who may be facing this procedure, how what lies ahead in this journey isn't a burden, but an opportunity to accessorise! Another item to wear daily, the possibilities are endless, it allows the use of lace trimmings, bows and beading, embroidery and crochet, or even, as brand @ByDestinyPinto designs shows on their TikTok, you can have leather covers with buckles and hardware to match boots and bags in the autumn and winter! No matter the occasion, there is a cover to coordinate, be that a sleek satin for an event, or a cute lace hem to peek out above your waist band on the daily! 

Wheelchair users and those with limited mobility are often stuck with options of either uncomfortable or unfashionable clothing. Intotum, is a brand that focuses on timeless statement pieces that elevate your style, their slogan is ‘adaptive Fashion’ proving how functionality can meet in the middle. These designs are elegant, allowing a mature and professional style to filter through your wardrobe. Their designs include backless trenchcoats ideal for wheelchair users. It features wider sleeves and magnetic closures to allow independence and ease in wearing these coats. The brand has tops which feature magnetic closures for easy access to chest ports, while tailored with ruching that allows an appearance of a cinched waist - without discomfort of overly tight garments. Blazers and trousers all feature magnets, drawstrings and other easy closures that provide freedom of movement. Vertige Adaptive is another brand that caters towards those who wear medical devices on their person, 60s style mini dresses feature internal discreet pockets and clips for cables to ensure comfort and minimalise the bulk of these devices. Perfect for diabetics with insulin pumps, or those with heart monitors!

All these brands are pushing for a shift of focus in the future, creating ways to allow all to experience fashion that's functional; fashion designed specifically to fit an individual's taste and needs simultaneously. With a vast range of options for different disabilities and medical conditions, it allows the ability to highlight or blend, and with social media styling these pieces, we can see how empowering representation truly is.