A young fashion designer who creates clothes especially for disabled people has been named one of the world’s brightest entrepreneurs.
Lucy Jones, originally from Cardiff but now living in New York City, has made the Forbes 30 Under 30 list for her unique “seated design” collection.
The 24-year-old was inspired by her teenage cousin Jake who has hemiplegia and has trouble dressing himself independently.
So former Radyr Comprehensive School pupil Lucy decided to create a pair of trousers that he could put on using just one hand, reports Wales Online.
Her work has now received huge recognition in the Big Apple and has won several major prizes, including Womenswear Designer of the Year and the prestigious Kering Award XStyle.com Award which is the parent company of Gucci, Balenciaga, Stella McCartney and more.
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Commenting on making the Forbes list, Lucy said: “It’s quite unbelievable. I still haven’t got over it.
"I was up against some very well-known names, so it’s pretty overwhelming.
“I have always been interested in fashion but I never thought I could make a career out of making clothes.”
Lucy won a place at the prestigious Parsons College in New York City at 19 years old after receiving encouragement from a tutor at the University of South Wales.
Parsons alumni include world-famous designers Marc Jacobs, Donna Karan and Alexander Wang.
“It’s number one in the world,” she added.
“There are people at the school from all over the globe, including India and China, and I was the only Welsh student to ever be accepted.
“No-one knew where Wales was when I arrived, so I had to explain to people that it wasn’t in England and that it had its own language.”
But Lucy’s career was almost scuppered when she suffered severe kidney problems and was forced to return home to Wales.
After making a swift recovery she returned to Parsons’ sister school in Paris before heading back to New York.
She then took part in a Parsons class called Design Communication and was faced with an overwhelming assignment.
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“One of my teachers said to me, ‘Design a project that could change the world,’” she added.
“And I just thought, ‘I’m in fashion – how am I going to change the world?’”
She said: “I remember thinking how strange it was that I’m at one of the best design schools in the world and we’re not tackling these issues.
“I realised that we, in the fashion industry, need to create more accessible solutions in clothing,”
With the help of United Cerebral Palsy in Manhattan and Brooklyn, she conducted focus groups and eventually interviewed more than 100 disabled people over email and in person about how their clothing fits, taking detailed measurements of six.
Lucy, who believes the disabled community are overlooked when it comes to fashion, has now developed new techniques of textile arrangements, fastening, buttoning and special joint arrangements for elbows and knees.
She is also collaborating with MIT in Boston where some of her new ideas are being further developed.
“All this interest has caught me off guard,” she added.
“I was at a fashion shoot the other day and I was standing there with the parents of the kids who were modelling the new clothing and I really saw how much it meant to all of them, I thought, ‘If my parents were here now they’d be so proud.’”