HALIFAX – A Nova Scotia man hopes to use his knowledge of the fashion industry and some government funding to create fashionable clothes to serve a growing elderly population in the Maritimes.
Gary Markle, an assistant professor at NSCAD University, spends a lot of time in the fashion studio. Most of it is teaching students the ins and outs of design, but he is now embarking on a journey all his own — creating prototypes for a fashion line he calls “Elder Wear”.
“It would be designing for an aging population, but we’re not limited to the idea of people who are getting older, it’s also for people who have limited range of motion,” he said.
Markle was awarded one of two grants, each worth $100,000, that were recently handed out by the Canadian Institute of Health and Research Funding.
The clothes are meant to look fashionable, provide comfort, and allow the wearers to maintain their dignity.
Markle says the idea was inspired by his mother, Joan, who has dementia and had been finding it increasingly difficult to find suitable clothing.
“How can I help her to remain as independent as possible and to keep her sense of herself?” he said. “Society really does look at how we dress ourselves. We’re a visual culture, so we do judge people by what we see, right or wrong.”
Markle started four years ago with a housecoat to meet his mother’s specific needs. With the help of the grant, he’s now going to expand on that idea, by re-thinking things like zippers and velcro, and making clothing safe.
“Is there a way to find natural clothes that actually help say keep down body odor? Because these are the kinds of things that do end up also stigmatizing people.”
Markle hopes his idea will help inspire future designers to follow suit.
“If we don’t start talking about it and thinking about it, we may miss the boat in terms of bringing this idea of aesthetics and functionality together in balance,” he said.
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