On Wednesday, Anthropologie will introduce its first foray into adaptive apparel via a collection of eight of its existing bestsellers reworked to better fit the lives and needs of members of the disabled community. The idea came about internally, from the URBN Adapt Employee Resource Group, which is dedicated to promoting accessibility and inclusivity for the company’s portfolio of brands, which include Urban Outfitters, Anthropologie, Free People and Nuuly.
In 2021, Glossy reported on the growth of adaptive fashion, noting new collections by brands including Universal Standard and JCPenney. Tommy Hilfiger has also been a pioneer in the space — Hilfiger himself has a disabled child. One billion people, or 15% of the world’s population, experience some form of disability
To develop the collection, Anthropologie tapped Lucy Jones, founder and CEO of FFORA, a fashion lifestyle brand that primarily caters to people with disabilities — she helped the brand connect with three members of the disability community to fit test the garments. To promote the collection, the brand tapped influencers Allison Lang, Maya Moore, April Lockhart and Bri Scalesse as models and ambassadors — the influencers also had the chance to try the collection before it was fully complete. In total, seven people fit-tested each garment in advance of its release, said Richa Srivastava, Anthropologie’s chief creative director.
“The collaborators fit all the garments and gave us their feedback on technical aspects, including the products’ ease of wearability, how they feel, and how easy it is to get in and out of them,” Srivastava said.
As the team worked on the project, it received feedback that members of the disabled community often don’t shop adaptive fashion. The reason: Options catered to them often put function over fashion, leaving them no room to express their style.
Anthropologie’s first adaptive collection includes the brand’s two most popular SKUs. They include its Colette cropped wide-leg pants by Maeve, which have been added to customers’ carts 893,000 times and have been the company’s best-selling pants for more than two years. There’s also its Somerset Dress by Maeve: Mini Edition, which has been added to customers’ cart 340,000 times and has been the brand’s best-selling dress for the last six months. The adaptive collection also includes the wide-leg pants in a denim fabrication, a henley T-shirt, a denim jacket, two other dresses and a button-down shirt.
“We had the most technical feedback on our pants and denim, because the needs are so different,” Srivastava said. In response, the Colette pant was made in different versions to meet both the needs of those who stand and the needs of those who use wheelchairs.
Starting on Wednesday, PDPs on Anthropologie’s site will give shoppers the option to choose between “Standard,” “Petite,” “Plus” and “Adaptive” fits for available styles. “It’s all [part of the] same shopping experience, based on the [community’s] feedback,” said Holly Thrasher, Anthropologie’s chief merchandising officer.
The influencers visited Anthropologie’s Philadelphia headquarters for the collection photoshoot, where they spent time with the brand’s creative team and were able to weigh in on how the collection should be marketed. Anthropologie will let the content made by Lang, Moore, Lockhart and Scalesse do much of the talking. On their own social platforms, the four influencers will share how they were involved in the collection’s development.
“We’re being very careful to talk about this in a way that is not congratulating ourselves for [creating this collection],” said Elizabeth Preis, Anthropologie’s CMO. “We started with these [eight] items because they are already brand and customer favorites [and we wanted to make them] more accessible to more people — that felt like a win, and it’s a win that we want to do more with.”
URBN’s first-quarter of 2024 earnings, reported in late May, showed that Anthropologie had achieved double-digit year-over-year revenue growth. Its new and active customers increased by over 18%. In 2025, the brand plans to open 13 new stores, plus it will open a new location in NYC’s Soho next week.
