When she was still at school, Veliyeva had a stroke that led to paraparesis, the partial loss of movement in the legs. She became Azerbaijan’s first paralympic female athlete, qualifying for the 2012 London Paralympics in archery.

She loves jumpsuits, T-shirts and trousers – the more colourful the better – but can’t pull them on and off easily because they don’t have zippers and buttons in the places she needs them.

The show was the idea of Mahammad Kekalov, a 21-year-old student. Months before, he had visited Veliyeva and her husband, Galib Aliyev, at their home with his business partner Rashada Aliyeva, the first adaptive clothes designer in Azerbaijan. Aliyev also has a disability, having lost a leg when he stepped on a land mine during the first of two wars between Azerbaijan and neighbouring Armenia in the past 30 years. The conflicts resulted in hundreds of amputees.

Aliyev had often thought there must be a better way to dress: “I thought it would be more convenient to take off and wear clothes together with the prosthetic limb,” he says.

Kekalov was inspired to start the business by his late grandmother, Salimat Kekalova. She was visually impaired, so getting dressed could be a challenge. Coupled with a year spent with an American family who looked after disabled children, he was driven to think of adaptive clothes as a solution.

“As with my grandma, I see the same in the people we work with. We ask them if they need help or have any issues with clothing. They say they don’t, but we find out they have problems with getting dressed. They are so used to it, they don’t see it as a problem but an everyday reality.”

This is one reason he organises catwalk shows – he has now done three – he believes those who perform feel more confident about their bodies. “They move away from body stigma and that is the main reason why we do it,” he says.

The first two shows took place last year. The first cost $13,000 (£15,500), paid for by the US embassy in Azerbaijan; by the second, Kekalov was selling the concept, encouraging companies to buy sponsorship to show solidarity with people with disabilities.

Rahim Rzayev, 36, was on the catwalk in a turquoise Hawaiian shirt and wide white trousers with buttons on both sides. Like Veliyeva, he had followed the show on social media: “He who does not take risks, gains nothing,” he says.

Rzayev, who recently got married and will soon be a father, has had a severe form of scoliosis since he was six, he has a curvature in his spine and a twisted bone in his right leg.

His schooling was limited to a couple of weekly home visits from a teacher. He now earns a living by selling hand-crafted products but struggles to find clothes: “When I wear trousers, the waist is small and tight. If the waist is right, the hem is too long.”

The clothes Kekalov makes range in price from £130 to £215, putting them beyond the reach of many Azerbaijanis, where the average monthly salary is about £420. The team therefore gives their clothes to the models for nothing.

Source: The Guardian

Powered by NewsAPI.org