Whimsical, Inclusive Fashion with Up-and-Coming Designer Caity Briare
Eloise Stark
Before the read
Q: What makes Caity Briare a rising star in inclusive fashion?
Her whimsical, upcycled pieces are reframing how we view adaptive fashion design—one embroidered story at a time.
Q: How is inclusive fashion evolving for creators with disabilities?
Programs and platforms are finally opening doors, and designers like Caity Briare are leading that creative charge.
Q: Can upcycled clothing be both artistic and accessible?
Absolutely—and one look at Caity Briare’s designs proves how fashion can be sustainable, expressive, and inclusive.
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Whimsical, Inclusive Fashion with Up-and-Coming Designer Caity Briare
Caity Briare didn’t set out to become one of the most exciting names in inclusive fashion. But when you grow up in a world where clothes don’t fit your body, you either learn to live without style, or you create your own. Thankfully, Briare chose the latter.
Born with achondroplasia, the most common form of dwarfism, Briare was constantly frustrated with the lack of inclusiveness in mainstream fashion. The only clothes that fit her came from kids’ collections and didn’t have the sort of designs to suit her adult personality.
For years, shopping was always followed by the heavy use of scissors. She would cut clothes up to make them fit. “When I was cleaning out my closet to get ready for college, I found this huge drawer of halves of jean pants,” Briare told her college newspaper, Up Beacon, while pursuing her undergraduate degree.
Then, from age twenty, when Briare got her hands on her first sewing machine, she started making other modifications, gradually creating her dream wardrobe and then creating pieces just for fun. Necessity morphed into art, and it became apparent just how much of an artist Briare is. She began using appliqué and embroidery to turn each garment into a whimsical story.
She worked with clothes and textiles found in thrift shops, as well as other objects. She found some plastic fruit, which she put in netting to create a necktie inspired by bags of citrus in orange netting, also found at the store. She turned toy cars into another necktie and posted it on TikTok with the caption, “Driving lesson fit.”
Briare documented many of her creations on social media and garnered 330 000 followers in doing so. Through her growing platform, she began to spread the word that fashion is art and that everybody deserves it.
Clothes That Tell a Story
Each piece from Ca8ty Designs feels like a page from a storybook. Many feature drawings, made of appliqué, embroidery, or paint, and you can spend hours poring over the little details.
There’s the jumper featuring a small embroidered figure knitting a scarf—the scarf itself becoming a long, colorful strip you can wrap around your neck, as if the little person on your sweater was knitting you a scarf in real time.
Or there’s the shirt embroidered with a man ironing. Under the iron is a perfectly smooth patch of fabric, but the rest of the garment is made of huge, exaggerated wrinkles that add to its interesting shape.
One of her coats features a stitched bird perched on one shoulder, its fabric wing cascading over like a shawl. Then there’s the chessboard shirt—complete with movable game pieces that you can unbutton and replace.
She once even turned a Twister mat into a raincoat, its loud polka dots sending an instant message of playfulness and nostalgia.
There are countless more of these incredible designs that take secondhand clothes and turn them into wearable works of art, while also sending a powerful political message.
Making Fashion More Inclusive
The fashion industry has long been guilty of excluding various body types and people with disabilities. They were never recognized as consumers or wearers of high-end fashion, and even less as creators of it.
Luckily, steps are being taken to change this. Parsons School of Design in New York City launched its Disabled Fashion Student Program in 2024. Briare is one of the first students to participate in the program.
“The disability scholarship program at Parsons is so important because it allows for a new generation of disabled talent to have access to opportunities in fashion design and the fashion industry overall like never before,” commented Aaron Rose Philip in Teen Vogue. Philip was the first Black, transgender, disabled model to be represented by a major modeling agency. He will be one of the program mentors.
Caity is showing the fashion world what it’s been missing—and inviting it to imagine what a more inclusive future might look like.
“In an industry that has been so exclusive towards disabled people, and in understanding what our community is capable of, this program is majorly helpful in giving a platform to brilliant people with brilliant ideas whose efforts normally just go under the radar. It’s a game changer,” he continued.
Adaptive and Affirming
As Briare continues her studies at Parsons and expands her online shop, Ca8ty Designs, she’s proving that inclusive fashion doesn’t have to be boring, clinical, or watered down. It can be fun, expressive, and deeply artistic. It can tell stories. It can make people smile. And it can show everyone that it’s okay to be different. As Briare told her college newspaper, “We’re all human in the end. I just have a different body. That’s it.”
For years, shopping was always followed by scissors.
Briare doesn’t yet know what she wants to do after the program, although she is tempted by the idea of making costumes for movie sets or designing dresses for the red carpet. Whatever she does, however, accessibility will be a priority. “If I did make my fashion company, I would make sure to put an accessibility statement like I do have now, or try to make clothing that would be able to fit somebody with dwarfism as well,” she told Teen Vogue.
You either learn to live without style, or you create your own.
By the way, Briare’s TikTok bio says she’s looking for a designer job. If you are in the business of hiring super-talented creatives, you might want to get in line.
Contributing Team Coordinator & Content Strategist
