Blind Girl Design

Tricia Waechter:
And I got so angry that I woke up one morning and I just said, screw it. I'm going to start my own company. This is not okay. This is not an okay. I'm telling everybody I'm blind. Everybody. This is not something to hide. This cane is something to celebrate. It gives me independence. It makes me mobile. I'm part of a community of people. And that's how I started Blind Girl Dsigns.

Joeita Gupta:
I'm Joeita Gupta and this is The Pulse. Clothing has long been recognized as a form of self-expression. People rely on clothes and accessories to establish a sense of personal style or to make a statement. They try to stand out in a crowd. For people with disabilities, not only can fashion be a means for self-expression, but it is also a way to advocate for themselves in an ableist world. In looking for perfect clothing, people with disabilities aren't just seeking clothes that are beautiful, but also fashions that are accessible. Accessible fashions are inclusive of all types of bodies. They prioritize ease of dressing and might include things like seated wear, for people in wheelchairs or bright colour contrast for people who are blind or low vision. Today, we discuss disability and fashion. It's time to put your finger on the pulse.

Joeita Gupta:
Hello, and welcome to The Pulse on AMI Audio, and of course, here on YouTube as well. This show is available to you in a number of formats. You can catch it on AMI Audio at several times during the week. You can also find the podcast and listen wherever you are. And of course, if you are like me and you like to watch all kinds of videos on YouTube and while away, many Rs doing that, this show is now also available to you as a video on YouTube. So you can now not only hear what I sound like, but you can also see what I look like.

Joeita Gupta:
My guest today for the program is Tricia Waechter. Tricia is a fashion designer with about three decades experience in the fashion industry. Trisha is also the creator and founder of Blind Girl Design. She joins me today from Houston, Texas. Tricia, hello, and welcome to the program.

Tricia Waechter:
Hi Joeita. Thank you so much. I'm so happy to be here.

Joeita Gupta:
Yeah, it's great to have you on the program. I am really keen to talk to you about Blind Girl Design and how that all got started, but tell me about how you got your start in the fashion industry.

Tricia Waechter:
I actually got my start in the fashion industry after I graduated from college with a degree in English literature and theatre. I got married and moved to St. Louis. And I needed to get a job. And the choice was graduate school, in directing, which would be about a 10 year program or a sales clerk job. So I went for the sales clerk job and I worked in an accessory area and I sold kind of fine jewelry in a carriage trade store. And I did a great job. Who knew? I had only worked in fast food places and factories and stuff through high school and college.

Tricia Waechter:
And one day they came down and they asked me if I wanted to be an assistant buyer. And I said, "I have no idea what that is, but does it pay more than I'm making now?" And they said, "Yes." And I said, "Okay." So then it was just learning. It was really, really just learning the business through people that were in the business and working my way up and studying the business, studying product and getting really good at retail math. Just really refining my skills and learning from whoever I thought was really brilliant in my field. So that's how I actually... I totally fell into retail, completely fell into it, but it's a perfect match because costuming is a really big part of the theatre; building sets, costuming, sewing, creating. My whole life was creative, so just a wonderful natural fit.

Joeita Gupta:
I'm assuming that a lot of your job in the fashion world as a buyer would have involved the use of your vision. How much of the job is about your vision and how much do you actually rely on senses other than vision, to be able to do the kind of work that you were doing?

Tricia Waechter:
So vision is... The actual position that I held was called "the eye." I was the eye for companies, which is the person who's at the top, visually, who is making choices about the apparel for the company or what the brand looks like. So it's very heavily visual. But what I would teach trainees when they came in, was to build a library in their brains of fabrics, colours, and product that they had seen, because you so much rely on your knowledge of the industry to make good choices. So, yes, it's very visual.

Tricia Waechter:
The other thing is, interestingly, if you go to Premier Vision in Paris, for instance, it's a fabric show and everyone stands and closes their eyes and touches fabric. No one looks at the fabric. They only touch the fabric with their hands. And so hand feel is critical importance in the fashion world. Really, really critical. So interestingly, there's quite a lot of... I've discovered since launching Blind Girl Designs, there's just an enormous amount of stuff that you can do without your eyes. Enormous.

Joeita Gupta:
So you were feeling the fabric, so that was a part of your role, but a lot of it was being "the eye" or using your vision to do your job. And then you get the diagnosis of retinitis pigmentosa. How did that affect your ability to do your job?

Tricia Waechter:
So I got the diagnosis around the turn of the century, and at that time, it affected very little. It Affected my ability to drag at night. And truthfully, I probably lost being able to distinguish the colour dark green from black around that time. So for a really long time, I was able to talk to my team and talk about colour. I can distinguish that there are different tones, but if you're in design, you're going to talk about if a colour flare red; you get very, very technical about it. So I would just direct the conversation towards people who I knew had really great colour eyes and who kind of see how the group agreed. And then you would match those tones with other tones so you could make outfits. So I really, for many years did a work around.

Tricia Waechter:
In my office, I had incredibly bright lights, like an airplane hanger, and my office was completely white, all white desk, all-white tables, light coloured walls, so as my vision continued to decrease and I needed to use a white cane to go into theatres and any place that transitioned from light to dark, I just kept trying to accommodate my decreasing vision. Until I couldn't anymore. When I crossed that level, I had a big loss of vision, from a 20% visual field to a 17, to a 15, to an 11, over a two year period, which pretty much ended my ability to do that role on a corporate level.

Joeita Gupta:
You've been working in that role for many years now. You were well established. Were your colleagues willing to support you, even when it became evident that you had a disability or were people really discouraged and not very encouraging of you to continue in that role, thinking that your vision loss was going to get in the way?

Tricia Waechter:
No, really several people that I worked for knew that I had RP. My bosses knew that I had RP. And they were encouraging in terms of just because I was so talented and did such a great job and was able to utilize the teams around me. What actually happened was a really interesting thing, in that, my company got bought out by another company. And at exactly that time, we had bought what we thought was our second house in Houston, Texas, because we lived outside of New York City, and then I was supposed to take a month off and then go back to New York. And the funding dropped for that company.

Tricia Waechter:
Simultaneously, I came to Houston and I realized I couldn't see anything, because I was so used to being in my house in New York, getting on the bus. So much of this is visual memory that... For me, to get on a plane and fly to Hong Kong, totally visual memory. That was just stuff I did all the time. But to come to a brand new place, where I didn't have any visual memory, where everybody drives cars, it really cemented the fact that I had gone past this barrier, in terms of vision loss. So yes, everybody has been supportive. And when I launched Blind Girl Designs, I have just so many people that are supporting this. It's terrific

Joeita Gupta:
Tell me a little bit about Blind Girl Designs. What is the concept behind it? And at what point did you decide to start your own brand? Was it when you moved to Houston?

Tricia Waechter:
So when I went moved to Houston, I still was kind of in denial about my vision and applied for jobs, but they require sight, so that pretty much put me out of the running. But a friend of mine has a factory here and I helped him work in his factory, and that was really fun, and I liked that, as I was trying to figure out what I would do. Except for one time we had to go see an account. And I told him that in order to see this account, be on their factory floor, I had to use my white cane. And he did not want me to use my white cane.

Tricia Waechter:
And so... I know... I went with him and I put my hand on his back when we walked on their factory floor. And then I later told him that I couldn't work with them anymore. We're still friends. And I got so angry that I woke up one morning and I just said, "Screw it. I'm going to start my own company.This is not okay. This is not an okay... I'm telling everybody I'm blind. Everybody. This is not something to hide. This cane is something to celebrate. It gives me independence. It makes me mobile. I'm part of a community of people." And that's how I started Blind Girl Designs.

Joeita Gupta:
So you really made a conscientious decision to center your blindness in the company's name, its logo, to really say, I'm not going to hide my disability, I have nothing to be ashamed of. But when you think about the actual clothing that Blind Girl Design puts out, in what ways is your clothing inclusive of people who are visually impaired?

Tricia Waechter:
Well interestingly, when you were talking about accessibility earlier, I made a really conscious choice not to use any buttons and zippers in clothing. That's just my own choice. I have a special needs son who has low tone, who, doesn't actually have buttons and zippers on any of his clothes. And for me, I would mis-button stuff because I couldn't see it. And so when I first started and I made dresses and cardigans, I made them so that they would be an open cardigan, a pull over the head dress, just simple, that would be very simple for most people to wear.

Tricia Waechter:
And then I started doing graphic t-shirts and hoodies and sweatshirts, and all of the designs on that product are made of white canes. So it really is an external signal of our visual impairment, but not in a heavy way, in a very light and airy way, in a way to engage people and get conversations going around visual impairment.

Joeita Gupta:
And have you had a lot of interesting conversations with people, if they see you out and about in a graphic tee with a couple white canes on that tee, does that get people talking?

Tricia Waechter:
Yes. And also, then, of course, I have a white cane with me and they perceive me to be more approachable. They're actually willing to talk, or children always ask, "What is that mommy?" And the mommy will go, "Sh," and I'm like, "Oh yeah, it's a white cane. Do you want to touch it? It helps me see." And then they engage. I like to engage about this topic as much as I can, for people to understand blindness because it's confusing and there's just always room for everyone to learn and feel like they can not feel uncomfortable around somebody with a disability.

Joeita Gupta:
And I like what you said about children. I've had that interaction as well, where I've been walking down the street with my white cane and exactly what you said, a mother and a child, "Mommy, what's going on?" And the mom will try to sh the child. But I think there's a really great opportunity, especially with young kids, to get that conversation started about blindness and that it's not really something to be afraid of or to be nervous about. It's just a transition that people make in their lives.

Joeita Gupta:
So one of the ways in which I really struggle with clothing, and I think this is an issue for my husband as well, is just in reading the care instructions, which are inevitably in really small type. Tricia, how do you deal with that when you interact with customers and they have questions about how to look after their clothing?

Tricia Waechter:
Yes, actually what we do is auditory. Whenever we go to conventions or festivals, I actually tell people how to wash. Just wash it on delicate, wash the t-shirts on delicate, inside out, hang them to dry, and pretty much that's the same... A hoodie, which is heavier, I would say, turn it inside out, wash it on delicate, and you can put it in the dryer because it's such a heavier material. But I verbally tell them. And many, many customers go to my website, pick stuff out and then call me, because we have just a tap right on the very front page of my website for people to call me, because they have a lot of questions. And then I'll tell them about the care. Generally, there's an interaction about the care because it's difficult. It's difficult for me, of course, to be able to understand care. And even when I was privy sighted, I really didn't understand what the symbols meant anyway. There's like 13 symbols on there with irons and stop signs and stuff. So I just verbally tell people, so makes it easy.

Joeita Gupta:
And I think... I don't know about you, but I think everybody has that one horror story, that cashmere sweater you really liked and you dropped in the washer and it shrank to the size that would fit a doll. I've been burnt before, so I take the conversation about caring for your clothes really seriously.

Joeita Gupta:
I am intrigued to get an idea of what some of your designs actually look like. Now, remember, this is in part audio as well. So I wondering if you'd be open to describing some of your clothing so we can get a sense of some of the designs that you have on offer.

Tricia Waechter:
Sure. So I'll show you first design that we did, which we did it last November. And I'm going to show, for people who can see visual, they can see this. But for us, that cannot see it, this is a snowflake and the snowflake is made by crossing four white roller ball canes. They have red at the bottom, and then a white roller ball and a black handle with a strap. And they cross into an X, and then off of each cane are Vs pointing out, which make it look like a big gigantic snowflake. And around the snowflake made of canes, are tiny little light blue snowflakes, about probably 60 little snowflakes, just sprinkled all around the big snowflake.

Tricia Waechter:
It was our first design that we made and it's probably the best selling design that we've had so far. People really love it because the canes are really... It's really obvious that these are white canes. You would not mistake this for anything else. We're very, very particular to make sure that the canes we represent look like the actual canes that we use.

Joeita Gupta:
That makes a lot of sense because sometimes people will use pink canes or purple canes, but really-

Tricia Waechter:
Which is rare.

Joeita Gupta:
Which is rare, but really the red, white and black cane is the cane that gets the message across. Do you have some other designs you could show us?

Tricia Waechter:
Yes, I have... Let's see. I have a Christmas tree. So the Christmas tree, so what ends up happening, if you take the bottom and turn the joint to the right, and then angle it like a half of a triangle, at the very top where there should be a star is a roller ball. So this is mirrored so that it forms a triangle with two roller balls in the top. And the base of the tree is the two black handles from each cane. Inside the tree are green squigglies that go all throughout that triangle, which forms the tree. And then on top of that are about eight white round ornaments, which represent the roller ball and the cane. And each ornament has a different colour in it and a different squiggle and zigzag. So it's, again, a very fun, lightweight, just airy conversation about this t-shirt and how this tree was made.

Joeita Gupta:
Oh, it's interesting. I have a cane and I see a cane. You have a cane and you see a Christmas tree. What about some of your other designs? Give us a little bit more of a sneak preview.

Tricia Waechter:
So we have this one is called... This design that I'm holding up is on black and it is called "star explosion." And this one is made by crossing... This looks like a spoke of white canes. So to understand that everything is crossing in the middle. So there are about eight roller ball canes in the spoke, crossing at the middle. And then in between those, are smaller white graphite canes. So there's a total of 16 canes in the spoke of this print, which is a big chest print. Starting at the center where all the canes cross, bright blue little baby stars start exploding out of the center of the canes and they become light blue stars and they explode out to becoming white stars, so it looks like a gigantic firework in the sky.

Joeita Gupta:
That's amazing.

Tricia Waechter:
And it's great.

Joeita Gupta:
Yeah, no, it's great. You have so much great stuff here. And I am faced with the problem that every shopper faces, which is I want to have it all, but of course you can't have it all. Which brings me to my next question. I don't know how you go about this, but I really wonder about how one selects the clothes for themselves if one is visually impaired. I'm sure at one point in your life, you could see what was on display and pick the things you thought would look nice on you, but how has your selection criteria evolved now that you have reduced vision, bearing in mind that, unlike me, you are actually a designer?

Tricia Waechter:
My selection criteria personally has not really evolved because, in my industry, because I traveled so much and actually I am traveling quite a bit now that I've launched Blind Girl Designs, we would wear you... We would wear black yoga pants, black shoes, black t-shirt, black jacket and black backpack. And because black doesn't reflect light, so you always look neat and tidy. And it's really easy to mix it, throw on a gray t-shirt or a pink t-shirt with that ensemble and dress the whole thing up.

Tricia Waechter:
So for me, because of my nature, because I'm so used to seeing so much fashion, so much trends, so much images, be around the world, that a lot of designers tend to make themselves a blank palette. You'll see some designers walk on stage at the end of their shows and they have on a pair of jeans and a white t-shirt. Really not uncommon because we're just always looking for the next new colour, the next new shape, the next new idea. So we're not really decorating ourselves. So in my case, that really hasn't changed.

Joeita Gupta:
And do you think that there's a difference between fashion and style?

Tricia Waechter:
I think there's a huge difference. I have a personal style, which I just described to you and fashion or a fashion trend, which is really what I did, was to try to figure out what the big fashion trends would be in the next year, is something that you would have in your closet maybe for a season and you'd wear it and then maybe you wouldn't wear it again. Fashion is trendy and I tend to be much more... I have a personal style, which I really encourage people to really work on their personal style because it can include fashion if that's what you prefer, or it can be classic. It can be whatever you want it to be.

Joeita Gupta:
Yeah. I find that now that I'm getting older, I prefer to have a few pieces in my wardrobe and really sort of develop that personal style. Rather than in my twenties, I had tons of clothes and a lot of it was fast fashion and I would buy things, wear them for the summer and then chuck things. And I started to think about just A) how wasteful it was and B) how much money I was spending. And I really sort started to think more about having a personal sense of style. So in terms of your style, and I think this is a question that we have a lot of YouTube videos about this, but I'll ask you too. Why not? What are some of the things that you think are must have for women to have in their wardrobe?

Tricia Waechter:
Okay. So the must haves... I'm going to say this is going to be really unusual, but this is critical. You must have a good bra because in order for all the clothes to fit properly, you should feel comfortable in a really good bra as a foundation.

Tricia Waechter:
And then I would just go back to what I just said about black. I feel like if you're going to... You can either have a base colour closet, that's either navy blue or black. I tend to go towards black because there's just so many tones of navy blue, it's very difficult to match. It's much easier to match black. So I think you have to have a pair of black pants, a pair of black shoes, a black handbag, a black tank top, or T, whichever you prefer, and a black jacket.

Tricia Waechter:
If you take all those clothes and put them on at one time, you can go anywhere. If you take the top off and put a pink top on, you can go anywhere. If you take the black pants off and put a pair of jeans in there, super cute. If you take the jacket off and you just have the tank on, darling. So if you have those essential, in one colour, and I'm going to say go on the black side, build your rotor towards the black, because most designers actually do. And then you can just insert the colour, or the texture, or the scarf, or all of the accessory, jewelry, bangles, earrings, whatever you want, on top of that. So think of it kind of as a building block.

Joeita Gupta:
Black is tre chic, as they say.

Tricia Waechter:
Black is always chic. If you go to London, if you go to Milan, if you go anywhere in the world, except for Paris, which tends to go a little more brown and gray, and you go to New York City, everybody wears black all the time.

Joeita Gupta:
No, for sure.

Tricia Waechter:
So, it's totally good.

Joeita Gupta:
Oh, amazing. Well, just in the minute or so that we have left, you've described some of the origins of Blind Girl Design, and you've shown us some of your wonderful designs as well, but just in about 30 seconds or so, what do you hope the future of the brand will be? Where do you want to take it next?

Tricia Waechter:
The more that we have worked within our community, the more I see a real need for being able to label our clothes so that people can identify them independently. And there's not any current system that's universal for that. And for me, as we grow our company, I'd like to be able to develop some of my product internationally, where we can use a feature called embossing, where they can emboss a label or emboss the back of a garment with raised letters for braille, for people to identify their clothing. Once I can find that, it would be in every piece of clothing that I have, because, you know what? I am of the inside out and backwards t-shirt club. So I would prefer to have embossing on everything I have. So that automatically, when I run and grab that shirt, I actually put it on inside right and frontwords.

Joeita Gupta:
Right. I think we've all done that. Tricia, how can we look at some of your designs? If you want to check out Blind Girl Designs, how do we do that? Oh, and most importantly, do you ship to Canada?

Tricia Waechter:
We do ship to Canada and we are at blindgirldesigns.com, www.blindgirldesigns.com, B-L-I-N-D-G-I-R-L-D-E-S-I-G-N-S.com.And you can go look at our website. You can give us a call. And if you can't actually look, you can also give us a call and we can chat and walk you through it. We have item descriptions on everything. We'd love to hear from you.

Joeita Gupta:
Tricia, thank you so much for speaking to me today. It was a pleasure getting to see some of your amazing designs and to hear about Blind Girl Design.

Tricia Waechter:
Thank you so much. It was a lovely meeting with you today, too.

Joeita Gupta:
Tricia Waechter is the founder of Blind Girl Design. She joined us today from Houston, Texas. Her website is blindgirldesign.com. That's all the time we have for today. Thank you so much for listening to the program. Our videographers were Ted Cooper and Matt McGurk. Our technical producer is Marc Aflalo and Andy Frank is the manager for AMI Audio. On behalf of the crew, I've been your host Joeita Gupta. Thanks for listening.