Stirrer Exclusive Video

TANNI GREY ABLE TO LAUNCH FASHION RANGE

28-04-2007

Hall 17 at the NEC is a long way from the catwalks of Milan, but this week it saw the launch of a fashion range of arguably greater significance than anything you’ll see worn by a size zero model. At the Naidex exhibition, medal winning athlete Tanni Grey Thompson introduced a new line for wheelchair users and other disabled people.

Tanni herself is the pin-up girl of disabled athletics, having won 11 paralympic gold medals and broken 30 world records in a glittering career. That hasn’t stopped her having serious body image problems, though - not least because the kind of fashions other young women wore when she was growing up weren’t always available to her as a wheelchair user.

Now she’s teamed up with designer Annie McMahon to create the T&A at Rackety’s range of clothing aimed at younger people with disabilities.

Some of the designs are deliberately confrontational - T-shirts with slogans saying, “If you stare long enough I'll start doing tricks!!!”. Others are more elegant and stylish. Either way, in a society obsessed with body image, disability is one of thefinal taboos - and Tanni Grey, as usual, is doing her damndest to break down the walls.

To watch our interview with Tanni and Annie click here.