October 14, 2025 – – held over until March 15, 2026
Opening reception on October 23, 2025, from 4:30 to 7:00 pm
Human Ecology Building (HEB)
Corner of 89th Ave & 116 St NW
University of Alberta North Campus
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Team Members
Megan Strickfaden || Elsie Osei || Emma Carr || Zoe Wagner || Chenshuo Li || Michael Antwi || Jackie Fisher || Elizabeth Lai || Thomas Lai || Alexis De Villa || Ben Barry || Philippa Nesbitt
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Overview
[Re]Making the Unmade explores how D/deaf, Disabled, and Mad-identifying people creatively “hack” their everyday clothing to make it more wearable, expressive, and inclusive. Through these acts of adaptation, participants reimagine fashion as a space of belonging, empowerment, and desire for disability.
The project challenges mainstream fashion’s narrow ideals by showcasing how individuals and communities transform garments — and, in doing so, transform the very systems that have historically excluded them.
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About the Exhibition
This exhibition is part of the SSHRC-funded research project Cripping Masculinities: Disabled Men’s Intersectional Narratives through Fashion (2019–2024), co-led by Dr. Megan Strickfaden (University of Alberta) and Dr. Ben Barry (Toronto Metropolitan University / Parsons, New York).
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Exhibition Dates
- October 14, 2025 – February 28, 2026
- Location: Human Ecology Gallery, University of Alberta (Edmonton)
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Key Concepts
- Fashion Hacking: Collaborative workshops where disabled participants modify garments to suit their bodies and identities, celebrating adaptive creativity and community-driven design.
- Representation & Belonging: Re-storying fashion by centering disabled bodies, experiences, and challenging traditional notions of beauty and normalcy.
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Exhibition Highlights
- Body Surrogates: Seven brightly coloured 3D-printed mannequins based on the actual physiques of participants, alongside two mannequins representing invisible disabilities.
- Garments: Everyday and hacked clothing that tell personal stories of adaptation, resilience, and self-expression.
- Interactive Elements:
– Three videos accessed through QR codes including: the making of the mannequins, a fashion show highlighting people wearing hacked garments, and an illustrated film about the importance and value of fashion in everyday life
– Audio stories of participants talking about their experiences with clothing accessed through a QR code
– Tactile objects for sensory engagement including mannequin making samples, booklets, and stim toys
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Goals and Impact
- Foster dialogue about inclusive fashion, accessibility, and diverse identities.
- Empower visitors to rethink design, identity, and the social meanings of clothing.
- Provide educational resources in partnership with organizations such as the Nina Haggerty Centre for the Arts and Chrysalis: An Alberta Society for People with Disabilities.
Activities
- We are offering a tour & hacking workshop on March 2 from 5:30-7:30 PM. Open to the public. Meet at the Human Ecology Gallery. We ask folks to bring an article of clothing they would like to begin to hack.
The Mannequins at the Creative School, Toronto Metropolitan University (TMET)
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