Sinéad Burke at the 2019 Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute Gala. Image credit: Getty ImagesSHARE2nd Oct 2019JEN NURICK
And altering its future course in custom Christopher Kane and Gucci no less.
“Fashion is a tool for articulating my personality and individuality to the world. Standing at three foot, five inches tall, my physicality [has typically] represented a different age, and a different level of experience than I actually have,” explains Irish school teacher-cum-fashion insider and advocate Sinéad Burke over the phone to Vogue. “Clothes became an armour by which I could tell the world who I was without having to articulate it with words.”
Ahead of her appearance at Vogue Resort in Brisbane, where Sinéad Burke will be speaking at the Resort Intelligence Report luncheon and Resort Trailblazers panel, the inclusivity activist chatted to Vogue about leveraging disability to inspire change and the importance of access in fashion.
Many people have forever bemoaned fashion’s exclusive existence in an ivory tower and, though the industry is ripe for reform, few people have attempted to action any positive change. That is, until Sinéad Burke broke onto the scene. After an interest in fashion (and her coincident alienation from it as a little person) inspired Burke to start her blog in 2009, an opportunity to present a Ted Talk in 2017 followed. Front row seats at fashion week came next, as well as an invitation from Anna Wintour to attend the Met Gala and, most recently, a coveted spot on British Vogue‘s September 2019 cover, lensed by the late Peter Lindbergh and guest edited by Meghan Markle, presented itself. But for Burke, change is front of mind, and personal perks are secondary.
“[Growing up] I saw fashion’s power and its potential to shape conversations around identity and culture,” explains Burke of why she first fell in love with clothes, in spite of the fact that hardly any accommodated her. “[My clothes] were born out of availability, rather than personal taste… I felt frustrated that my siblings who had little interest [in fashion] could wear what they wanted, to illustrate to the world who they were.”
Rather than growing angry with the world, Burke took it upon herself to educate the powers that be on the needs of little people and empower them to make sure these are met. American Vogue editor-in-chief Anna Wintour ensured footstools were available in the Met Gala’s bathrooms, for example, while British Vogue editor-in-chief Edward Enninful recently enlisted Burke as a contributing editor.
“[For me it’s important] to be in rooms with the CEOs of those companies, with the creative directors, with the chief marketing officer, with the chief diversity and inclusion officer,” she explains. “Developing strategies and policies that include disabled people, not just in the product offering, but in every element of the business.. store design, the training of retail staff and thinking about how disabled people could be employees.”
At the same time, Burke believes a top-down approach is key to agitate for real intersectional change, which is why she splits her time between the upper echelons of the industry (recently sitting front row at Victoria Beckham’s spring/summer 2020 show), giving talks at Central Saint Martins, and speaking to young children at schools. “I never want to be in a position where I think: ‘Okay, that’s it. I’m done,'” she reflects. “My participation in this industry was never self-serving. I always wanted to use my personal narrative as a vehicle [to amplify others].”
As for what she’s looking forward to most when she visits Australia for the first time, Burke admits: “I would love to learn more about the advocacy in Australia; what it’s like to be a person like me or a disabled person in Australia,” noting that at the end of the day, she can only speak for herself.
And, though she now counts Alessandro Michele and Christopher Kane among others that have embraced her, as friends, and has an enviable wardrobe made to her measurements, Burke is proud of her work though unashamed to admit that “I didn’t choose to be disabled.” She continues: “But what we do get to choose is how we behave. I would love for people to be more conscious of the actions they take, and to be thinking outside of themselves. How they can choose to do and be better and have greater influence in the world around them.”
