Creating our adaptive fashion campaign: ‘Nothing about us without us’
In the fall of 2022, Zalando launched our first adaptive fashion collections as part of our commitment to increasing inclusive assortment. We talked to Caitlin Milne, Team Lead of Category & Content Marketing, who led the content creation of a dedicated digital hub and accompanying marketing material to help customers discover adaptive fashion on Zalando.
Adaptive fashion is clothing, footwear, and accessories catering to the needs of disabled people*, which we launched in all 25 markets across our private labels Zign, Pier One, Anna Field, Yourturn, and Even&Odd — and added Tommy Hilfiger’s Adaptive collection to 9 of our markets.
Learn more about our D&I commitments dedicated to creating inclusive customer experiences in our Diversity & Inclusion (D&I) Strategy, do.BETTER.
Hi Caitlin, what do you do at Zalando?
I’m the Team Lead of the Global Category & Content Marketing team and joined Zalando in August 2017 as a Content Manager. Our work revolves around creating content and landing pages to highlight upcoming trends, curate multi-brand product stories, and showcase exclusive collections to educate and inspire our customers. We work closely with the Category Management department, Social Media and Content Creation teams, and Zalando Studios, our in-house fashion content production agency, to name a few.
How did you get involved in the Adaptive Fashion project?
In a development conversation with my lead, I had talked about my interest in more purpose-driven initiatives and he connected me with the Adaptive Fashion project, which was looking for someone to lead the content marketing work stream. So I joined as a project manager to lead and coordinate the cross-team content creation group.
The roundtable was quite extensive with representatives from Global Marketing, Social Media, PR, Diversity & Inclusion, Category Management, and Digital Experience teams, among others.
We centered the launch around an onsite destination on the Zalando website and related social-first content, leveraging insights from our Diversity & Inclusion Digital Experience team around web accessibility. We also partnered with the creative consultancy agency All is for All to ensure that our content is truly inclusive and accessible for disabled people.
As this was a global launch, we had to connect with all of our 25 local market teams to align with their marketing and sales events calendar and collaborate with them on copywriting, translation, and localization. Especially as we target disabled people, who often don’t feel represented in fashion, it is extra important that we use language that leaves our customers feeling empowered and inspired.
When you think back on the project, what are you the most proud of?
I’m really proud of the content itself — that we have an onsite destination where our customers can find and experience adaptive fashion at Zalando. And the fact that the content was created based on the principle of ‘nothing about us without us,’ in collaboration with organizations rooted in the disabled community. We also made sure that we were being inclusive behind the scenes, e.g. by working with Debora Brune, a talented photographer who also has a disability.
I really want to commend the entire team that worked on the project. We were able to achieve a high level of collaboration, which required upskilling and challenging ourselves to reflect on how we work on a daily basis and create great experiences for our customers and stakeholders. E.g. how to be even more considerate when we cast talent for our content, ensuring accessible shooting sites, and acknowledging that there is still so much more we can do and learn.
What was the most challenging part of the project?
The main challenge was that this was a new subject area for all of us, unfortunately. So learning and understanding the correct wording, terminology, and sensitivity levels across all of our markets and languages was a steep learning curve. And the administration of managing such a big project across so many different teams and moving parts is a general challenge, even though I think we did a good job of finding the right solutions along the way.
What do you hope that people take away from the Adaptive Fashion project?
I hope that people change or challenge their mindset about fashionable bodies and what fashion looks like. That people remember that disabled bodies are not inherently wrong but rather that it’s about products not being designed with them in mind, whether it’s about accessibility in buildings or it’s about adaptive clothes considerate of people’s needs. I would love for all of us to reconsider the products around us and reimagine them to be more inclusive.
What advice would you give to someone starting a similar project?
It’s important to be aware of your position — when to listen, when to bring ideas to the session, and when to amplify other people’s voices, because you can’t know everything as one person. I don’t have a disability, and I don’t live that reality, so it’s important to work in close collaboration with people who do and with them in mind.
But I encourage anyone to take on a project like this, if you get the opportunity to, to challenge your mindset and be humble about the fact that there is a lot of work to accomplish. It’s not about flag-waving and ticking boxes.
How can someone in a similar role as you be more inclusive in their daily work?
Don’t think of inclusivity as something you do as a one-off thing or reserved for special occasions, like Pride, but as something that needs to be embedded into everything you do. I think it’s about constantly questioning ourselves in terms of how we can be truly representative of diverse people and bodies and bake it into the way we produce content. In my field e.g., if you’re creating content for a lingerie campaign, why shouldn’t it feature a disabled body?
And we can consider the way that we put teams together to ensure that we have diverse people around the table, so that we are representing our audiences, hearing from the right people, and recognizing when and where we have more to learn and do.
* Zalando intentionally chose to use “disability-first” language when referring to the disabled community, based on collaboration with disability-led consultancy All is for All and extensive customer research. We acknowledge that “people-first” language (such as “people with disabilities”) is also commonly used.
You can explore the content hub that Caitlin and the Adaptive Fashion project team created here.
For more information about our work with adaptive fashion and representative content, check out our do.BETTER — Diversity & Inclusion Report 2022.
You can also learn more about our content, marketing, and fashion teams and explore our open positions here.
