April Lockhart wants to rebrand TikTok Fashion

After sharing details about his life on the internet for more than a decade, April Lockhart decided to officially set his sights on what he considers to be one of the most taboo subjects in mode world — disability.

“I feel that the disabled community is still something that is sometimes taboo [in fashion]. Not that it’s not in marketing, but I think it’s one of the last pieces of the puzzle that we haven’t all figured out, or we don’t know how to approach,” said the 26-year-old Nashville content creator. in Know. “When I see people to follow who look like me, I feel like there really is no one.”

Lockhart, who is currently in communication for the cleanup Beauty brand ilia while also curating fashion-focused ones instagram account with 33,000 followers, made his first online post in high school more than 10 years ago, when he started sharing music on YouTube.

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“I was more into the YouTube music scene and went to Playlist Live, which is a YouTube conference — I don’t know if it’s still around, but it’s like VidCon,” he explains. “I play guitar with one hand and piano — and that’s how I spawned my internet presence, especially doing cover songs.”

When he was 15 and posting music videos on YouTube, Lockhart said his disability was at the forefront of his online presence. He was born with amniotic band syndrome — which is a rare condition when the band from the amniotic sac gets caught around the growing fetus — leaving him without a left hand.

But in terms of his online community that has grown over the past 10 years, Lockhart says he’s never felt the need to try and hide his disability.

“I don’t know anything yet,” he added. “Obviously, when I do music, there’s really no hiding it.”

At the age of 17, Lockhart participated in the now-defunct ABC talent competition called Shining star. Aside from her talent, one of the reasons she stands out from the competition is her wild fashion sense.

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“My clothes … are just crazy – like space buns, plaid skirts, and just crazy outfits,” Lockhart said. “I must have always liked [fashion]but I think I’ve just decided I’m more passionate about fashion and Beauty than me with music.”

Since graduating from the Fashion Institute of Technology, Lockhart has grown its online presence to revolve around fashion and beauty. In early 2022, she thought for a moment about how she fits into a world like Fashion tik tokmost of which feature a white body, are of the cis gender, and are unblemished.

TikTok fashion trends such as cottagecore and dark academia have been criticized in the past for centered around white. Other critics have debated whether what is considered “fashionable” in mainstream media is only called fashionable because the model is skinny.

In 2020, disability recommend Keah Brown started the hashtag #disabledandcute to highlight people with disabilities who love fashion and beauty. In an essay he wrote for That New York Time, Brown said, “Three decades after the passage of the landmark Americans with Disabilities Act, people with disabilities want to be able to have freedom of expression through fashion rather than accept bits and pieces from an industry that has been very slow to embrace us and our needs. .”

Two years later, while Lockhart can see the progress the industry has made in terms of marketing and is actively trying to be more inclusive, he still feels the disabled community is “the last piece of the puzzle”.

“My arm is a very contemporary thing that speaks to me every day… It’s like, ‘this is who you are, this is part of your goal,’” she says. “I feel I really need to talk about this. If I’m not doing it now, when will I be?”

That’s when Lockhart started adding “Normalizing disabled fashun girls in your feed” to his dress videos. The addition of a simple text attracted hundreds of new fans who flooded Lockhart’s DMs and inbox with messages about how important the video was.

“Even in the few weeks I’ve been doing this, messages I’ve received from people in a similar situation or parents of young children. children which also has one arm or [are] in a wheelchair and stuff like that — it’s just amazing,” he said. “If I can help people, even if it’s just a few people, [it’s] very valuable.”

Lockhart also noticed that a number of followers who had been with him over the years told him they didn’t even notice he was deactivated until he added a text or put on a certain outfit.

“[It’s] This is important because disabilities come in all shapes and sizes, and some are not even visible,” he explained. “It’s interesting because it’s temporary [my arm] not the most glaring flaw, it must feel very real to me… I just wanted to draw attention to it and also normalize it.”

Brown also wrote in himself New York Time essay that she was going through a period with her disability in which she wanted to convince herself that “fashion doesn’t matter.” That’s another mindset Lockhart seeks to dismantle with his post — that fashion is not a meaningless or shallow world, but rather a source of confidence and empowerment.

“Throughout this series, while disability is clearly at the forefront, and representation is at the forefront, I also don’t want to underestimate the power of good clothing,” she said. “I feel best when I wear clothes that make me feel good and that empower me too.”

To Lockhart, the outfit looks like a pair of cowboy boots and a blazer — preferably from Anine Bing.

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Posts ‘Normalizing disabled fashion girls’: April Lockhart wants to change TikTok’s Fashion image first appeared in In Tofu.

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