Isaac Mizrahi and Selma Blair launch adaptive clothing on QVC

Written by Christopher Groux, senior editor and accessibility aficionado with cerebral palsy.

Updated September 4, 2024

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QVC’s Adaptive & Accessible catalog launched in March, and the retailer continues to show its commitment to the disability community with new product launches and brand partnerships featuring the industry’s biggest names.

Following the introduction of an adaptive clothing line from QVC’s own Denim & Co. label in August, QVC Brand Ambassador for Accessibility Selma Blair has teamed up with fashion designer and media personality Isaac Mizrahi to bring Mizrahi’s outside-the-box thinking and mainstream appeal to the growing adaptive fashion marketplace.

Blair and Mizrahi sat down with us to talk about the exciting launch of their collaboration Mizrahi Live! x Selma Blair. This line seems like a natural fit for the pair, who’ve enjoyed a friendship since designing red carpet styles in the early 2000s.

After being diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in 2018, Blair discovered that getting dressed proved to be a challenge for her. This sudden lifestyle change allowed her to approach fashion from a fresh perspective.

Blair explains, “I couldn't lift my hands, and the spasticity was really causing problems. There was such an obvious hole in the marketplace for people who needed more options. At first it was like, oh my God, maybe one day we could try out doing something more accessible, something different. And then, this came to be.”

Mizrahi has designed for Hollywood’s biggest stars and mainstream retailers alike, so it’s no surprise the Mizrahi Live! x Selma Blair line exudes a sense of casual sophistication, which the designer suggests is also a reflection of Selma’s “personal style, her passion, and her empowering perspective.”

Mizrahi says, “I think maybe the vanity aspect is more featured than [other brands]. This is maybe one step more pushed into the fashion part of it, even though we don't make trendy clothes. We don't like trendy clothes. We just like clothes that people can access and that are beautiful. I think the first thing people look at is how cute it is. Oh, and by the way, it has these wonderful straps that make it easy to pull on.”

Side-by-side image of the lower bodies of two people wearing dress pants, one pink pair and one black pair, from QVC's Mizrahi Live! x Selma Blair accessible clothing line. — Credit: Reviewed / QVC

Much like the adaptive styles seen before, these clothes feature a number of tweaks that make it easier and more comfortable for people with disabilities to wear. Easy-open necklines, magnetic closures, stretch fabrics, flat seams, and other alterations are essential to these products’ universal appeal.

The initial Mizrahi Live! x Selma Blair collection features more than a dozen styles including shirts, sweaters, jackets, pants, and accessories. Products are sized XXS-3X and range in price from $49 to $129.

Blair sees such adjustments as a great innovation, and something she’d like to see in future “non-adaptive” clothing lines as well.

“The point is that it's not catered just for people with a disability or someone with more needs,” she says. “It's absolutely intersectional crossover and just hoping that it also kind of creates some imagination in people who don't ever really consider any kind of modifications … It's opening people's minds to the conversation of different needs for people and how to integrate that with some style.”

A few favorites

As varied as the Isaac Mizrahi Live! x Selma Blair collection is today, both Mizrahi and Blair adore the wheelchair-adapted pants. As Blair describes, critical changes to the design were made even in the modeling stages.

“We asked [the model] if the jeans were comfortable and she said she liked the pulls on the inside but said it would really help me if, on the back on the inside, there was a big pull, too. And it was like oh my God, of course,” Blair says. “It's adapted that way with a higher rise in the back, so the top of your butt doesn't get chilly in a chair, seated all the time.”

Mizrahi adds that, while some adaptive features of the design are overt, the pants have adjustments that are more subtle. “A lot of this stuff is built in,” he notes. “There are a lot of very, very soft fabrics that work better in certain ways if you're going to sit on them forever, or if you're going to have your knee bent in them forever. Like having no pockets in the back or having soft fabrics that are easy to launder.”

Isaac Mizrahi Live! x Selma Blair Side Zip Jean Wheelchair Fit

These pants have a multitude of small alterations that make them ideal for those sitting for long periods of time.

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at QVC

Just like the rest of QVC’s Adaptive & Accessible catalog, the Mizrahi Live! x Selma Blair collection is just the beginning of a longer partnership between the pair. Even more products are planned to arrive in November 2023 and March 2024. Teasing the future, Blair expresses excitement about clothes that are holiday-centric and a little dressier in the months ahead.

Side-by-side image of two people wearing V-neck sweaters, one white and one orange, from QVC's Mizrahi Live! x Selma Blair accessible clothing line. — Credit: Reviewed / QVC

But no matter the form these clothes take, Blair sees this as an opportunity for new audiences to feel empowered.

“We want every woman, or whoever wears it, to feel as incredible as I do in Isaac's clothes,” she says. “For some people that's aspirational. I feel that this is just an incredible chance for so many people. Bringing accessibility to a great designer just gives me so much [joy].”