Young homegrown designer Claudia Poh is redefining what fashion can be — inclusive, empowering, and made for everyone. Through her label Werable, she creates adaptive clothing that blends style with function, helping people of all abilities dress with ease and dignity.
Young Minds is a series about youths in Singapore making an impact in their own unique ways.
00:00I know maybe not everybody's on board with this idea to design clothing with and for
00:05persons with disabilities, but it matters to people who need it the most.
00:11I'm Claudia.
00:12I'm the founder of Wearable, and we make inclusive and adaptive fashion.
00:22Hi.
00:23Morning.
00:24Morning.
00:25Hello.
00:26Okay.
00:27Today we are going to go through all the same day, right?
00:29Yeah.
00:30Wearable is a fashion design studio and we make clothes accessible and easy to wear.
00:35So adaptive fashion is supposed to unlock and empower lives for the better, particularly
00:41for persons with disabilities.
00:43I care deeply about making clothes that are useful and practical, but also beautiful at
00:48the same time.
00:51I knew from a very young age that I wanted to be a fashion designer.
00:55I've always wondered, like, why do I get this chance to pursue this childhood dream of being
00:59a fashion designer?
01:00There are a lot of people out there who do much more important things, right?
01:04They build buildings, become doctors.
01:06And I always felt that with fashion design, it could be so much more important.
01:10So when I got to Parsons, I first got in touch with adaptive and accessible fashion when a
01:15professor of mine introduced me to a friend of hers who was diagnosed with ALS.
01:19And from there on out, we tried everything that we could do to make clothes wearable for
01:25her and her paralysed arms.
01:27It was about creating trousers and skirts that could rise on the body.
01:32We were pumping clothes up with air so that she could just step into it and she wouldn't
01:37have to kick through her clothes as much.
01:45On a very personal level, my grandma, the first time she came home from the hospital
01:50after a minor stroke, she was like, ah, go outside.
01:53Leave me alone.
01:54I want to dress by myself.
01:55But then in the process of removing that turtleneck, her arm was weak.
01:59She felt a bit suffocated and she fell.
02:02So that's when I kind of realised that I want to make something useful.
02:06So I worked with Stroke Support Station and Design Singapore Council to create a line of clothing
02:11that you can wear with one hand.
02:14Hey Claudia.
02:16Hey Sushen.
02:17Nice to see you.
02:18How are you?
02:19Nice to see you too.
02:20Put your bag down.
02:21Hi everyone.
02:22This is Sushen.
02:23She is here with us today because she collaborated with me and wearable for the Design Futures Forum
02:30mechanical dress and also try on a few clothes with us today.
02:33I'm an artist, but I also taught myself electronics as well.
02:37So in Design Futures Forum, we were tasked to paint this brand new world.
02:41What would it be like if our clothes could care for us?
02:44What would it be like if your clothes could guide you home if you had dementia?
02:48Help her actually create electronic activations within the garment that she designed.
02:53Some of the pieces shorten whenever it gets hot to temperature change.
02:58Be it hot flashes or even just a fever.
03:00They rotate as a way of simulating whether your body is in need of medication for example.
03:05Yeah.
03:06Let's try some clothes out.
03:11So all of our garments have hidden adaptive features and as a small company and start-up,
03:17we make use of whatever we've got around us.
03:19So when we had to adapt shirts to be wearable with one hand, this is what we did.
03:24We hid magnets in the front and in the cuff.
03:27So Shuan's wearing the Transformable Bolero.
03:31It turns into an arm sling just like this.
03:34There are straps hidden on both sides and you can pull them out and there's a little hook on the other arm.
03:40Then you can adjust it to a height that's comfortable.
03:43We aim to innovate with empathy and what that means is just sitting down and chatting with people and understanding why they love certain experiences and absolutely hate some others.
03:52So in this particular instance, we realised arm slings can be ugly or perhaps we made out synthetic materials.
03:59Here we've tried to use cotton voile so that it's breathable.
04:03We fashioned it into a bolero that people can wear even after they recover.
04:08I got to know Weisong and Pingsu where I was discussing possibly designing the ceremonial attire for the Paris Paralympics.
04:17And out of that came a conversation on how we can design a whole line of clothing that was accessible around Weisong's creative direction.
04:26In the Start Your Impossible campaign, so it was very exciting for me to be able to apply everything I've learnt in the context of a 16-look runway.
04:34I'm quite happy with the way they finished the wishbone shape.
04:40Weisong messaged me one day and said,
04:43I have a problem with my back.
04:44He uses crutches and his sling bag tends to slide to the front and bump into his crutches.
04:50And because he keeps sloshing about, it throws his centre of gravity off which actually might cause him to fall.
04:56We designed this around the motif of a wishbone, which also is reminiscent of the Chinese character for a person or people.
05:05And a lot of it was going back to why are we doing what we're doing.
05:09It's because of people.
05:10And this motif is also the reason why we decided to name it the wishbone bag.
05:15A messenger bag with a stabiliser strap fastened with magnetic closures and buckles that you can use with one hand.
05:22So that you can access your things without having to remove the bag entirely, which you typically would have to do with a backpack.
05:28You can also wear it as a cyclist. It's fantastic.
05:31As a person who's using crutches, it's even better.
05:34You're with me here today in Milan!
05:37Earlier this year, we were invited to Milan Design Week 2025 as part of Design Singapore Council's Future Impact 3 exhibition.
05:45I was so excited to bring the wishbone bag to Milan.
05:48I couldn't believe that we were asked to go.
05:50Representing Singapore on a global stage meant everything to me.
05:55To be able to talk to people, to gain a better sense of what's happening around the world and what people care about,
06:01it helped us contextualise our work on a bigger stage.
06:06I think my goal and aspiration has always been to improve people's lives in any sort of way.
06:13And helping them live a more comfortable and dignified life is one way.
06:18But I also realised that fashion, or at least creativity, can bring smiles onto our faces in ways that we never expect.
