We caught up with the brilliant and insightful Sophia Kunju Herrera a few weeks ago and have shared our conversation below.

Hi Sophia, thanks for joining us today. We’d love to hear about a project that you’ve worked on that’s meant a lot to you.

The most meaningful project I’ve ever worked on so far has to be my senior collection I created during my senior year of my bachelors degree. During winter break of December 2018, I was at my part time job brainstorming ideas for this collection and was really struggling to come up with ideas. That is until someone who was working at admissions came up to me and said why don’t I create a collection based on the experiences I have lived through as a person with a disability. I suffered a car accident at the age of two which left me paralyzed from the waist down and wheelchair bound for the rest of my life. Since the accident I always struggled to find clothes that were both on trend and functional for a person like me. Eventually I am going to launch my brand that focuses on adaptive fashion, and so for this collection I mainly created jumpsuits that were fully adaptable with big skirts, anyone no matter if you have a disability or not can wear it. Each piece had a hand painted element that expressed my anger and pain, as well as words that people have said to me while growing up with a disability. This collection is meaningful to me because it’s very personal and as a wheelchair user for the past 23 years finding clothes that make me feel comfortable and on trend has always been a struggle. Fashion should be for everyone no matter your size, skin color, gender or if you have a disability or not. This project was also meaningful because a fashion studio in London saw my designs on Instagram and contacted me to give me the opportunity to showcase in fashion week. Therefore I will be showcasing an extension of my senior collection in New York Fashion Week in September 2023.

Awesome – so before we get into the rest of our questions, can you briefly introduce yourself to our readers.

My name is Sophia, born and raised in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. I moved to the United States back in 2015 to attend Savannah College of Art and Design in Atlanta, Georgia to pursue my bachelors in Fashion Design. I’ve always known that I wanted to be in the creative industry in some sort of way, but the thought of being a fashion designer didn’t really come to my mind until freshman year of high school. I knew that I could make an impact in the industry as I wanted to create adaptive fashion that is on trend but still feel comfortable to wear for differently abled people. The journey of my business is still in the research and development stages. It all started back in 2019 when I created a fully adaptable evening wear collection. My brand is called Sophia Isabel. Sophia Isabel creates garments that tackle both function and style. Each garment is carefully constructed to be adaptable to both able bodied people and differently-abled bodied people. After my debut in New York Fashion Week in September 2023, I hope to fully launch my brand in 2024. I’m hoping that by launching my brand, it will continue to push other fashion brands to continue creating adaptive fashion collections as there is a $400 billion market opportunity. Everyone should have the right to wear whatever they want no matter if they have a disability or not.

: Is there a particular goal or mission driving your creative journey?

My ultimate dream is to see fashion brands have an adaptive fashion collection in every season not just a curated limited collection. Therefore the more I see that fashion brands aren’t doing this, the more I want to launch my brand and show that it is a necessity and it’s a huge opportunity that they have not really fully tapped into yet.

What’s the most rewarding aspect of being a creative in your experience?

I think the most rewarding thing about being a creative is seeing people appreciate not only what I create but also benefit from it. Ultimately I would love to see the clothes I make benefit differently abled bodied people, and make the disability community be seen by the fashion industry as everyone should have the right to wear whatever they want and feel beautiful and comfortable in it.

Contact Info:

• Website: www.sophiaisabel.design/
• Instagram: @sophiaisabel.designs & @thesophiaherrera

Image Credits
Honey.Lou Photography Jaylon Smith