A photo of this small bridal shop in Portishead, England has gone viral when people saw they displayed their mannequin in a wheelchair.
Artist Beth Wilson was one of the first who noticed this original window display and shared the photo online. She has been using a wheel chair part-time for the last five years and mostly uses it when she is out of the house. She tweeted:
“The new wedding shop in town has a wheelchair using mannequin and it shouldn’t be exciting but it’s the first time I’ve ever seen disability portrayed in a shop window.”
The photo got over 33,000 likes and an enormous amount of support and appreciation for this little shop to showcase an inclusive bridal model. Beth Wilson also tweeted:
“Mobility aids are often portrayed as negative things that people want to hide when actual mobility aids like wheelchairs give us freedom. It’s great that they decorated the chair rather than try and hide it away.”
The White Collection’s co-owner Laura Allen told BBC that she had no idea that using using an all inclusive mannequin would generate such popularity, in fact, at first, they were confused as to why they were getting all this attention. She tweeted this after the photo went viral:
“It’s been great having such a positive response, but in a way it’s quite sad people have done a double take, it shows how rare it is to see a wheelchair in a shop window.”
Followed up by:
“It’s an industry that’s well known for not being inclusive, a lot of bridal shops you go past you see the standard skinny mannequin. But everyone gets married, it doesn’t matter what you look like or how you are, your day is going to be special.”
People started coming by the shop just to take photos of the window display, including younger girls who were in wheelchairs. Allen and her business partner and sister Sarah Parker are so happy that their display means so much to people in the U.K. and all over the world. They change their window display monthly, and they don’t have any idea of what to put out next, but they are gladly accepting suggestions that can be as great as this one.
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True Activist / Report a typo
