The Paris Fashion Week made headlines when they had the first ever Blind Fashion Show this week.
Partially and fully-blind models strut their amazing gowns in the catwalk with a rope as their guide.
French Entrepreneur Myriam Chalek was the creator of this show. She did this to bring blind woman to the spotlight and to empower more women in fashion.
"You know they are like you and I, they have lives, they go to work, they go to school, they have goals, they have dreams that they want to achieve," Mail Online quoted Chalek as saying. They actually tend to believe in themselves more than us, she added.
Chalek also said that there's a rampant discrimination in the fashion and modeling industry, and reminded the public that fashion is about the garment and not about the model wearing it.
The entrepreneur also explained that there are different varieties of blindness caused by retinitis pigmentosa, albinism, glaucoma and diabetic retinophaty. Retinitis pigmentosa is an inherited disease diagnosed during childhood and young adulthood that causes severe vision loss leading to complete blindness. Albinism causes low vision while glaucoma is caused by damages from the optic nerves. Diabetic retinophaty is an effect of diabetes.
According to the Foundation Fighting Blindness, there are more than 10 million Americans that suffers loss of vision because of different blinding diseases. Even though organizations like Foundation Fighting Blindness are looking for remedies for blindness, it still doesn't erase the fact there are people struggling because of visual impairment.
Chalek, who was also the first entrepreneur to have the first dwarf fashion show in the New York Fashion Week last year, believed that with this fashion show, viewers and guests will become more aware of blindness. She also hopes to open the minds and hearts of people with this fashion show.
