Italian designers cater to disabled women

Model Raffaella Fanelli on the runway in Rome     ALSO Is the American Disabilities Act working?

July 25, 2000
Web posted at: 12:49 p.m. EDT (1649 GMT)

ROME (CNN) -- Some of Italy's top couturiers have adapted their designs for disabled women. Sixteen models in wheelchairs rolled up and down the catwalk during Rome's high fashion week, showing off the creations.

Disabled designer Giacomo Alvino has a line of elegant evening dresses. Egon von Furstenberg, Fausto Sarli, Gattinoni, Renato Balestra, Raffaella Curiel and Camillo Bona also have stepped up to the challenge.

"The technicality is different because you can't have any buttons, any zippers," von Furstenberg said. "But a woman is a woman, and a woman wants to be beautiful, always."

One of the models said the show was more than just a bit of fun.

"It's also very important," Raffaella Fanelli said. "We hope that now designers will understand that we have special needs, and finally design dresses we're able to wear."

Copyright 2000  The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

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