giving sick kids a chance to express their style and individuality

The Ward + Robes initiative is an innovative partnership between the children’s charity and top Canadian designers seeking to create unique hospital gowns teens actually want to wear.

Six Canadian Designers have each designed a custom Ward+Robe including Izzy Camilleri who previously designed for celebrities like David Bowie before shifting her focus to create a clothing label designed exclusively for wheelchair users:

Featuring designs inspired by streetwear, meditation mandalas, and everything in between, teens were able to choose the gown that best represented their personal sense of style.

For such a simple garment, there were some design challenges to overcome. For instance, because of allergies, we weren’t able to use latex or latex based elastics. After all, a hospital gown is designed with functionality top of mind. But, we worked carefully with Starlight, their hospital contacts, and the designers to ensure the new gowns were safe, functional, and stylish.

To continue the initiative, the Starlight Children’s Foundation hopes to inspire more designers to partner with them to create even more uplifting designs and have made a downloadable pattern template available on their site. There is also the opportunity to contribute monetary donations to the foundation. So whether you’re a designer or not, you can contribute to this uplifting initiative.