Q&A with founder and creative director of Izzy Wheels, Ailbhe Keane: ‘Stand out if you can’t stand up’
Interview with Aileen Lee.
My sister, Izzy, was born with spina bifida, so she is paralysed from her waist down. Something that always bothered me was that there was nothing available to customise your wheelchair.
It bothered me, but it really bothered Izzy. She dresses really colourfully, but her clothes weren’t the first thing that people noticed about her, it was her wheelchair, and that was not a positive thing in their eyes, whereas it was for her.
I went to NCAD and studied Visual Communications. In my final year we had a self-directed brief. I found a brief that said: ‘empower people living with a long-term lifestyle-related health condition’ which was like the perfect brief. I used the wheel as a canvas for doing something creative with it, and I called it Izzy Wheels.
I made an Instagram account just for fun and the account started getting thousands of followers and loads of messages from people asking: ‘where can I get these designs?’ I was only 22 and I never saw myself opening a business. It started off as a personal project, but there was a huge gap in the market.
They were all my own designs at the beginning, but then I reached out to designers, and the response was unbelievable. It started off as a college project in 2015 and we opened our online store in 2016. Our tagline is ‘If you can’t stand up, stand out’. We try to apply that to everything we do.
I get up very early and check our orders because 75% of our sales are from the States. A lot of orders come in at different times, so I round them all up and we have our manufacturer based in Dublin, which it’s handy.
A huge part of my job is curation of the designs — the designs are works of art so it’s a big decision who comes on board. We have hundreds of designers on waiting lists. These are all designers or design studios that I have followed for years. It seems a bit crazy but it’s a good feeling to know that everyone is so keen to get involved.
The launch for our last collection was a big milestone. We won the Accenture Leaders of Tomorrow Award last year and won an innovation trip as part of it.
We could pick a city we thought was relevant to our business and they gave us a wish list. We said we’re a fashion brand, our sales come from America so we want to do a photoshoot for our new collection in New York.
They made it happen which was so amazing. We got to work with an unbelievable fashion photographer and then the next day, we got to go to Teen Vogue in the World Trade Center.
The way I dress is also similar to my own style of drawing. My style is very colourful. I also love floral print.
The core inspiration is Izzy — she doesn’t see her wheelchair as a symbol of her disability, it’s a symbol of her ability. It’s her freedom.
Block colours.
My computer — it is my whole business.
Iris Apfel is a big inspiration for us. Her motto in life is ‘more is more, less is boring’ which I think is what we’re all about. She celebrates being different and she doesn’t mind what people think.
I would love to do a full fashion show, to showcase our whole collection and do a proper runway.
I’d love to bring that to New York Fashion Week or Paris Fashion Week.
For us, in everything we design, there’s a meaning behind it. If you design something, if it has a message behind it, it makes the art and design much more powerful. It brings an emotional attachment to it.
- www.izzywheels.com
- Instagram/Facebook: @izzywheels; Twitter: @izzy_wheels
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