- Lady Natasha Fines was working in the fashion industry when a personal experience revealed a gap in the market.

After pitching her ideas and getting turned down each time, she decided to do it herself.

Now, she's designing clothing specially made for people with disabilities, combining function with high fashion.

(upbeat music) - I had been wanting to have a brand in general my whole life.

I've always loved fashion, but I wanted to make sure it was sending a message.

Like it's like we're doing this for a purpose, but I didn't know what it was.

So many years go by.

And then being that I was already working as a buyer in the fashion industry, kind of the stars aligned in a way where that's light bulb moment of this is an opportunity of that brand I've always wanted to do, but this is the message we can really make happen with this brand, which was making sure everyone is showcased in the fashion industry, even if you have an illness or disability.

- When she started showing me some of her designs and I'm like, "Oh my God, I never thought of that."

But the reaction that I had, I'm sure is everybody else's because no one thinks about a disability unless you have it.

(lighthearted music) - I was very close with my aunt.

She ended up passing this February, and she is the aunt who actually inspired the brand.

She was immediately diagnosed with stage four cancer six years ago.

And so immediately, you see that there is a change of emotion, of course, there's a change of how you do things and what you can do and what you can wear.

And I noticed that when she was going to her chemo treatments, that the fun, bubbly outfits that she would wear, she loved pink.

It immediately was like neutrals, and then very boring type of outfits in order to be comfortable at the hospital because there was nothing available for her.

There's nothing available in the market that's fashion forward, but also functionable for someone that has an illness.

Someone like her shouldn't have to sacrifice who she is and what she loves because of something that has happened to her.

And the brand is also reflecting who she was.

Kindhearted, courageous, brave, but also you can still show off your fun spunky fashion personality as well.

- She's definitely the artist.

We're both very passionate.

We're Latinos.

That is in us.

But that she had a clear vision and for me, I needed to help her with my experience in the corporate world.

I knew that she was into something and I had to support her, and I could not be any more proud.

(somber music) - I would actually put together PowerPoints and presentations for my bosses and my teams that I worked for in the industry, and I showed them there's such a big opportunity here for beautiful women to be showcased and also represented and have a category of clothes that we don't really see right now.

And unfortunately, they just said, "This is not our customer."

And long story short, I could not just sit there and not do something about this.

So I ended up quitting my job in the fashion industry.

I moved back home and I was getting a lot of nos that finally I ran into one manufacturer and she believed in the vision and the brand.

And that's how we got our first collection done, which was in, finally 20, January of 2023, I received our first samples.

Adaptive clothing is when you have your basic pieces that everyone else wears.

The only difference is there's a little extra love that's put into the pieces and they have accessible features and anybody can wear it.

It's universally designed to wear.

Even I have trouble, I don't have a physical disability, but putting on my pants sometimes, I'm jumping up and down and there's no need for that.

It's fashion forward with functionality and accessible features on the pieces as it's easier for someone to put it on if they need a little extra help.

- They don't look at us, people with disabilities or wheelchair users.

They look at able bodies.

You know, so easy to just stand up and put pants on.

Not for me.

It takes me five minutes to put pants on.

I have to put the legs in, and then I have to lean back and lean to the side, and it's a whole ordeal.

So these zippers and the magnets that just open up so I can just put it on and zip it on, I mean it makes life so much easier.

When it's easier for me to put something on, it makes me feel good about myself.

Granted, these clothes are amazing anyway.

They look amazing, but if it takes me 10 minutes to put something on, I'm not gonna feel as good about wearing it as I am because I'm out of breath now.

I just did a workout to put these clothes on.

I already go through struggles on a daily day being in my chair.

So if it's just something simple as zipping something up versus trying to like do the worm crawl to put them on, it's amazing.

- Because of some of my conditions that I have, I utilize a PortaCup, which is a central line, so it's a needle in my chest.

First I do like to say that I'm currently like in her jacket and I love her jacket because even if I have it zipped here, if I need to do medication, which I'll have to do after we finish our interview, I don't have to necessarily expose my whole chest to the world.

I can just pull this part down, pull my, port it out, I mean, pull my line out, do my medication and put it back.

So when I did actually see her brand and I saw that, I was like, immediately I was like, "I need to buy this."

(ambient music) - I get to bring in that fun dopamine-boosting type of colors and excitement to the clothes.

You're expressing who you are and how you want the world to kind of see you.

That's usually the first impression someone gets is off of your outfit.

And so I always think it's so important that you're able to be fully you, even if something has happened.

- [Emeline] I absolutely love to see her thrive.

When she finish it off, it's like its art.

- I hope that our models are able to be role models to girls that are looking up to them like we just did in New York Fashion Week and there was little girls in the audience.

So I just, I genuinely hope that with our brand, we're opening doors, that there's more designers like myself, bigger brands will see that this is important and this is needed.

- I'm a person with disabilities, but I'm also really big into disability representation, disability advocacy.

So not only does Natasha have Lady Fines Adaptive, she does have Rebels With a Cause where she's also doing advocacy.

So really not only am I able to model for this brand, but I'm also able to make a voice and be a sound and really just be myself.

(upbeat music) - [Narrator] To shop her designs, visit ladyfinds.com.