JUST TRY IT, YOU'LL LIKE IT
When most people hear ‘I have an eating disorder’ they immediately think of the two most widely known eating disorders, anorexia nervosa (AN) and bulimia nervosa (BN), but there are a lot more variants to this category than are commonly known about.
Avoidant Restrictive Food Intake Disorder (ARFID) affects as many as 1 in 20 children and is often a lifelong disorder.
At its core, ARFID is an intense phobia of eating any food that your subconscious views as being unsafe, no matter how much you might want to. Unlike disorders such as AN and BN, ARFID is defined in the absence of body dysmorphia and a desire to control weight. It is often combined with a lack of appetite and/or a general disinterest in eating and most commonly manifests in infants and young children but still persists well into adulthood.
For most, the phobia primarily reacts to texture and taste, but others can be provoked by unfamiliar flavours, scents, colours, or a combination of sensory triggers. This affects individuals eating habits in many different ways, with some being limited to a small number of bland, non-threatening 'safe-foods'.
What one person with ARFID perceives as safe will not automatically be safe for another. A common thread amongst ARFID diets is the presence of non-threatening carbohydrates, such as plain pasta, white rice, and most forms of potatoes, as well as dairy products such as cheese and milk. Meals often consist of food with a consistent texture or simple flavour profile that will not overwhelm the senses. The majority will not eat any meat, vegetables, or fruit.
The initial triggers for ARFID differ from person to person, although most are the result of a traumatic event in early childhood, whether that be a choking, gagging, or vomiting event, or witnessing someone else choking, gagging, or vomiting, for example. Sometimes there will be no known trigger moment or memory which can make treatment even more challenging.
This collection is designed as a conceptual communication of living with ARFID and features strong themes of restriction. Each of the garments has had restrictive elements incorporated into their design to limit and challenge the way that the wearer is able to use them.
It was an important consideration for me, as the designer, that those wearing the garments were still comfortable and felt safe while contained in the clothing. This was one of the biggest design challenges faced with this project. While people do live with this fear of food every day, I wouldn’t willingly wish to impose that stress onto another human’s body. Elastic has been utilised strategically to restrict the body but still allow movement where necessary.
