Alleles Design Studio Transforms Medical Prosthetics Into Stylish Accessories

By Ksenia on June 9, 2017

What we have here is a real revolution when it comes to the prosthetics field. As far as now, the prosthetics were considered only as a medical instrument that should be as less visible as possible. So, people lacking an arm or leg looked on it only as a necessity which helps them function as any other person and tried to hide the fact they’re using it. But now things got totally different and it’s awesome in many ways!

Alleles Design Studio brings prosthetics right in the light of the day and into the world of fashion. With a stylish design that they make for this orthopedic help, prosthetics are becoming something as the accessory. Their owners now instead of hiding their disability can pick the prosthetic which will fit their outfits and their style perfectly and wear it proudly.

The Alleles Design Studio is a Canada-based creative duo – art director McCauley Wanner and technology director Ryan Palibroda. Their mission is simple: to turn prosthetics into something that adds to a look.

Check out in the gallery below how awesomely designed are prosthetics by this creative duo and learn McCauley Wanner and Ryan Palibroda said about their work and its beginnings in an interview for Refinery 29.

Ryan Palibroda: “The idea for fashionable prosthetic covers came about during McCauley’s Industrial Design research in 2010. In 2013, we left our design jobs in Montreal, moved back to Alberta to live at McCauley’s parent’s house to try and bring the project into reality. Within a couple weeks of moving back, The Telus Spark Science Center in Calgary asked if McCauley would be willing to show her research in an exhibition called Beyond Human and do a presentation. We decided we would use that opportunity as a launching pad for our company. At this time we didn’t have a website, business cards, any designs, or a name.”

“The first prototype was made out of cardstock back in 2010. The idea, materials, and shape evolved over the next few years. We didn’t want to come out with a one-off prototype, get people excited about it, but then no one could actually have it. We wanted to be able to continuously build up the design catalog so that there was enough selection to provide a shopping experience around the designs. Up until about six months ago, our product changed a ton every month. We are now at a cool stage where we are happy with it. Of course, we will always continue to refine it, but that’s the fun part for us.”

McCauley Wanner: “The designs start in a variety of different ways. It can start as a sketch or an over-arching concept. Typically Ryan tends to play with patterning in order to manipulate the material using parametric design.”

RP: “McCauley tends to look through fashion and interior design trends. We then take what is good about each of our designs and sort of mash them together until we are happy with how the designs look on the leg, if they are innovative, and if they seem commercial.”

MW: “We have had an overwhelmingly positive response to the covers. We are still surprised that the covers are doing exactly what we set them out to do and are working for people. By creating something that allows people to include their prosthesis as part of their wardrobe, it has actually shifted the conversation around ones’ prosthetic leg to revolve around style, technology, and innovation, rather than the cringe-worthy question that so many of our clients get multiple times a day: ‘What happened to your leg?”