Destiny Pinto is making waves on social media. With her re-imagined medical devices and mobility aids, she is corrupting what it means to be both stylish and sick. Graduating from UAL with a degree in art direction, Pinto credits her non-traditional entry into the fashion world as part of what has helped her create her brand in a way that feels authentic and collaborative, unbound by many of the rigid rules of fashion design. After being diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis in her first year of study, Pinto was forced to pivot away from drawing by hand due to painful and weak joints, to using 3D modelling software, which led her into virtual fashion designing.
Recently named as one of Vogue’s Future Creators, the designer’s accessories label By Destiny Pinto is here to show us that self-expression doesn’t have to be compromised when you are living with chronic illness. Balancing both function and aesthetics, her range of medical and assistive devices, using recycled materials, are the product of a human-centric design model that is born of care, community, and interdependence. Pinto created her first design in part to show love to her best friend, practically and creatively, a rare experience for many living with chronic illness.
Below, we chat to the designer about reframing the narrative of chronic illness, why youth and illness aren’t mutually exclusive, and the inspirations of her best friend Nikola.
Hey Destiny! So, first of all, if you meet someone out at a bar, how do you explain to them in one sentence what you do?
Destiny Pinto: [Laughs] I actually talk about my brand too much, it’s becoming a little too much of my identity. But in simple terms, I tell them I take medical devices and make them into fashionable accessories. I make things that have been bland or ugly and redesign them into something cute, because that part of the object has always been overlooked.
Can you tell me a little bit about how you and your best friend’s experiences with chronic illness helped to birth your brand?
Destiny Pinto: Well it’s sort of a long story, but after I started conceptualising garments through 3D modelling, simultaneously I was experiencing a real low with my health, and my final major project proposal was due. I just felt like I needed to do something meaningful that personally resonated with me. My best friend Nikola was also going through a health crisis, and we would share and talk about our different experiences, and that led me to think about how I could redesign the items we rely on for our health that look clinical, and for which the aesthetics of are overlooked, and reimagine them into something cool.
Which are the two medical devices that you redesigned first?
Destiny Pinto: It was my compression glove covers. I wear compression gloves to reduce swelling and inflammation in my hands, which is a major symptom of my arthritis. And Nikola has an ostomy bag as a result of ulcerative colitis [an inflammatory bowel disease]. I wanted to reposition both these objects as something powerful. Our first shoot with Nikola wearing her new ostomy bag and me wearing my gloves made me realise how striking it was to see this different portrayal of chronic illness and disability in the fashion space and society more generally.
Yes, it feels oppositional to the kind of imagery we usually see. Often there’s this idea that youthfulness and illness are mutually exclusive, that you can’t be both young and sick, but that doesn’t make sense to a lot of people. Do you feel like your brand is challenging that idea?
Destiny Pinto: Yes, I heard that a lot, like your illness is an ‘old person’s condition’ – who, by the way, may also want to look and feel like themselves with their devices too. But yes, when I got my diagnosis I felt utterly alone. I didn’t think anyone was out there, at my age, experiencing what I was experiencing – I was wearing at some points full body medical compression garments and feeling so isolated in the process. When I shared my gloves on social media and saw so many people comment and share their own stories, it really registered with me that there are tonnes of us out here wearing these things we don’t like the look of, and all asking, ‘why isn’t there more choice?’
The new designs are part of reframing the narrative of these medical devices because, like in Nikola’s case, they saved her life – Destiny Pinto
Have you felt a change internally about how you see your illness or relationship to your body now you wear your redesigned gloves?
Destiny Pinto: 100 per cent, both wearing them and then seeing the project blow up with the community too. It’s made me feel so normalised, the anxiety I had wearing my compression garments before was horrible, and sometimes now I forget how awful it was, but I do try and remember that I am doing all of this for her – for the girl, the younger me, who was really going through it on her own a few years back. Nikola reminds me of that too, we try to stop and reflect and look down at the new version of our devices and feel resilient and powerful instead of those old feelings of loss of choice and control that you have when you get diagnosed with a chronic illness. The new designs are part of reframing the narrative of these medical devices because, like in Nikola’s case, they saved her life.
That reframing feels so empowering, especially as your designs seem to highlight the aid instead of hiding it. You are making them part of your style, and so a more prominent part of you.
Destiny Pinto: Yes, because these medical devices are the most useful accessories ever. They’re helping people function day to day. I want to put that deep love and care into my designs to show people that we don’t need to be ashamed of being chronically ill.
