Warpaint: The York-based accessible clothing brand hoping to change the face of fashion

Words by Maya Bewley

On a sunny afternoon at University of York’s East campus, I meet Joanne Nicholson and Claire Wharton, founders of accessible fashion brand Warpaint. Both are immediately welcoming; Claire offers me a cup of coffee before I’ve had a chance to step inside, while Jo draws me into a luxuriously designed co-working space. Once we’re in the building, I’m being introduced to the office manager, everyone else in the office, and laden with various snacks. It doesn’t take long to figure out that Jo and Claire are the type of people who are friends with everyone. They’re naturally kind-hearted, caring, and as they joke later - ‘like a Yorkshire version of Ab Fab.’ But it’s also this kind-heartedness that has followed Jo and Claire through some of the hardest periods of their lives, and led them to the creation of their own incredible clothing range. 

Joanne Nicholson and Claire Wharton

As Jo explains, Warpaint is an easy-access clothing range aimed at those going through treatment. It was launched in memory of her daughter Emily, who passed at age 24 from a brain tumour. “There was a lot of support from the people in York. But the actual journey she went through was made so much harder due to the changes in her body.” The chemotherapy Emily was on meant that she gained weight, and her appearance rapidly altered, affecting the way both she - and others - saw herself. “A lot of people were really ignorant towards her. They didn’t try to understand what she was going through.” 

When Emily was in hospital, the added factor of having to remove clothing for treatment further diminished her sense of individuality. As a result, “a lot of the precious time Jo had left with Emily was spent trying to source clothing so that she would feel still young, fashionable and in control,” Claire explains. “She had a hell of a time trying to find it.” 

“If you go into an office job, or you’re a police or a nurse, you’re wearing a uniform,” adds Jo. “But for us there were no clothes out there to make us feel like part of a team or supported by anybody.”

That’s why Jo, alongside best-friend Claire, came together to design clothes that would allow treatment to be administered easily, while being both comfortable and stylish for the wearer. Each garment is fitted with discrete pouches, pockets and zips - meaning treatment like dialysis, ports, PICC lines, stoma bags, injections, and more, can take place without having to remove clothing. “I always say that if you were going camping you’d go to Go Outdoors, if you were going hiking you’d go to North Face - if you are going through treatment, you will eventually come to Warpaint,” says Claire.

At the heart of the Warpaint collection is an understanding that illness isn’t a temporary state of existence but one that has to be lived through. “My daughter had a saying: ‘I’ll only die once but I have to live everyday,’ and I’ll never forget that... She wasn’t dying for three years, she was living for three years.” While both women state that they might not be able to ‘fix’ an illness, they are passionate about making the journey through it easier.

Emily and Joanne

And this resonates with Claire’s own journey. She explains that part way through developing the Warpaint collection, she was diagnosed with breast cancer. The clothes she had spent hours designing with Jo had suddenly become needed for herself. “Through my own treatment, I’ve designed a pair of trousers that provides easy access,” she says. “Now the nurse doesn’t have to put the curtain round and I don’t have to pull my trousers down. It's keeping my dignity and giving me back control.” She continues: “When you’re going through treatment, everything’s taken away from you. And you lose yourself when people look at you with pitiful eyes. I know they mean well but you lose who you are.” 

The Zipster Trouser

Claire explains that the idea behind the clothes was to create something that could be worn for both treatment and other activities - whether that’s going out shopping, or for a meal with the family. “You could go out and nobody would know that it’s a garment you’ve had treatment in… It’s still being yourself.” 

Being local to York, the pair have seen massive support from friends and family, and the clothing is already having a huge impact on people they know: “We had a friend who was really struggling with their Stoma. We asked them to model for us, and since then, their outlook on life has completely changed.”

Loci accessible hoodie

And now that they’ve released their first collection, the future is looking even more exciting for the two. “We’re only getting started. We’re opening our first workshop and store in Fabrication on Coney Street, then getting our next collection ready for York Fashion Week in October. We’ve also been working on something really exciting with a famous businesswoman - and we’re having a complete rebrand soon, so keep your eyes peeled for our new name!” 

The pair also want to learn from others going through treatment: “We’ve had a lot of feedback and it’s been really helpful. We’re planning on adding chunky zips to the clothing, so they’re easier to grab, and more sizes for our next collection.” Jo also adds: “We want people to let us know what they want, and what they’re struggling with. For that one person, it’s their whole world. We want it to be more of a forum than a clothing website.”

Despite the immense progress they’ve made, Claire and Jo still maintain that they are “not business people, just two mums.” But both admit that creating the Warpaint collection has changed them considerably. “If this hadn’t had come along, I don’t think I would have been where I am now,” says Jo. Meanwhile, Claire states: “I would have never anticipated that I’d be wearing my own brand of clothing. But here I am.”