How these vision-impaired seniors learned about fashion sense
Carmen Davis won’t wear anything yellow or gray.
Yellow takes her back to her childhood when a pair of yellow shorts made her feel washed out. Gray evokes sadness.
But she loves red, for its vibrancy and warmth.
“I also remember what it looks like,” said Davis.
Davis is blind. She lost her vision more than five decades ago at age 11 after contracting encephalitis, an inflammation of the brain due to infection.
But picking the right colors and “looking good” is important to her. She uses a color detector tool to help her pick out matching outfits.
“Just because I can’t see it, doesn’t mean I shouldn’t look good,” said Davis, who is in her 60s. “For me, it’s something I have always cared about.”
So Davis was thrilled to hear that Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired had planned a presentation for the center’s senior group, Beauty for the Blind. The group offers seniors — most of whom are low income — a variety of classes including English, computer literacy, art and life skills.
On Friday, about two dozen seniors — including Davis — filled the third-floor activities room to listen to fashion stylists and designers Marla Cartin and Wilfred Marrero Jr. from Style Clinic International and makeup artist and hair stylist Joshua Barrett who works at HK Salon in Miami Beach.
Cartin and Marrero began by giving everyone scarves. When it was Davis‘ turn, she asked whether the purple patterned scarf matched her solid red shirt. She happily took it after Cartin gave her the stamp of approval.
“I think we learned more from this than they did,” said Cartin. “It was such an uplifting experience.”
The stylists then led the group — mainly women — through different ways of wearing the scarf, using their sense of touch. Davis followed along, tying the scarf around her neck and then around her head. She liked it around her neck with the scarf hanging to the side.
Then came the bracelets. Each person was told to feel inside a bag of bracelets and pick the one that felt the best to them. Some had large beads, others small.
Davis decided on one with white beads and a white flower. The stylist told her the bracelet matched her white purse and tied her outfit together.
“Oh that’s good,” she said, smiling.
Davis grew up in a small province of Cuba. She remembers as a child watching her mother, a hairstylist, work on clients. She also remembers begging her mom to buy her curlers so she could make her straight hair have more personality. She said she has always cared about makeup and dressing fashionably.
“I think because I used to see my mom and grandma always ... taking care of themselves,” she said, adding that she believes having style and caring about your looks is something a person is born with.
“You don’t lose it if you become blind. I enjoy the same things in life.”
When she was 11, she received a vaccine and two days later got very sick. Her parents rushed her to a hospital in Havana where the doctors told her parents she might not survive. The disease affected her optic nerve, and she was rendered blind.
Her parents moved to the United States because they thought there would be more opportunity for her. She said it was difficult initially getting used to life without sight, but “kids adapt easily.”
She went to elementary and middle school in Hialeah and graduated from North Miami High, where there was a special education program. She had classes with sighted kids, and had a special homeroom where she could get extra help if she needed it.
After high school, she worked at Hialeah Hospital and Palmetto General, developing X-rays in the dark room. She then went to New York to get a guide dog, and met her husband there. They ended up moving to Georgia and back to Miami, where they had a son.
While her husband worked, she was a stay-at-home mom and raised her son.
“I was like any other mom,” she said. “We had safety devices and made sure everything was put away.”
She worked at home answering messages for a dance studio and then in customer service. Her husband died in 2010 from cancer.
She now lives alone, and spends four days out of five at Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired, where she is continually learning new skills, she says. On Fridays, she goes to the beauty parlor for a “tune-up.”
“People forget we are just regular people,” she said. “We cannot drive a car, but we didn’t lose our brain. We don’t lose our talents because we go blind.”
Virginia Jacko, CEO of Miami Lighthouse, said the presentation was more than just a beauty lesson. Rather, it encouraged independence and promoted the idea that anything is possible.
“Everyone wants to look good,” she said.
For Davis, her favorite part of the presentation was when she was selected to get her makeup done by Barrett. She said she’s been putting on makeup nearly her whole life yet learned a couple of new tricks, including the proper place for blush.
“It was a small thing, but it meant so much to her,” Barrett said. “Makeup is just as much about how it feels.”
Davis left Friday with more than just the giveaways and freshly done makeup.
“You could feel the love in the room.”
To get involved:
What: Miami Lighthouse for the Blind and Visually Impaired
Where: 601 Southwest Eighth Ave., Miami
Contact: Call 305-856-2288 or visit http://www.miamilighthouse.org.
