Award Winning Artist & Designer
Carol Taylor
In 2001 as a newlywed Carol and her husband Robert hit black ice, their car rolled twice, on the second roll the roof caved in, hit Carol on the back of the neck instantly severed her spinal cord. In that split second Carol’s life was ever changed, she was left a quadriplegic, completely paralysed from the chest down and with completely paralysed hands.
Overcoming Adversity
Believing obstacles are merely challenges waiting to be overcome, Carol is the embodiment of resilience. With the assistance of her devoted husband Robert's makeshift modifications to pencils, brushes and tools she embraced life, teaching herself to draw, to paint, and to create. Carol loved fashion before her injury, sustaining a spinal cord injury didn't change that. As one of the 20% of Australians forgotten by the fashion industry Carol experienced feelings of isolation which deeply affected her mental and physical health and so she began designing for herself in 2002 and having a dressmaker make her designs.
Parenting with Quadriplegia
With 23 years lived experience as a quadriplegic, 17 of those years as a mum, Carol is the world’s first quadriplegic fashion designer. Carol's greatest work of art is her son D'arcy. Parenting with Quadriplegia presents its own set of challenges but its been an exhilarating journey and one I have enjoyed sharing in the chapter I wrote for Eliza Hull's ground breaking book on Parenting with Disability called, 'We've got this'. You can also watch the interview below which includes the formidable Emma Bennison and family.
Resilience and Innovation: Carol's Journey in Law and Pioneering E-Conveyancing
Carol was admitted to the Supreme Court of NSW in 1993 and established Bolan & Mahon Solicitors on Sydney’s North Shore in 1998.
After a 14-year absence from law due to her spinal cord injury, and with D'arcy's growing independence, Carol began to miss the intellectual stimulation and professional identity her career provided. Encouraged by Rob, she decided to return to legal practice with the flexibility to balance motherhood and work.
In 2015, she founded Taylor Law & Conveyancing.
As a quadriplegic, Carol was drawn to pioneering the electronic settlement platform, PEXA. Her firm quickly became an advocate for e-conveyancing, leading the way in Queensland. Taylor Law & Conveyancing became the first in the state to conduct a simultaneous electronic settlement between two properties 1200 km apart.
Carol’s leadership in this space led to her being invited as a keynote speaker at conferences across Australia. In 2021, the Queensland Law Society named her Regional Practitioner of the Year.
Believe it or not, throughout running the legal practice, when time permitted, Carol continued with her art and accessible clothing designs.
Breaking Barriers: Adaptive Fashion Debut
Her journey to this point had been a long one but art was the first step. Art gave her the confidence she needed to keep wheeling through open doors. In 2018 Carol was the recipient of the Access Arts Achievement Award.
During Carol's 21 years as a quadriplegic shopping was a very lonely experience. Carol couldn’t buy what she wanted in the shops, she felt isolated which had a direct impact on her mental and physical health. Within a year of her injuries, she began designing for herself and engaging a dressmaker to make her designs.
Carol decided when she won this Award that she would use it to put her artwork on fabric and see whether she could create accessible clothing for others with disability.
She debuted her adaptive fashion (under the initial name of MeQ Designs) at the 2019 Mercedes Benz Fashion Festival Brisbane. This was the first time an all-visible disability cast of models showcased on a national runway and was a giant leap forward for fashion inclusivity. Carol’s adaptive clothing designs have been exhibited in Galleries in Brisbane and Canberra and were even invited to exhibit at the Fashion Museum Hassalt Belgium pre-Covid.
Making History: AAFW '22
A career highlight was the 2022 Afterpay Australian Fashion Week, where Carol debuted the "Unwrapped" Collection on Australia’s first-ever adaptive runway show, marking an historic moment for adaptive fashion. "It honestly felt like my wheelchair was used as a battering ram to open doors previously shut to the disability community for almost 3 decades!"
Championing Inclusive Fashion
As a former Partner and Lead Designer in Australia's most recognised adaptive clothing label, Carol championed inclusive, stylish, and accessible designs. Passionate about disrupting disability stereotypes Carol used her own lived experience of disability and the experience of her friends and colleagues in the disability community to design for quadriplegics, paraplegics, those with dexterity issues, people who are part-time or permanently in the seated position, those who, like her, wheel through life with colostomy bags, catheter bags, and the constant worry of pressure sores and the inability to temperature regulate and are susceptible to life-threatening blood pressure fluctuations. Thanks to the support of friends like Paralympian Kathleen O’Kelly Kennedy Carol has also designed for those with limb difference. “I design adaptive fashion that gives the disability community the choice to wear what they want, not just what they're given”
Carol's advocacy extends beyond fashion. She serves as a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Spinal Life Australia and is a founding member of the QLS Diverse Abilities Network. She has also been a Non-Executive Director on the Board of Arts Access Australia.
