Zucki: "Art and fashion are a form of activism"

Red hair, round face, and dimples: Andrea Zuckermann - stage name Zucki - is a force of nature. And not just for her dedication to raising awareness on delicate and important issues such as disability, ableism, and inclusion in the world of fashion and beauty. Born in 1997 in Mexico City, she quickly showed a strong artistic aptitude for music and visual arts, as well as a great passion for sports, especially gymnastics, tennis, and volleyball. She studied Industrial Design at Universidad Iberoamericana before moving to London to attend Central Saint Martins. During this time, she realized she was interested in the intersection of design, fashion, and social sciences, which led her to study Fashion Image and Styling at Istituto Marangoni in Paris.

Zucki, from Mexico with Fury

In 2020, an accident changed her life forever, making her paraplegic. Zucki did not lose heart and decided to focus all her efforts on building a brilliant career despite everything. She transformed the lyrics of the songs she wrote as a child into a book and signed a contract with a modeling agency. Today, she is a successful model and influencer, who has linked her work to important social causes and become an tireless advocate for people with disabilities, particularly those who use wheelchairs. She is also an ambassador for COMUNAL, a Mexican organization fighting for accessible architecture, one of Zucki's key advocacy topics both on social media and beyond.

In light of her commitment, spanning from fashion to architecture, we had a conversation with her to get her unique perspective on highly discussed public issues such as inclusion, feminism, and much more. With a focus on the fashion industry, which often prides itself on being perfect even when it is not. "What gives me the strength to do this job is that I'm not doing it just for myself, I'm doing it for the entire community of people with disabilities," she told us. "I love being able to represent a small part of my community and maybe even inspire it in the same way that the people who came before me inspired me. This cause is much bigger than me, but if I can make a little girl in a wheelchair realize she can have a place in fashion, then that's enough for me. It's all I need and it's what motivates me. Just like when I was newly injured and needed these examples to move forward. I want to do the same for others."

Activism in Fashion: How Inclusion Meets Feminism

The biggest obstacle? Hard to say. Perhaps "the fact that you always have to prove you deserve it. It's a problem we always see when it comes to disability. We have to do the impossible to prove we deserve things just like everyone else." Then, speaking about the intersection of ableism and sexism, and thus the intersectionality of feminism, which also includes the people with disabilities, she confided: "People think they can take advantage of you, manipulate you. I've been told 'you can't run away anyway,' and it's really scary to think this is what most people think of women with disabilities. We are vulnerable. It's one of the reasons I stopped drinking alcohol, I didn't want to put myself in further danger, making myself even more vulnerable. I want to be clear-headed at all times, I want to give myself the chance to be in the moment, to assess the situation."

How does one move from fashion to activism and vice versa? What is the bridge that connects these two worlds that might seem distant? Zucki's answer is as simple as it is profound and striking. "Art and fashion are already activism, in my opinion. The simple fact of having someone with a disability working in the fashion world, in a space where we haven't seen many people with disabilities, is activism. It changes people's perspective, their point of view, and it does so in a small way, one thing at a time. It's not an activism that shouts. The more you see it, the more you realize that people with disabilities deserve a space in the fashion community."