Nearly four kilometres of Sunflower lanyard, now walking the runway

The question that started it all

We wanted to show just how many different reasons there can be for wearing the Sunflower.

The 2,917 submissions we received represented 867 different non-visible disabilities, conditions and chronic illnesses.

They included asthma, dyslexia and diabetes, as well as less widely known conditions such as Sunflower Syndrome and prosopagnosia. Some of the submissions introduced us to conditions we hadn't come across before.

For every submission, we added one metre of Sunflower lanyard. We then added another metre for each of the 867 different reasons identified.

By that calculation, we needed 3,784 metres.

A record made by our community

On 17 March 2023, we took the finished lanyard to Liverpool Football Club's Anfield Stadium.

Nearly four kilometres of green and yellow Sunflower lanyard was stretched around the Kop. When officially measured, it came in at 3,784.50 metres, setting the world record for the longest lanyard.

The previous record had stood for more than two decades. We beat it by 913 metres.

The finished lanyard was long enough to wrap around the Anfield pitch more than ten times.

But making a very long lanyard wasn't the aim.

We created it to raise awareness of the wide range of non-visible disabilities, conditions and chronic illnesses that can be a reason for wearing the Sunflower.

Seeing nearly four kilometres of lanyard around Anfield gave that range a very visible sense of scale.

The list that stayed open

The 867 reasons represented what people had shared with us at the time of the record. It was never intended to be a definitive list.

So we kept it open.

The physical lanyard was completed in 2023. The list wasn't.

People can still tell us about a non-visible disability, condition or chronic illness that isn't currently included, and the list continues to grow.

The record also left us with nearly four kilometres of lanyard.

Simply folding it away and leaving it in storage didn't seem like much of an answer.

From a stadium to a studio

Victoria Jenkins is the founder of Unhidden, an adaptive and universally designed fashion brand.

Unhidden was the first adaptive brand to become a member of the British Fashion Council and the first to host solo runway shows on schedule.

Victoria has taken part of our world-record lanyard and transformed it into a festival cape.

We haven't tried to dictate how the cape should look or how the material should be used. Victoria is the designer. The vision is hers.

Onto the runway

The festival cape was revealed as part of Unhidden's show at Manchester Fashion Week at VERSA Manchester Studios.

The wider Unhidden show looked at what can be done with pre-loved clothing and materials, with adaptively upcycled pieces alongside storytelling pieces. The world-record Sunflower lanyard was one of the materials reimagined for the runway.