Photo/Illutration Natsumi Higuchi and other models at a fashion show in Fukuoka on Oct. 12 (Fujio Miyata)

FUKUOKA--This was not your everyday fashion show. Among the models under the spotlight on the runway were people walking with canes and in wheelchairs.

One wore a wedding dress designed like a miniskirt. Another showed off a pale pink suit, while a third was clad in a colorful dress made out of material used for carp streamers.

The unexpected sight at the show here in Fukuoka's Tenjin area held two years ago turned out to be exactly what Natsumi Higuchi needed to revive her dream of working in the fashion industry, which she had long given up on after contracting a debilitating muscular disease.

Now 18, Higuchi has been obsessed with clothes since she was a little girl.

But spinal muscular atrophy, which forced her to use a wheelchair all the time once she started elementary school, prevented her from realizing her childhood wish to one day design them herself.

Upon entering her teens, she wrote about her goal to become a designer in a composition titled “half of a coming-of-age ceremony.”

The ravaging effects of her illness, however, chipped away at her hopes of ever realizing it.

Her strength weakened to the point where she couldn't even hold a pencil tight. This made doing her homework practicing writing kanji almost impossible. When she was in the fifth grade, it took her almost until midnight to complete it. Doing so left her so sleep-deprived she couldn't catch up with class lessons. She started going to school less and less.

When she was in the sixth grade, she became unable to stand. She wore only men’s large clothes because they were easy to put on while she was sitting.

After Higuchi graduated from junior high, she didn't continue on to high school and spent her time at home reading novels. Social media became her main link to the outside world.

But a tip about the Fukuoka fashion show from another woman who uses a wheelchair about 20 years her senior has opened the door for her re-engagement with society.

Seeing other people with disabilities on the runway at the show, Higuchi was awestruck. She suddenly felt the impulse to go outside wearing her favorite clothes and connect with the world in front of her.

Thanks to a word from her mother, Higuchi is doing just that.

“My daughter said she wanted to try modeling,” Higuchi's mom told the show's designer, Aya Suzuki, at the Tenjin event.

Suzuki, 43, agreed to let Higuchi model clothes at one of her next events.

Recently, Higuchi has had more chances to go out, including working at a shop part time.

In October, she was onstage for the third time as a model wearing a white dress with a short hemline and is currently studying fashion design under Suzuki's guidance.