“Can you buy me something nice to wear?” This question changed Bitten Stetter’s life. She was provided by her mother in 2015. At that time she was lying in the hospital bed, her body in a pale nightgown, the cancer already in her bones.
Stetter sets off immediately. She scours stores and the Internet for clothes that her mother might like and that won’t get in the way of the carers. In vain. Finally she buys an ordinary pair of pajamas, takes the old sewing machine out of the basement and redesigns it: a gap at the back with a button placket, and the pants have strings that can be easily opened. No problem for an internationally known designer. It will later create its own brand.
Diagnosis of lung cancer
“The fact that we want to surround ourselves with beautiful things doesn’t stop just because we’re sick,” says Mirjam Weber. She is a senior physician in the palliative care ward in the Olten Cantonal Hospital and accompanies people who have often been ill for many years and are nearing their final journey.
People like Stetter’s mother back then. The 52-year-old said at a meeting in her care studio in Zurich that she went to the doctor in 2011 with neck pain. A place that at first glance doesn’t really seem like a place to die: Behind her are colorful ceramic sippy cups, a vase candle with paper flowers in the shop window and long dresses with batik patterns on the sides.
“She was diagnosed with lung cancer,” says Stetter, summing up the following four years in three words: operations, chemotherapy, radiation. Then finally, breathe a sigh of relief. “The doctors said she was healthy again.” While still in rehab, the family celebrates the new phase of their lives. Five months later, Stetter’s mother dies. The cancer had already spread to his bones.
“With every new treatment you have hope again,” says Stetter, pausing. The view behind the heavy brown glasses drops to the tabletop. “I think,” she continues finally, “that makes you ignore the fact that it could soon come to an end.”
Designer Bitten Stetter from finally in her shop in Zurich.© Mina Monsef
Dying as a phase of life
After her mother’s death, her main goal is to understand. How could they have been so unprepared? She is pausing her fashion label, which she has run for 15 years and which has taken her to exhibitions around the world. She is also taking a break from her position as a professor of design at the Zurich University of the Arts.
Instead, she now changes bedpans and holds the hands of dying people as part of an internship in the palliative care ward at Zurich’s Waidspital. At the same time, she begins to research. “Dying Settings,” as the project is called, explores the question of how the end of life could be organized differently. «We take dying to death. But it doesn’t belong there. It’s a phase of life.”
From the shirt to the dice
Stetter wants to shape this phase. She developed the first prototypes while she was still doing her research. In the beginning it was mostly practical things, she says. For example? She wants to show it. “The idea for the bed box came about,” says Stetter, holding a storage box with two hangers, “when my mother was still in the hospital.” She was constantly looking for her things there. Cell phone, glasses, knitting, everything was always somewhere out of reach. This regularly led to stressful situations, which is why Stetter went home one day, got an old bicycle basket from the garage and hung it on her mother’s hospital bed. This meant she could store her belongings and still have them within easy reach.
Stetter continues with the nightgowns. “In the hospital everyone wears the same anonymous clothing.” So she experimented with colors and materials. The turnarounder came about by chance. “I put a hospital gown on backwards and noticed that it looked like an ordinary coat.” She developed a shirt that could be worn as a dress in good times and as a nursing shirt in bad times.
First hospital on board
Other things were added, such as cell phone holders for hanging in bed, magnetic pill boxes, gripping spoons and dice sets. The latter invite you to talk playfully about unpleasant topics such as the desired treatment, the funeral or fears.
“Very few of us will just fall asleep. Dying is not an event, but a process,” says Stetter. With her work she hopes to create more than just functional benefits. She wants social change. “We have to understand that we are nature and therefore finite.” This consideration ultimately led to the brand name: Finally, in German: Finally.
Accept that we will die. A topic that also concerns senior physician Mirjam Weber. “We are a society that plans everything down to the last detail, but we are not prepared for the end of life,” she says, her hands in the pockets of her white coat. It leads into a side room where colorful shirts and canopies hang on a rail. The Oltner Hospital is one of the first to do so Products from Finally already started.
Team thanks support
The feedback so far has been very positive, says Weber. The hospital would like to buy more products, but the budget is tight. This could only be afforded with the help of foundation funds. “We are currently still producing in small quantities, so the prices are still a bit high,” says Stetter. She hopes that more hospitals will jump on board soon. Thanks to the support of the Migros pioneer fund she was able to expand her team and take the project to the next level.
A woman for whom dying is part of everyday life. You can’t avoid one question: How does Stetter feel about the end of her own life? She says: “When the time comes, I hope that I realize that quality of life is more important than lifespan.”
Start-up support for pioneers
Anyone who wants to advance their own company or project needs courage and money. The latter has been supporting the latter since 2012 Migros pioneer fund. The team behind the fund is actively looking for promising startups in the areas of climate and resources, technology and ethics, and coexistence. Every year around 12 projects receive financial and strategic support. The funding lasts three years. The Migros Pioneer Fund is supported by companies in the Migros Group such as Denner, Migros Bank, Migrol, Migrolino and Out of books.
