Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Feel Good Fashion
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On the eve of the first day of the new year I found myself thinking about what I would like to change about my body. Again. And then I stopped myself, and I pulled a self-esteem u-turn.
This year I’m going to embrace the physical me - flaws and all.
Why do we have to always punish ourselves for not looking like her, like some abstract ideal? We won’t buy new clothes until we lose those extra five pounds, won’t have a Christmas cookie unless we run five miles. Why? What if we never lose the five pounds? Are we not allowed to like ourselves in what we are wearing even if we are not what we deem in our own heads to be thin enough?
Wouldn’t it be liberating to show our kids that part of the fun of making cookies is getting to eat them too?
Women spend lots of time asking “Does this look good on me?” I ask my clients “Does it feel good on you?” It’s a completely different attitude, it’s accepting rather than assaulting. Why not buy a dress because you love it, not because it makes your butt look thinner? Does everything in your closet have to “enhance your figure”? No.
I don’t suggest buying clothes that make you look worse, I just know from experience that women often fall in love with something that isn’t shape enhancing in the aesthetic we’ve become accustomed to. A really great dress may not put your every curve on display (think Marni and Dries) but you may just feel really good in it, and when you allow yourself to just feel good about your body and your clothes and all the amazing things you do, even if those things don’t include fitting into a size 26 jeans, you will feel confident; and honestly, nothing looks better on a woman than that.
So I hope all of you will join me this year in giving yourselves a little embrace. Happy New Year!
Comments
Alisa…........
Nicely done.. what a great over due topic to focus on.. Great new mantra for most women for 2008… a resolution, shall I say… and just think… our kids, girls and boys may have a less warped sense of what true inner beauty is really about…
bravo…
I totally agree Dava. As I read this piece last night I kept thinking about how much I love to put on big cozy sweaters that practically drown me in the winter and caftans that look like colorful laundry bags in summer! The designers you mention Alisa, like Dries and Marni celebrate a personal style that is so modern and sophisticated. Thanks for getting us off on the right foot for our self esteem in 2008!
Alisa - FANTASTIC article. It’s all so true. Thank you for writing it. I also have been living by the words you mentioned when we went shopping…“my body hasn’t failed me”...it keeps things in perspective.
Happy New Year.
Alisa,
At 5 1/2 months pregnant i was wary of how to dress this time around….when we shopped together you were able to truly guide me in the right direction and get me out of those juicy Sweatsuits!
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