Wear what you love!
Somehow, over the winter, I found myself caught up in the social media world of dressing dos and don’ts. Have you been down this rabbit hole? To tuck or not to tuck. Different ways to tuck, depending on your body type. Colors to wear and not to wear. Doesn’t matter if you like that color, if it’s not “yours'“, you shouldn’t wear it. Long over short, short over long, wide over skinny, skinny over wide…do this, not that. At first, I was captivated. I mean, after 9 years of Lutheran school, I am a rule follower and here was a new set of rules for dressing myself in my feed every time I looked at Instagram. And then I took it even further and thought: I can share these things with my customers and bring value to their lives, with my helpful how to wear clothing content.
But, slowly, I started to get annoyed with these videos. I started getting bugged by the idea that, even something as personal as figuring out what to wear, was judgement-filled. Not exclusively for women, but mostly. There appeared to be right ways and wrong ways to get dressed, the implication being that “somebody'“ was always judging how you looked. After Sue shared a story with me about a woman who bought a piece of clothing that she loved, even though her friend told her it wasn’t flattering, we came up with the idea of “wear what you love!”. It’s not original to the internet, but it’s original to us. We are trying to create for ourselves a way of dressing that gets rid of the rules and focuses on how we feel in our apparel. And to limit that critical judgement when we look in the mirror. Instead of asking: is it flattering?, we are focusing on different questions. Is it the most comfortable thing I’ve ever worn and will I feel at ease all day because of its comfort? Do the colors make me happy every time I look at them? Does the style bring out an inner part of me that I’ve never expressed before? Do I feel powerful and confident in it?
Sue and I have started posted (almost) daily pictures of what we are wearing - things that we love. I feel more free about what I wear in the last few weeks. And anytime I can feel more free about anything, I consider it a win.
