four external messages to reject
Even though I’ve always loved fashion, for a long time I never thought of it as something I had any control over. It was always something that was externally dictated to me. There were things that were trendy or “right” to wear, and some external source told me what those were. If Tim Gunn said every woman should have a tailored white button down shirt in their closet, I bought a white button down shirt. If a magazine article told me that I should wear a specific color because of my coloring, I’d wear it.
About fifteen years ago, I started paying attention to the feelings I was having around my clothes. I started thinking about how I wanted to feel in my clothing, and how much anxiety I was willing to put up with in return for keeping up. I realized that when I listened to my body about what it wanted to wear, I ended up in clothes that felt more “me”. I began to realize that what I bought and wore should come from internal needs, not external messages.
As I’ve work…