Life’s Too Short To Wear Boring Stuff

Sometimes we need help with our confidence, and I’m a big believer that clothes can sometimes help you feel good about yourself. I knew this from my own experience, but it wasn’t until I became a personal stylist that I realized how something as simple as a dress could help impact a person’s life. “Thank you for helping me feel confident enough to look in the mirror again.” When I read this feedback from a client, I felt honored and heartbroken at the same time. It made me feel honored that this woman trusted me to help her gain her self esteem back, and heartbroken to think that she was so low on herself that she couldn’t even look in the mirror; something we do every day and don’t ever think about.

Clothes really aren’t just clothes; they reflect how you feel about yourself. When I was at my heaviest, I remember walking around in oversize clothing and black ALL THE TIME. I didn’t realize it then, but I dressed this way because I felt like I didn’t want anyone to see me. I just wanted to blend into the background. I felt like everyone would judge me for wearing certain things. “Why is she wearing that? She’d look so much skinnier in black.” This played like a broken reel in my head constantly in those days. At some point, I realized that if I wanted to feel good about myself, I needed to make some changes. First order of business was to lose weight. The anxiety about the health problems associated with my weight loomed constantly, and that directly affected how I dressed. I felt lazy and tired a lot, which made me, want to dress as comfortable as possible. This translated into stretchy and non-shapely clothes. This is what brought me to the second order of business…updating the wardrobe. I had always been a fashionista and now I was looking like the before picture in an episode of “What Not To Wear”. I started wearing more fitted clothes and brighter colors. This put me in a different mood…I was starting to feel like there was finally light at the end of the long tunnel I had been avoiding. Making those small changes in the beginning (dressing the way I wanted to feel) restored some confidence within me and I was now ready to traverse that long tunnel. Hell, people will always judge, so may as well make myself happy.

I urge everyone to give zero fucks about what others say or what your inner emo kid says. Next time you walk up to your closet and start reaching for the same old thing because you just aren’t feeling it, just stop. Take a minute to think about how you want to feel that day. Then reach back in and grab that fab outfit that makes you feel like a million bucks. Like Rachel Zoe says, “Style is a way to say who you are without having to speak.” If that’s the case, then say “I’m here bitches.”