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Dressing From the Outside In
NEWSLETTER
9/23/20262 min read
I’ve pushed the idea of style being a visual representation of our authentic selves and dressing each day based on how you feel. So this is going to feel completely contradictory when I say there are times you might purposefully dress in a way that contradicts how you feel. And it’s a good thing!
You can dress to ground ourselves. Rather than discovering how you feel that day and dressing from the inside out, you can dress from the outside in.
What the heck am I talking about? Let me give you an example from my own life.
A few weeks ago I had a meeting that I was really not looking forward to. It was with a group of people I find difficult to talk to and have been disrespected by in the past. My inner self was feeling dread, nervousness, annoyance. But I knew that wasn’t how I wanted to show up for the meeting. So I put on a dress I always feel good in and I put on beefy shoes that make me feel like I can kick a door down. Rather than the clothing being a message from me to the world of where I was at, the clothing sent the message I needed to hear.
It’s still an authentic expression of style. Instead of using fashion to tell the world who we are, we’re using the world of fashion to remind us of ourselves.
If you’ve ever gone to a yoga class and have been given the option to sit palms up to welcome things in vs. palms down to ground yourself, based on how you feel that day, you might know what I mean. It’s a similar experience.
I have specific pieces that tend to ground me. I have a necklace that’s a small Texas-shaped pendant. I have a baggy button down that belonged to my grandfather. These are pieces that remind me of my roots, grounding me in the support of my loved ones and where I come from. If I’m feeling lost it helps to remind myself where I belong.
There are also times that I reach for pieces that evoke a particular feeling I’m needing. This is where the can-kick-a-door-down shoes came in. The morning of the meeting I didn’t wake up feeling tough, quite the opposite. But I collected pieces and put them together into an outfit to have a physical reminder to draw on that I am tough. It wasn’t a connection with a specific piece, but about creating a style that emitted the feeling I was searching for that day.
Sometimes we need to be seen by the world or simply want to represent who we are. That’s when we choose pieces that align with our inner voice that day. But sometimes, we’re having trouble remembering for ourselves who we are. On these days, our clothing is a conduit to feel our own pulse, our own rhythm, more clearly.
