Dressing for Your Body

The next time you get ready for school, work, a date, or any time where you are making a conscious effort to figure out what to wear, think about why you are deciding what clothes you decide to put on that day. Is it because that's what feels comfortable to you? Is it because you want to look sexy for a special someone? Or is it because you're trying to make yourself look thinner or hide a tiny bit of belly fat? In fashion today, there are a plethora of tricks for creating the bodies we want without surgery, exercise, or eating differently. Why are we so obsessed with creating these bodies with clothes that we don’t actually have? 

We’re constantly told to “dress for our bodies”, yet to actually do that, we’re told to pick clothes that create illusions. Peplums are supposed to draw the eye from your slimmest point and flow out to create the illusion of a tiny waist, and wearing the same color shoe and pant supposedly draws the eye down and creates the illusion of longer legs. What if I don’t have a tiny waist? A peplum skirt or top or dress may make me seem slimmer, but am I really? Why are we hiding our bodies under these constricting charlatans we call flattering clothes? 

On one hand we’re supposed to love our bodies, yet on the other, we’re supposed to use these clothing shapes to create shapes that our bodies don’t naturally make. I think that I have a pretty average body, but I prefer to wear looser clothes. It’s more comfortable for me as a college student, and I don’t feel as constricted. Just because you where clothes that aren’t fitted, and you don’t wear clothes that create these false silhouettes, doesn’t mean you’re wearing sweatpants and t-shirts everyday – and even if you are, there’s nothing wrong with that! 

Today, I am wearing a simple black dress that has a loose tie around the waist and an oversized black, floral, needlepoint sweater. These clothes don’t cinch in my waist and push up my boobs to make them look bigger than the in between a B-cup and a C-cup that they actually are. However, this outfit is comfortable for classes, I still feel put together, and I like the way I look. However, by the ‘illusion viewpoint’, I’m doing my body “no favors”. I believe that the real favor I’m doing my body is not forcing it into clothes that barely fit or forcing it to wear things I don’t want to or I don’t feel comfortable in. Everyone should be able to choose what they want to wear based on what they like, what they want themselves to look like, and how they want to feel in the clothes they’re wearing. 

Tomorrow morning when you get dressed, ask yourself these four questions:

1. What outfit is appropriate for what I’m doing today? Should I wear something more casual or more dressy?
2. How do I see myself? Do I want to stand out, do I want to fit in, how do I envision myself looking today?
3. How do I want to feel today? Do I want to feel comfortable, sexy, formal, dressy?
4. What's going to make me feel good?

Some days, you may be feeling sweatpants and a t-shirt; other days, jeans and a blouse. Sometimes, you may want to go all out and wear a dress and a push-up bra. However, you decide to dress, make sure it reflects you. Make sure you feel good. People can’t judge you for making choices that give you confidence. You are the most important person in your life, so treat yourself well. Wear what you want to wear and fuck the bitches (male or female) that try to bring you down.