How to express your inner world with clothes

An individual style in clothes is a way to pack our “I” into a shell that suits us personally, telling others something important about us. When we buy things, responding to the inner impulses of the soul, we create a unique wardrobe, thanks to which we can feel comfortable in any atmosphere: both with loved ones at home and at a social event. We can take into account the limits of the dress code, the public image, the rules of etiquette, but they cease to limit our feelings.

You can make successful sets, buy fashionable things, but this only says that we are good at “packing” the body. If, going shopping, we “do not take” the inner essence with us, this can be seen from a number of signs:

1. A utilitarian approach to completing the wardrobe. We choose clothes, focusing solely on temperature (cold, hot), compose an image to arouse interest or, conversely, not attract attention, not stand out from the crowd.
2. Chaotic experiments with style and fashionable images for certain occasions, and not for the sake of searching for your outfit.
3. A pile of things in the closet, constant updates “for the season”, frequent purchases without pleasure. At the same time, every day we wear the same rather limited set of things.
4. Large-scale or small changes in life that are not reflected in clothes.
5. Strong emotional stress, tears, discomfort in the body as a response to the realization that there is nothing to wear.

If these signs are familiar to you, you should think about a more thorough and deep search for your style.

I realized that it was time to change something when I discovered all five signs in myself. My wardrobe consisted of a huge amount of low-quality, badly matched, out of place clothes, behind which my personality was hidden. Nothing criminal, sometimes even beautiful. I only bought things for the closet, not for myself. There were few real me in the wardrobe. The gap for future transformations is even smaller. The awareness of the problem was almost zero.

Until mid-2018, the problem was “covered” with a pile of clothes for all occasions. I experimented with style, tried fashion trends. Sometimes she frankly missed the mark with the images, sometimes she hit the bull’s-eye.

At the same time, I really changed and developed as a person. I fell in love and truly trusted another, defended my dissertation, began to write and work with clients, overcoming the impostor syndrome, and became a mother. Saved up a critical mass of mini-changes and put clothes in the closet because I wore little and bought a lot.

She changed her hair color, survived an appendicitis operation, celebrated her thirtieth birthday in the best traditions of the Sabbat. For the first time I cried into an open bedside table, realizing that there was nothing to wear. My body still had something to wear. I couldn’t express myself on the inside.

Three steps to a new wardrobe

I began the path to individual style with the awareness of my personal characteristics. I realized which of them I would like to broadcast with the help of clothes, and found a support team. Here is my advice to those who are in dire need of change.

1. Gather information about yourself. Formulate how you perceive yourself, reread old diaries, review photographs from the last ten years. Note what has been repeated and what has appeared in you recently. Ask loved ones (especially those whose opinion you rely on when choosing images) how they would describe you when introducing you to a stranger.
2. Look for the psychological reasons that make you fill your closet with just these things and direct your search in a certain direction. Answer in writing the following questions: what is the most difficult thing when compiling an image from existing things? What do you want to change or improve in your own style? What does a person look like whose style you would describe as individual and original? What prompted you to change?
3. Seek help from a stylist. Choosing pictures on Pinterest, you can go back to experimenting in clothes, but not to changes in the ways of “packaging the soul.” Look for a person-centered specialist: you should get the impression that you are talking with a “wardrobe psychologist”. Such a person should not pour out special terms instead of finding out the features of the daily routine, hobbies.

I found this. After talking with five specialists who promised to pick up a basic set of clothes for me in the shortest possible time, to make a wardrobe according to the color type or the sign of the Zodiac, I finally ended up at an appointment with a “wardrobe psychologist”. There were many questions in her questionnaire about what I expect from the future transformation. I felt that they understood me, and completely trusted the stylist.

A real professional will teach you how to talk about what is important in yourself using the language of clothes, help you decide on the concept and style, change your approach to shopping, revise things in your closet and help you put together sets from what is left, so deftly that you seem to Re-introduce your wardrobe.

Reflection is necessary to learn how to express yourself – first through clothes, and then through other tools and in other areas of your life.