I don’t get out much, so looking fabulous is only a concern once or twice a month in my world. Due to my obsession with work, I’ve intermittently and very wrongly thought of food as simply stuff to keep my belly full, exercise as an inconvenient distraction, and clothing as just fabric to cover my body. Feeling a decline in health, I had already started reworking my thoughts on the first two. This recent interaction with Tanya Marie set me straight on the third.
SHE SAID SOMETHING PROFOUND TO ME—that people should “dress the way their soul feels.” I had never thought about it that way, but for real, just like the eyes, what you wear can offer a window to your soul. A person’s style can help him disappear into the background, or make her stand out in a crowd. It can desperately plead for attention, or declare confidence and power. The clothes we choose can speak volumes about how we see ourselves, and how we see the world we interact with.
I like to look nice at fancy events of course, but will probably never be an avid fashionista. That said, I know what it feels like to put something on and think “this feels like me.” And I agree that it’s worth investing time in looking on the outside the way you feel, or want to feel, on the inside. There is, for example, a very confident-looking picture that David took of me in a white blazer and red camisole a few years ago. I keep it on my nightstand and look at it frequently, because the image he snapped that day captured the essence of the person I want to be when I grow up.
Wardrobe can do that—show you the outward version of what you believe to be your perfect self; the self you want everyone else to see. For me, that is confident and powerful. For you, that may be something else.
The hospitality and home accessory designers in this issue incorporate art, nature, color, movement, and light to inspire very specific moods in our surroundings. The clothing and accessory designers have projected swag, joie de vivre, sex, and revelry in men’s, women’s, and carnival clothing, and even the glasses and shoes their customers wear. What they create can truly bring out the YOU in you.
Tanya Marie shared that she loves rips and frayed edges in her clothing because, she says, “nothing is perfect but God.” I understand the sentiment, but in the search to reconcile the outside of ourselves with the soul inside, I think it’s worth the effort it takes to find our own perfect fit.
