It's amazing how much the clothes I'm wearing affect my mood.
I don't often paint, or draw, or craft, or sew. My artistic urges do not show themselves on canvases or in patchwork quilts. And while writing is somewhat of a creative outlet, seeing as what I almost always write is non-fiction it feels less creative than it might be.
But the clothes I wear, they become art of a sort. I can spend hours in my room, digging through heaps of clothing (I have very cheap local thrift stores, which leads to my collecting a LOT of clothes), to find just the right pieces. Similarly, I can spend quite a bit of time at those fore-mentioned thrift stores finding the clothes to begin with! In my life, what I wear is really important to me.
Because of anxiety, I can go days just staying in the house in my pajamas. Leaving to go anywhere and deal with transport and figuring out directions and limited funds to do things and having to deal with people can just feel like way too much, So I don't, which isn't good for my mental health, and generally jut makes me feel even worse. But, even if I'm not planning on going anywhere, forcing myself to get out of pj's and into real clothes often gives my mood a little boost all on it's own. Feeling stylish and cute makes me at least a little bit happier. And it also makes me more likely to actually scrape up the courage to walk out the door and do something.
I absolutely respect that for many people clothing is a much harder and more loaded topic, and that there's a whole lot of bullshit beauty standards and fat-shaming and difficulty finding clothes that fit or affording them to begin with that goes into fashion or style or whatever you want to call it. But for me, clothes are incredibly important. In a world that often feels really difficult for me to navigate, putting together a cute outfit, getting a family member to take some shots of it, posting them online, then proudly going to the library or the grocery store (or even visiting someone) can make my day. I get to arrive home to find "likes" on my photos and maybe some sweet comments, and feel good about myself. Little things like that can make all the difference on the worst of days!
So I'd like to leave you with a collection of some of those outfits, because I can and because I like how happy I look. :)
I don't often paint, or draw, or craft, or sew. My artistic urges do not show themselves on canvases or in patchwork quilts. And while writing is somewhat of a creative outlet, seeing as what I almost always write is non-fiction it feels less creative than it might be.
But the clothes I wear, they become art of a sort. I can spend hours in my room, digging through heaps of clothing (I have very cheap local thrift stores, which leads to my collecting a LOT of clothes), to find just the right pieces. Similarly, I can spend quite a bit of time at those fore-mentioned thrift stores finding the clothes to begin with! In my life, what I wear is really important to me.
Because of anxiety, I can go days just staying in the house in my pajamas. Leaving to go anywhere and deal with transport and figuring out directions and limited funds to do things and having to deal with people can just feel like way too much, So I don't, which isn't good for my mental health, and generally jut makes me feel even worse. But, even if I'm not planning on going anywhere, forcing myself to get out of pj's and into real clothes often gives my mood a little boost all on it's own. Feeling stylish and cute makes me at least a little bit happier. And it also makes me more likely to actually scrape up the courage to walk out the door and do something.
I absolutely respect that for many people clothing is a much harder and more loaded topic, and that there's a whole lot of bullshit beauty standards and fat-shaming and difficulty finding clothes that fit or affording them to begin with that goes into fashion or style or whatever you want to call it. But for me, clothes are incredibly important. In a world that often feels really difficult for me to navigate, putting together a cute outfit, getting a family member to take some shots of it, posting them online, then proudly going to the library or the grocery store (or even visiting someone) can make my day. I get to arrive home to find "likes" on my photos and maybe some sweet comments, and feel good about myself. Little things like that can make all the difference on the worst of days!
So I'd like to leave you with a collection of some of those outfits, because I can and because I like how happy I look. :)