Let’s talk about body confidence, these two words are something as women, we find hard to take on, I am not sure if it was the fault of fashion magazines initially using overly thin models back in the 90’s & now social media, where you are bombarded constantly with unrealistic images of beauty & the ‘perfect’ body & look, young girls also seem to have an uphill struggle coping with this onslaught on a daily basis & I am not surprised that many suffer from low self-esteem & sadness after consuming hours of that sort of content & that isn’t helped, by other girls parroting what they have seen on social media to make other girls feel like they don’t measure up. As women our confidence can be knocked, post pregnancy, by the menopause, or if you have been affected by illness, injury or disability, we can all have a problem with our bodies & our lot & have to silence that little voice in our heads, telling us we are too fat or too thin, or this body part is not as toned etc, etc. And just to add, this negative self-talk is not only reserved for women, men & boys are also exposed to the tidal wave of social media body content, in fact any gender can feel this way.

So here is a short story for you on this Tuesday afternoon, when I was at art college a very long time ago, I was about 17 years old at the time, I would travel to college on the train, & I sat next to a girl who was also on my course, who I constantly compared myself to. The internal dialogue was ‘she looks better in jeans than I do’ ‘her waist is smaller’ & it went on…It was when Levi 501’s were in fashion & I felt this was not a trend that I could do, my bottom was big & I had good thighs on me (as my Gran would say) & 501’s were not made for me. I was fairly obsessed with this girl & once I had moved on from the jeans, I started to compare myself to her in other ways & (as my sister says ‘Compare leads to Despair’) I spent many an hour trying to find a pair of jeans that fit me, but to no avail & I gave myself a hard time. Then I discovered boys jeans, baggy, distressed & secondhand (the ones in the picture below) did not even do up, which is why I am holding them up! But nevertheless, I loved them & felt comfortable in them. I experimented with clothes throughout my art college days, took inspiration from magazines & pop stars & was able to silence the comparisons, because I was enjoying fashion so much & finding my way.

Clothes are important to me, because the right styles for me, have the power to make me feel confident & even though my body has gone up quite a few dress sizes since I was 17, I know the right styles for my shape can transform my mindset & I don’t chase trends, that I know won’t suit me. Little did I know, today in 2024, I would find multiple pair of jeans that I would love. On Saturday I went to an event, where I tried on a few things, the few clothes that fitted me (& not a lot did) did not look good at all, but I walked out of there not blaming myself, but blaming the clothes & this is key! Yesterday there was a post on social media where loads of women commented that they had lost their way with style & fashion & it really hit home how many women feel like this, I know that their current mindset is not fixed & with the right styles for them, they would feel great in clothes again. I know how transformative clothes can be & fashion has the ability to help enormously with confidence, however you feel about your body.

So, remember don’t blame your genes, instead blame the jeans!

Soon I will be introducing an online styling service which is a more affordable virtual styling service. I will do a post about it when it is up & running.