Does Autumn/Winter Fashions improve your confidence?
It’s that time to wave goodbye to our summer wardrobe and pack away the sleeveless dresses and the short sleeve t-shirts. Without a doubt the sunshine has a huge impact on our well being and our mental health, it encourages us to ‘work’ on our summer bodies, to enjoy our beautiful surroundings and the dose of Vitamin D generally makes us feel good.
However, I can’t help but think that a lot of ladies feel more confident in Autumn/Winter fashion. As our youth seems to disappear the constant strive for perfection portrayed through social media seems to be prominent everywhere….we cant escape it. Mix that expectation with ‘mum-tums’, tired eyes, menopause, general wear and tear on our bodies and we are left feeling like its hard work being a woman. Ladies we should not feel like that should we? We should honour our bodies for what they have been through and not give them a hard time. We should take pride in what our bodies are capable of and what they achieve. We should give ourselves the advice that we would give our daughters and our best friends. We should tell ourselves that we are beautiful in our own way and in our own right.
So that leads me on to my original question. Does Autumn/Winter fashion improve our confidence? In the changing rooms I hear a lot of “I don’t like the top of my arms”, “I don’t like my knees”, “I don’t like a low neck line”. Does the change in season allow us to hide our perfect imperfections and therefore increase our confidence?
At Blossom we always say that confidence is beautiful and I believe that fashion can play a huge part in that. However, being comfortable is a huge part of confidence. You can try on a jumper that you love but its so tight you can hardly lift your arms. The result? You feel uncomfortable therefore unconfident. When you are feeling low in confidence, you don’t smile as much, you don’t keep your shoulders back or your chin as high.
Look at Kerry here for example, the top of her arms are covered with the poncho (a part of her body she is conscious of). The scarf, brings in a splash of sparkle with the foil print, warmth and hides her neck – another part of the body that only she can see the imperfections. Winter fashions do not mean you have to wear dull colours, you can still be vibrant and colourful.
Autumn/Winter fashions allow us to layer up, allows us to cover up if we want too, allows us to feel fashionable and good in what we wear with that extra dollop of comfort. It doesn’t mean that we have to eliminate fitted clothes and heels from our wardrobes, it means we incorporate them in a different way. Feeling ‘Sexy’ doesn’t mean to same thing to everyone; age, size and body confidence has a huge impact on this. But confidence is attractive, and feeling good in what you wear brings you that confidence.
When a customer steps out of the changing room to look in the mirror the first thing we look at is her face, to see if she is smiling or debating. A new top or a new pair of jeans should make you smile and we want our customers to leave us smiling and looking forward to wearing their new purchases.
Enjoy the fashions of the season, fine knits to chunky knits, add ponchos and scarves to your wardrobe to finish your outfit with that added colour and comfort. But most importantly dress how you want to dress, wear clothes that when you look in the mirror you think “this is me”. I know a lot of you lovely lot love to follow the latest trends on insta and that’s great but don’t feel pressurised into clothes that make you feel conscious.
Remember confidence is beautiful and confidence come from feeling comfortable in your own skin and your own clothes.