Style

Photo By: Capture Queen

I found my style while shopping this past weekend in Chicago, I didn't buy anything but that's beside the point. It is no small feat for a woman of 41, who rarely dressed for occasions, who would shop just to cover her body to figure out what works or not works. I mean I could tell you what I didn't like, but that's about style.

This is about style, comfort and fit.

This is about me wearing the clothes, not the clothes wearing me. About feeling good about how I look. Apparently I like to wear tight pants. Who knew. I'm not talking about lay down on the bed to button them pants, but I like um snug. I'm amused.

I like clean lines with some details. Nothing too frilly and certainly nothing that looks too trendy. I equate trendy with cheap. Trendy does not equal current. There are current things that don't look cheap which I like. If you were wondering. You probably weren't but some people do.

I've talked more about clothing my new body with more people than I care to recount here. You might find me vapid if I actually sited numbers, time spent and content of those conversations.

And why are you still reading about one woman's shopping victories? Because there's something in the narrative which is emotional, logical and analytical, and those are the pieces of decent story telling.

Emotional: We all struggle to feel good in our bodies. Part of that is how we look, and part of how we look is how we dress. When that falls apart our emotions get all jumbled.

I am not the first woman to cry in a dressing room at Macy's.

Logical: If you've been following my story, it makes sense that I'm newly discovering how to dress and how to shop. Ms. Deirdre is the oldest of three girls and knows her way around a clothing store and how to build relationships with the people working there. I'm learning from the master. And because I'm soliciting every woman I know who has a bit of panache in her style I'm learning 1. Women can talk shopping; 2. One must hit all kinds of stores in the off chance you'll find a piece that works; 3. Finding the piece is what the shopper's high is all about. It's makes all the searching and trying worth the effort.

The progression: Lose weight, shop for new clothing, look hot. It's a girl's dream come true.

Analytical: Really this is more than just clothing a body. This is about watching someone discover things taken for granted and having a new found appreciation for what you already know. Women more than 20 years younger than me figure this stuff out. Is it like watching a baby learn to walk? Perhaps not as profound, but it is along those lines. So here I am dressing myself, "look momma I tied my shoe!" walking tall and proud. You too can remember learning to tie your shoe, learning what works on your body type.

You can and walk tall beside me.

And yeah, we'll save the world next week. I get that this is shallow on one side but it's deeply relevant on the spectrum of awareness and presentation and how we build relationships, which is fact, the point of it all.