You are not truly free until you can be who you are without apologies. No truer words have ever been spoken.
There are many ways by which we express ourselves and fashion happens to be one of the most because it is a visual medium. Let’s be honest, one of the first things a person sees when they look at you is what you wear, which is why it is so easy to judge a person by what they wear.
The two most common ways people dress are :
i) To Impress.
ii) To Express.
Dressing to impress in this context means wearing things in such a way to please other people; maybe because because an invisible law says you should. Dressing to express, on the other hand means wearing things that you like and feel comfortable in, no matter what anybody thinks.
SOME REASONS WHY PEOPLE DRESS TO IMPRESS:
1: They Have Not Discovered Themselves : It takes someone who understands who they are to know what works for them in terms of fashion and not just what everyone else is doing. Most people who dress to impress haven’t taken the time to discover themselves and what makes them different. When you don’t know who you are, you hardly have a need to follow trends.
2: The Desire To Belong: Fashion is one area where the influence of ‘Pop Culture ‘ is most felt ; little wonder that those who have hopped on this train are considered ‘Cool’ . It’s not bad to be cool, but it becomes a problem when people have to lose themselves in the pursuit of ‘cool’. Some people will wear anything as long as people tell them they look cool in it.
3: The Belief That Dressing Well Has To Be Expensive: Most people have the wrong notion that they have to break the bank to dress to their taste. The fact still remains that you can dress the way you love in whichever capacity your purse can carry.
4: Low Self Esteem: Most people who suffer from a low self esteem actually know what works for them but never feel like they can pull it off. The more people learn to love and accept themselves – flaws and all, the more they can see that most times it’s not what you wear, it’s how you wear it.
Every single person in the world has been blessed with a personality that sets them apart from the next person, which is why we all like different things; Music, Food, Movies etc. When it comes to fashion, there are so many materials,colors and styles of clothes, shoes, accessories and bits of fashion that we really can’t exhaust them all if we were to all choose differently. However, that freedom to express seems to have been taken over by a world which now sadly judges people by the content of their wardrobe and not the content of their character. These days there seems to be an invisible law that says we all have to have the same personality , meaning we should all like the same things just because the rest of the world does or even more lame; because it’s in vogue.
How can we claim we are in a world where existence is now based on the pursuit of happiness and freedom when we let society tell us how to live our lives?
Some reasons why you shouldn’t dress to impress are:
v It Takes Away Your Sense Of Choice: When you repeatedly do something, It becomes a habit and a habit done over years becomes a character.You start to notice that not just your dressing but every other part of your life seem to revolved around what the society thinks or what they are doing at a particular time.
v It Takes Away Your Identity: When you dress to impress a society which has no idea where you come from, what your people dress like, part of your own culture, you can rest assured that it will get harder to identify with your people. When you dress in such a way to say ‘This is where I come from, this is where I belong’ it definitely increases respect for your person. Nobody wants to challenge a man who’s sure of where he’s coming from.
v It Robs You Of Your Uniqueness: Your personality carries what makes you unique, and when you dump that part of you to go with what every other person does, then you are just another face in the crowd. When you dress the way you love, you’re saying ‘I am different in this way’ There are too many faces in the crowd already so why not just stand out.
A million other reasons exist why you must not lose yourself in trying to impress the society. It is however, important to note that this does not mean that you shouldn’t dress for the occasion; the key is to play to what you love. Dressing to express doesn’t also mean being tacky; ‘Dress how you want to be addressed’ , while dressing just the way you feel, bear in mind that you shouldn’t give people a reason to see someone who should be disrespected. It does not also mean dressing indecently just because you feels like it. This is one occasion where less doesn’t necessarily mean more. Moderation is key.
One doesn’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that when you wear what you are comfortable in, you feel better about yourself and therefore exude more confidence. Dressing to express and not impress is all about freedom; freedom to be who you are, whether it’s flawed or glamorous, or funny. If they don’t love you, who cares? At least you are honest and happy to be you .