F is for Fashion

I like clothes. A lot. I like sweaters and dresses and shoes and skirts and coats and...you get the picture. I love shopping. YES, I know to admit to such a thing makes me seem like an uneducated mass consumptionist (or someone from NJ), but I love the happiness that comes from finding the absolute perfect outfit. If Love, Loss and What I Wore was not already the title of a memoir, I would totally steal it because I can remember almost all of the key moments in my life with their accompanying outfit.

I often have trouble shopping, though, because I am almost always an "in between." At my thinnest, I usually wear a size 10 and right now, post-baby, I run between a 14 and a 16. So I'm at the high end of "regular" clothes and the low end of "plus." Basically, I am nobody's fit model. Given my fat issues and unbelievable propensity for body loathing, this can make a trip shopping either an ecstatic high (Yay, I look hot. This fits!) or purgatory (I'm so disgusting. Nothing fits!). I've gotten much better about blaming the clothes and not my body, but not always.

The mission statement over at Already Pretty has always resonated deeply with me, and I'm hoping to explore some of my own fashion and style choices and/or issues here.

"Because when I started to dress in a way that made me look amazing and feel amazing, I finally stopped actively, continually, exhaustingly hating my body. And I immediately wanted to show other women how to make that connection so they could stop hating theirs. Most of what I write here explores how style impacts body image, and how dressing well expresses self-respect and self-understanding. My primary mission is to show that body knowledge gained through explorations of personal style can foster self-love and self-respect." -- Sally McGraw.