Do Clothes Make the People? (Ghosted for Bill)
I'm not big on clothes. I don't have a large wardrobe and much of it is from garage sales and consignment shops. Still... one wonders.
I have a couple of standby outfits, feel good outfits, that I don whenever I feel some need for extra confidence. I suspect we all do. There's an outfit that is perfect for facing the bank and stockbroker. The ones that are just right for dealing with Ollie luncheons or the rare meeting. A couple that are donned to deal with doctors, when I know there may be confrontations or negative issues to deal with. Bill's sister buys him clothes, but he knows which ones he needs for specific situations. He had some great confidence outfits for his comedy classes.
I've now discovered there are clothes with "attitude" and that "attitude" takes over. I love it! I want more of it!
Last Saturday, on our first garage sale foray of the season, I found a pair of jeans. Lowriders. Form fit until you get to the bottom, where you can unzip about six inches and get a flare. Too long to wear with tennies, but just right with dancing "flats" with a 1" heel. At line dance, they contributed to dancing with an "attitude" that added to enjoyment and form. Stopping at Staples and doing the grocery shopping, they made me feel I could do nothing wrong and people were there to "help and serve. Best of all, coming home and finding a somewhat testy msg from a sib, my response was very different from what it usually might have been. I had "attitude." I looked good, felt good and knew that I was in charge and on top of the world. Himself had told me, when I left for line dance, I looked terrific and the jeans were a perfect fit and look. I was ready for anything! The attitude seemed dto be put on with the jeans. (Okay, he just told me a bit ago I needed to take off the jeans and get in my housecoat and decompress
Clothes don't "make the man" but I'm pretty sure they can sometimes affect your attitude. After having to downsize to live in an RV for almost a year, I learned that you can do with a lot less clothes, but there are those that make you feel good, put you in charge and lift you above the pettiness of the world. And I've learned that if they don't do that, they need to go to charity, be it Goodwill, a local mission or a woman's shelter, because they may make someone else feel in charge and give them an "attitude."
Any one else found this to be true? I think our basic personality/persona/values remain the same, but sometimes clothes can give you the confidence or attitude you need to accomplish certain functions or just make you feel more in charge and positive. Is this totally narcisstic? How do you feel about your clothes? And, if you have no feelings at all, related to your clothes, do you need to find some that give you some confidence or aggression or an attitude?
4 comments:
Hi Dr
I think clothes are very important to both confidence and image but the middle ground is best for me.
When I first started in the business a suit was required at work, only white shirts were allowed, at tie was required, as were winged tipped shoes.
Everyone where I work now comment on four things about me; my clogne, my array of different colored dress shirts (pink, light purple, white, green, brown, tan), my cheery nature, and the one that absolute floors me is my charm. Not in a million years!
I think a well dressed person at work recieves confidence from customers and clients.
And on a first date, of course depending on where you go, a sport coat and slacks shows respect for your date.
Bill
Hmmm... I need jeans that give me attitude. Thinking over my wardrobe, I can't come up with anything that fits that bill. My clothes tend to be jeans or slacks and some kind of top -- t-necks, cotton shirts, sweaters or sweatshirts depending on weather. I have a lot of clothes, but they're pretty much all variations on sameness.
I do have a few combinations that I quite like, and lately have been trying scarves to relieve the boredom of recycling the same favorite combinations over and over. I haven't had an occasion to "dress up" for some time now, and might be a little hard-pressed to get beyond what I guess you'd call "business casual".
I do agree that some outfits tend to give you confidence, if not exactly "attitude" (have to work on that one). Nothing like feeling that you look good to help you take on the world.
I too think that clothes can be very important to the attitude of the day. I have had several clothes that made me feel on top of the world back in the day. But I had a fashion downsize 6 years back when moving from a 1300 sq.foot home to an 8 x 8 room with no closet. Before that I did have the different clothes for different occasions and the just "feel good" clothes. My mother always told me if I got up, got cleaned up and dressed well I would feel good no matter how bad I actually felt. (didn't always work by the way) But I am also not big on the fashionable clothes and usually buy what will fit and is within my price range.
Jeans, T-shirt or sweat shirt and tennis shoes is me...
But I have to ask..where was this garage sale.....? :)
Dona - Had to laugh at your comments. The garage sale was about 3 miles down the road from us, more or less.
As to downsizing -- We moved from a 35oo sq ft house to an 8 x 26 RV trailer for almost a year, so I hear you on downsizing, since that space included bedroom, kitchen, dining room. That's when I learned what clothes were important. We also downsized considerably, when we bought our house here. I have a four foot wide closet to call my own in the bedroom and another 4 foot wide closet that holds coats and a few clothes (but not many, because 2' of it is taken up by the 3' diameter a/c duct). Hence, I only have those clothes that make me feel good, plus the jeans and tees I can stuff in dresser drawers, which makes it all the more important to me to have clothes that "work" and to find the pair of jeans that came wtih an "attitude"!
On the plus side, I only have feel good clothes in my wardrobe now, pretty much.
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