I have my cousin’s wedding coming up this month and have been on the hunt for something to wear. Normally, the eco-conscious side of me would just wear something I already have… but I haven’t bought a new dress in so long and nothing felt appropriate for this particular wedding so I started looking into eco and ethically produced dresses online.
I found one company I absolutely loved both the ethos and the dresses. I was set on one dress I’d seen and they happen to have a shop in London so I went in to try some on.
They had my size (it was the last one and completely sold out online) so I felt so lucky that they had the dress and size I wanted. It was obviously meant to be!
Until I put the dress on…
I looked in the mirror and just didn’t like what I saw. I immediately started looking at all the things I didn’t like about myself in the dress – which is so frustrating for someone who has done so much work on their body image and re-wiring their brain. It made me feel like such a hypocrite.
But in that moment I realised I had two choices.
I could go down the route of “if only I looked different, maybe it would fit how it’s supposed to”. I.e. how I’d seen the models on their website wear it. OR I could use this experience to put into practice what I really do believe: clothes should fit you, not the other way around.
If you love a dress and want to wear it then go for it!! As much as I loved this dress, I just didn’t feel comfortable in it and I know that it would have been playing on my mind whenever I wore it. Or I would have ended up never actually wearing it.
It was an experience that led me to leave the shop telling myself it’s not me. It’s the dress.
And that in itself feels like a win!
Remember that your body is never the problem and I have since found a dress which I feel GREAT in.