Why You Should Never Dress Your Age
Why You Should Never Dress Your Age
As a petite woman who loves fashion, I spend a lot of time reading articles written by fashion and beauty writers. Sometimes these articles are written for petite women, sometimes for plus size women, and sometimes for women in general. But I started to notice a bit of a pattern in many of these articles, that I found to be quite toxic and sent a message to women that I disagree with quite passionately.
I noticed that the titles of these articles would read something like; ‘what to wear to make yourself look taller, ‘how to dress for your age’, or ‘how to dress yourself slimmer’. I found that I was reading so many articles about how to change a woman’s appearance or outlining made-up rules about how a woman should dress and look depending on her age, her height or her weight, but no one was writing about how to dress to make yourself happier, or how to find enjoyment in fashion.
“It’s time that we stop
using fashion as a way
of changing ourselves”
Fashion should have no rules. There should be no size limit on the mini skirt, no maximum age at which you can reveal your cleavage and no rules on what colours can be worn together.
And so what if a dress that you love makes you appear 5 pounds heavier than you are? And God forbid you should wear something that highlights your slightly round tummy.
Fashion should have 3 purposes; functionality, enjoyment and expression. And anything outside of those parameters is probably leading in a toxic direction.
It’s time that we stop using fashion as a way of changing ourselves, and start talking more about the joy and benefits that fashion can bring to our lives. How fashion can help us express ourselves, make us feel good and help us feel more comfortable in our own skin.
Fashion is for everyone, in whatever way you choose to enjoy it, and you should never feel that you can’t buy clothes from wherever you want, in whatever style you want, because you’re too old or too young or too large or too small.
And this goes for every aspect of our lives. How many times have you limited yourself because you or someone else thought that you weren’t good enough, skilled enough or young enough? Stopped yourself from going for your dream job, asking for a pay rise, taking that class, travelling abroad, living your dream life?
You can be, do and have anything you desire. You’re the boss, and the only person who can tell you how to live your life, is you. So be adventurous. Try every style, every colour, try out the latest trends and choose clothes that make you happy. And while you’re at it, go for that dream job!
But most of all, have fun, be happy, be unapologetically you, and never let someone tell you how to dress.