Fashion Heals
FASHION HEALS MANIFESTO:
I know what it's like to feel left out. I know what it's like to walk into a store with trepidation, with fear gnawing away at you – reminding you that no matter how much money you have, NOTHING will fit, NOTHING will feel right. I have been there – praying to the merciless Dressing Room God – begging for a zipper to pull up, a button to button.
I thought that was my fate. A fate of feeling enslaved to fashion, feeling used by fashion. My answer was to lose weight – in attempts to fit in. That did not work. There was a greater plan in store for me as I feel there is for YOU.
Through my almost decade of experience as a plus-size model, I have learned a different set of rules. A different set of ideology that can allow fashion to be a thing of empowerment NOT pain. My journey is one of healing through fashion, which is an unlikely juxtipose. But it's true.
What do I mean by Fashion Heals? Just this: the feeling of putting a heavy and gorgeous gold chain around your neck, the feeling of slipping into a dress that you know is going to fit, the glory of reading biography of a fashion hero who always inspires you and a sense of knowing that no matter what your size, that you belong. That is what I mean by Fashion Heals.
It can heal wounds that you thought would never heal. It can go back and replace the traumatic memories of those awkward teenage years but thrusting you into the future – a future that is not ready for a curvy and confident Fashionista!
So by literally walking down the street, head held high, rocking a BOLD outfit – you are showing the world that fashion is not your enemy, nor are you afraid of it. You are mastering it. Is it not mastering you.
My name, Elizabeth Taylor, invokes a lot of images when it comes to mind – but one that I always like to think of is ET in her prime (one of them) – mid 30's at a party – wearing a sequin encrusted caftan, HUGE emerald necklace, cigarette holder in one hand, champagne in the other – topped off with a MASSIVE headpiece of flowers – down to the flower bindi centered right between her eyes.
Now if that is not a Bold dresser, I don't know what is?! So let's all take a page from both ET's and push yourself every day to take a step towards removing FEAR from fashion, and coming to the truth that Fashion Heals.