The Silk to Skin Route

Being confident is hard. It is not easy to believe in yourself when there are people ready to tear you down and expectations are running high. While there are a lot of ways to instill confidence in yourself, on of the most instantaneous way to boost confidence is to dress right! There is nothing more attractive than knowing how your body is a temple of confidence and you radiating the same energy outside. Fashion is the utmost form of art, almost a necessity. We need clothes but we want a serve, to feel like we are the protagonist of our movie. Fashion and dressing in daily human life is a recent revelation and now when people are realising the benefits of dressing nicely, new doors are opening.

I personally am someone who has inspired a lot of confidence in myself through the way I dress. I have always been fond of clothes but recently I realised the power they wield in expressing yourself. Also, when you are a “fashionable yet fat” person, it is always a fight to keep yourself in that head space. I am not proud of of my out of shape body and industry definitely despises it, but bit by bit and introspection by introspection I have learnt to accept it is my body and to make it better, I need to love it. You can only put your time and effort on things you love, so if you don’t love yourself, news flash! You will not work on your body.

Developing your sense of fashion is much more about money and clout. It is a journey in your own self. With each pattern and colour that you chose, you expose a part of your mind to the world. Each piece of cloth tells a story about you, the risks you took and the lessons you learnt and the path of change you are willing to take. Seems too deep? It is but the the fun part is a lot of it is subconscious, and inherent. You don’t need to actively think on it, things just fall into places like rains in monsoon. You just need to try something you love to wear and sometimes venture out to try something new.

While it makes sense how clothes instill confidence, you because in they end they are a cover-up. Once you feel comfortable in your clothes, the only logical step up is to realise how to be comfortable in your skin. We are actively made to realise that our own skin is not good enough, unless its a light-skinned latte couloured, perfectly unblemished, hairless and chiseled on muscles. This needs to be broken down, and by that I don’t mean to make an toxic positive environment about how all bodies are “ugh so beautiful” . We need to assess that a human body with all its imperfection is a visual account of someone’s journey and you may not find someone’s attractive, but you have no right to invalidate it. It is our duty to have an environment made where a person is just as comfortable in their skin as in clothes.

People with “non attractive” body types are shy about showing off their body, even me. I may the most confident guy there with my clothes on, but strip me down to something skimpy and, I’ll dread if anyone sees me. We must be that comfortable in our body that we can show it off to others in a non sexual or creepy way and be proud about it. We often slut-shame women for being bold and comfortable in their skin and make fun of men who are not acting like a shit piece of dom-rapist when being comfortable in their skin. Being uncomfortable in your skin limits you in your choices of clothes and makes you feel like a piece of meat.

A person is a lot more than his body and appearance. Appearance may be used as an tool for attraction or identification but, to define and judge someone, they are inconsequential. the naked body has been sexualised so much over the years that it feels almost randy to be in a boxer and vests. Especially fat people are heavily forced to not flaunt their skin because “it just doesn’t look good”. See, baby! It is not about being Chiseled, it is about being in your skin and still feel that you are just as worthy as any macho out there. We are not bold, brave or breaking barriers by being in our skin. We are just reclaiming the space people conveniently stole from us.

There is a learning for a lot of brands, especially small ones that tells how sex appeal may not be the way ahead to sell things. With the diversification in gender and orientation spectrum, things like confidence, representation and realistic body types sells. People don’t just want to see someone they can only imagine meeting in their fantasy but someone who will be very much present in their real life. Sex is not something only hot “porn worthy” models do. Sex appeal is not just body, its an attitude, a drive and most importantly how good chemistry is.

Let us make a world which accepts naked body for what they are, a nude canvas of a human life and appreciate it so. Some sexualise it while some chastise it, its their choice and we are no one to say otherwise. But I feel beofre that, we need to first make clothing a freedom and them move to freedom from clothing.

Thoughts on this?