So earlier this week, I was on the train platform and I saw this guy who sounded like, from the language he was speaking, was from India. He had a t-shirt were the collar was stretched out which was exposing his bare chest along with a sweatshirt and hoodie. He didn’t even have the hoodie pulled over his head. The reason I say that is because the temperature was in the 20s and with the windshield in the city the temperature can feel like below zero with that wind blowing at you.  I immediately felt compassion for this guy, he had to be freezing and yes he looked like it. But despite my concerning look at him, he didn’t seem concerned and deliberately walked in another direction.  This scenario reminded me of the fact that I have a lot of friends who move to Chicago from warmer climates and never realized the importance of knowing how to dress for the winter in Chicago. It was always second nature for me since I grew up here, but little did I know how valuable it was until I met friends who were having a hard time adjusting.  I am planning to write some posts in the coming month on how to dress for the Chicago winter for those of you who are new to this whole Chicago winter thing.

For today I wanted to talk about reason #2 of why your style may not be fully expressing who you really  are and that is dressing for the wrong season.  I have come across this reason in my own life and some of my clients’ lives and found it to be very interesting.  So when we build our look, we want it to be authentic to who we truly are. The more we can embody this concept the more successful we will be at knocking our look out of the ballpark.

Going back to our intro story, although I could tell the man on the platform was very familiar and happy with his clothing, he did not look authentic or even comfortable in his own skin.  When we keep dressing for a season that has already passed in our life, it is unauthentic to who we truly are because it is not reflective of what season of life we are currently experiencing.  Let me give you some examples. One example may be a woman who went from a single working professional to a married stay at home mother. Another may be a recent college graduate, who is now a young working professional.  I learned this lesson when I decided that I wanted to be a better person and pursue greater knowledge of my faith in God.  Much of my old clothing was reflective of the “Old Jamie”. I quickly realized that I needed to get rid of clothing that no longer expressed who I was and replenish my closet with clothing that was reflective of my current season of life.  Don’t get me wrong, I am not saying that you have to change your entire look because you are now a new ____ (fill in the blank). No that is not what I am saying at all.  But what I am suggesting is that you keep the individual characteristics of your look and now expand that look so that you can create a bigger vision for your look.  Life is all about growing. If you are not growing, then you have either become too comfortable with your look or too scared to expand upon your look. You have come too far, you have arrived to the next season of your life and that is growth. Your look should grow as you do in your own skin.  Embrace and celebrate the 2.0 version of you.

Love in abundance,

Jamie