FASHION

What Is Your

Fashion Image?

Do You Have Image Wounds?

by Rachelle Shropshire

Remember the last time you accidently caught a glimpse of yourself in a mirror.  The person you saw probably seemed unfamiliar to you.  Therefore, on this rare occasion you saw yourself as others see you.

Perhaps, you noticed that your posture wasn’t quite upright as you thought it was.  Perhaps, you looked a little slimmer or heavier than you thought, or maybe you realized its time to change your hairstyle.  Whatever you were seeing and experiencing was a more accurate view of yourself.  Your mental image of yourself was challenged by a bit of reality.

Your body image is different from your image.  Your image is the totality of how you present yourself to the world.  It is the presentation of both your inner self and your outer self.  Your body image however, is the picture you have formed in your mind of how you think your body looks.  It’s your internal self-portrait.  Your body image affects the very core of who you are.  It also has everything to do with how you choose your clothes, how you wear them, and how you feel about yourself in them.

Most often the way you think you look is not really how others perceive you, or how you really are.  Many of the things you feel about your body are probably inaccurate.  Has someone ever given you a compliment about a certain aspect of your body and you were shocked to hear it.  You almost jumped to the mirror looking for confirmation.  But what you see instead is a mental picture of your body that is compromised by old emotions, image wounds and unfair comparisons with other bodies.  Your perception is off, not the perception of the person who complimented you.  He or she does not see the baggage that inhibits your self-view.

Most of us have been criticized about some aspect of our looks at some time.  Perhaps you experienced an unkind word or blatant stares at your body or your clothes.  However, whatever your degree of suffering, your body image remembers.  The effects of name calling, teasing and criticism during childhood and adolescence can linger into adulthood, which are called image wounds.

Image wounds can profoundly damage your relationship with your body, your clothes and your personal style.  No image wound is too small to notice.  Anytime we are criticized for the way we look, it hurts us.  Therefore, I would suggest you take stock of your body image and answer the following questions:  What Are Your Image Wounds…If Any!

In order to answer this question, I suggest you write down as  much detail as your memory allows.  What were the circumstances that were very hurtful?  Who was involved?  How did you feel?  Did it feel like a big deal at the time or did it become more hurtful as time passed?  When you feel you have described your image wounds to your satisfaction, then  take the time to answer the following questions.

Physical Wounds:

• Did other children or classmates give you a nickname that was related to you or your appearance?
  Were you teased for being too skinny, too fat, too dark, too light or something else?
• Did you have a brother or sister who was constantly admired for his or her good looks while you were not?
• Were you ever forbidden to wear a certain color or a specific style?
• Were your circumstances such that you wore hand-me-downs from siblings or wore other people’s clothes?  If so, how has this affected your current attitude and relationship toward clothes?  Do you buy expensive clothes or do you spend as little money as possible on clothes?
• Do you copy someone else’s taste because you feel insecure about your own?
• Do you feel the need to dress to impress people rather than for your own comfort?
• Are you afraid to take creative risks with your wardrobe?

Recognizing how image wounds have affected your personal style and then moving on is very empowering.  Rather than being led by your conditioning and by other people’s comments, entertain the thought to be more compassionate to your body.  Your own body image is a good place to start practicing.