W IS FOR WEAR

BY: PRIYA GULATI

Think about your prom dress. Your favorite pair of jeans. A shirt that someone special got you for your birthday. The outfit you wore on a first date. Yes, they look great hanging in your closet or folded in a drawer, and they make you feel something when you see them, but there’s something really powerful about actually wearing those pieces of clothing. The clothes we wear affect our self-image and our confidence in huge ways. They affect us more emotionally than we often think. It’s not “just a tee-shirt” that you’re wearing on a given day. There’s feeling and power behind that tee-shirt, though it might seem plain to you.

Clothes have always been a big part of my life. I love to express myself through my outfits and experiment with new styles. I see my clothes as a form of creative expression, as they show the world my personality without me having to say a word. The most important thing to me about my clothes, though, is the way they make me feel. I think there’s something so special about putting on a piece of clothing that makes you feel good. And sometimes the clothes that make you feel the best are the most unassuming. There’s something about the feeling of putting on the sweatshirt I wore to the Michigan vs Ohio State game and remembering how proud I felt at that moment to be part of something so monumental in my school’s history—though it’s just a sweatshirt. But sometimes the clothes that make us feel the best are exactly what we’d expect them to be. Yes, I get nostalgic when I see my high school graduation dress hanging in my closet, but there’s just nothing like the feeling of putting it on, and feeling the same confidence I felt graduating in front of my family and friends and moving on to college. The clothes we wear hold power for us. Interwoven in their fabric are memories that define the best moments of our lives.

When I put on a piece of clothing in the morning and look in the mirror and feel confident, that radiates throughout the day. There’s a certain energy that a great outfit can hold, and that rubs off on us when we wear those clothes. People notice when we are showing the world our most confident self, and a lot of that confidence comes from clothes that make us feel beautiful and like the best version of ourselves. The next time you get dressed, think about the clothes that have made you feel the best. Dress yourself in pieces that make you feel the most confident in yourself, and feel the energy radiate throughout your day.