Get DRESSED, Get NOTICED

You know when you have those mornings and you’re just not feeling fabulous. You ate too much the night before or maybe it was those couple of extra drinks that are creating the morning havoc. Whatever the cause, there’s not just slipping into any outfit this morning. You look through your wardrobe; with your hands up letting your fingers do the walking as they pass across the top of your coat hanger line up. After giving your wardrobe the once over and confessing that you have nothing to wear, you realise that what you are looking for has clear criteria; comfy, not clinging, and does not require you to hold your stomach in….because that is just not physically possible today!

So after much duress you have found the baggy outfit with stomach camouflage, and you go out to face the world. Your average feeling lasts all day and in fact you come home feeling twice as big and bloated as when you left home. Your daily focus has been how terrible you look and feel. So I’ve come to the conclusion that even when I’m feeling not quite one million dollars, I dress my best (or the best I can on those special days) because people do notice.

They notice all the time. Sometimes they notice too much. (Especially on the days you are feeling the not quite one million dollars). As a teacher and at that, a visual arts teacher, it can get even worse because I have a class of students looking at me. Students are great because they are honest. They don’t say ‘Gee Miss you’re looking rubbish today’ (but they’re really thinking, mmmm little bit light on in the effort stakes today). What they do communicate is when you’re looking great. ‘Miss I love the outfit today’ or ‘Loving the red lippy Miss’. So you can gauge by the comments to work out the days the dress wasn’t so crash hot.

What you wear has a huge influence on your wellbeing and that of others. When you look good, you feel good. When you dress well you have a much better chance of your day going well because you project a much happier person beaming from your clothes. I never thought people noticed that much about what I wore. Initially it was all about aesthetics and comments would often be passed throughout the day. The best story is this one; true story. This was the true gauge of how the outfits were going.

At one parent/teacher night I had four parents on that same night tell me that their daughters and sons come home and tell them about my outfits and the shoes I wear. They knew some of my outfits verbatim, from head to toe. I was flabbergasted. I truly had no idea that people were a) so observant, b) that interested, c) that my outfits were worth talking about and d) all of the above. Clearly they are. That same night; it was the night to top all nights; that is in terms of a parent/teacher night. (I must interlude at this moment and say I love parent teacher nights because I get to have a chat (and I love to have a chat) and I teach so many incredible students. It is wonderful to meet the parents of the students I interact with everyday and I think wow…I just want to know how you become a parent of an adolescent teenager and be able to advise, guide and direct them to become such beautiful, respectful people. These parents have got it right.) So getting back to what else happened on this night, I had one mother say, ‘Wow!…look at your amazing shoes…you wore the same ones last year!‘. I am still flawed that she actually remembered what shoes I had on 12 months prior. My reply was ‘Oh do I, I just chose the ones that haven’t been wore in a while’.  Mind you the shoes at the centre of the (OMG you wore the same thing twice) crime are fairly unmistakable Irregular Choice shoes. Red velvet with a high red tongue embellished with a pink satin ribbon criss-crossing up the tongue. The heal is a clear and pink resin floral mould and all in all the look like they are heading straight for the Mad Hatters Tea Party.

The motto is GET DRESSED, GET NOTICED.