Why wear clothing? What’s the purpose? If it were just to protect our bodies from the elements, almost any clothing will do that. We could wrap ourselves in an old blanket and not be arrested for indecent exposure. No, we want more than protection from our clothing.
Some women want to use fashion to show their financial status. Others want to say, “I’m a devotee of this designer.” And perhaps their own desire to look truly beautiful is sublimated, pushed aside. Yet for many people, consciously expressing their individuality in harmonious and congruent way the direction of the tide. That’s what we’re looking at here.
The purpose of clothing should be to enhance you as the wearer.
The focus of fashion could and should be on making women look their best. So, while the designer’s purpose in fashion may be to make their statement to the world, your purpose should be to make your own statement. But not just any statement. We can see how that works with some of the random combinations we see on women walking down the street — messages that make you think that person got dressed in the dark this morning.
This happens all the time in our programs. Here’s a story from a workshop I taught.
“Ladies, what do you see first, Lauren — or the dress?” I held the bold black and white print dress up to its owner, an attractive thirty-four year-old woman with soft brown hair, delicate oval features, and light hazel eyes. “The dress!” the women in the workshop exclaimed in unison.
Lauren did not look too surprised. “I remember when I wore that dress, everybody kept talking about it. It was all about that dress, so I just thought they liked it. But, you know, Rebel, I never felt comfortable in it. In fact, I think I only wore it a couple times.” I smiled and nodded, “People probably did like it – and they couldn’t help but notice it. It’s a nice dress, just very dramatic. You have soft coloring and a naturally refined, understated look.” I reminded her.
As I held up another dress she had brought to class, I commented, “This muted purple jersey you have is much more harmonious and elegant on you.” Lauren agreed “I’ve always loved this dress, I feel much more like me in it.” So I took the purple jersey dress and held it up to another woman sitting near her, and asked the class what they thought. They groaned, it was dull and frumpy looking. Next, I held up the original black and white dress on the second woman and they gasped. “It’s stunning on her!” one woman exclaimed. I responded, “Yes, it’s harmony.”
What do women want? I know what women want.
Most women want to look like an optimal version of themselves —at this age, weight, and point in time. Don’t you?! Don’t you want to enhance your own features and discover your own beauty?! Once you see the difference and realize this is possible, it rocks their reality. Once women see it and get it about looking harmonious, it changes their perspective on themselves and gives them a realistic vision for achieving their own beauty.
Healthy, well-adjusted women don’t want to look like clothes hangers or mannequins. They also don’t want to have people so distracted by their clothing that no one hears what they say or sees who they truly are.
Fashion models are paid a lot to parade down the runway showing the clothes. They realize and accept that it’s not about noticing how good the model looks. The purpose of the runway exercise is to show the clothes to the fashion press. Models don’t mind because that’s their job. With real women in real life, it’s another matter.
Women want to look good in their clothing — at least as good as they can look. This is not an unreasonable desire.
A news flash: “Fashion can be designed with the individual in mind.”
Is that true? Yes! Most designers just don’t know how to do it yet. In most cases they’ve studied clothing and its design, not people and their design. I studied people and their design.
Then I studied “What IS beauty to most people? What does it mean? Is it real and measurable or all “just a matter of opinion?” This book answers these questions with answers and a revolutionary system.
The Designing Your Self approach can help those designers who want to create clothing that is perfect for the wearer. I studied over 10,000 faces before I designed clothing. Later, when I designed clothing I was able to know — on the drawing board — who it would be right for, who would look beautiful in it.
Once the clothing is designed with the Harmony Patterns of women in mind, it will be easier than ever to find those harmonious looks and styles. In the meantime, by educating yourself and training your eye – you can put it together for yourself and avoid buying unconscious clothing.
I want to assist the conscious designers who want to create congruent clothing.
Naturally, they already know a lot of what they need to know. They know how bodies are put together so that the length of the sleeves will go with the length of the jacket. They know about fabrics that go with various styles. They have so much creative talent to direct into Harmony!
The clothing we see makes it clear that designers simply don’t know how faces, coloring, bone structure, and textures truly go together. Designers don’t yet know that we each have a Harmony Pattern, and that your Harmony Pattern can predict what will look best, objectively best, on you. Once they do, they’ll be able to use this information combined with principles of good design to create clothing that would consistently enhance women. I will gladly help designers create harmonious clothing for the Harmonies. Then we all win.
