Fashion - a dirty word?

Personally I love fashion.  I've always been drawn to it.  It makes me feel good, especially when I'm feeling bad.  

When I first moved to New York in 1998, I was having a particularly bad day.  The company I had moved to America to work for was closing it's doors after I'd only been there for eight months, my room mates were pretty unpleasant people and my boyfriend dumped me.  I wanted to cry and curl up into a little ball and return to Scotland with my tail between my legs but I decided to put on my favorite dress, spend a little extra time on my hair and make-up and walked out my front door with my head held high.  

Clothes, with  help from some lip gloss, enabled me to take back control when so much else was spiraling out of control.  The effect might have been temporary, but it helped me put a spring back in my step. 

I'm still in New York, the ex-boyfriend was just one of life's necessary diversions, I'm happily married with two sensation children, and funnily enough I've found personal and professional contentedness in the fashion industry.  Do I owe it all to fashion?  Absolutely not, but my wardrobe has helped me get through times when I felt like happiness was out of my reach.

Unfortunately the 'who' and 'what' you're wearing so often becomes more important than they 'why'.  I don't know anyone who hasn't at some point felt unwelcome in a clothing store.  Fashion is not necessarily inviting, which is why it often has so many bad connotations. Who doesn't love that scene in Pretty Woman when she walks back into the Rodeo Drive salon and gives her "big mistake" speech. If that ever happens about Bump we're doing our job wrong - very wrong.  But fashion isn't a bad thing, it can be an expression of who you are, what you are feeling and it can make you feel good.

We all have those items in our wardrobes that make us feel great when we put them on.  It might be a perfectly worn in pair of jeans, a dress that simply never goes out of style, a classic white shirt that fits just right, an almost thread bare t-shirt that hangs just beautifully or a jacket that was worn by your grandmother AND mother.  It doesn't matter where you got it but rather than what you get out of it. 

So pregnant or not forget the fashion hierarchy snobs, never spend money in a clothing store that doesn't make you feel welcome and enjoy the clothes that make you feel good.