Beauty and fashion are very fun topics to engage with, experiment with on a personal level, talk about, and celebrate. There are so many ways to do so, from following the latest collections from designer brands, to seeing how fashion shows are designed, to learning about the history and heritage of style.
Yet it’s also true that engaging with fashion and beauty can feel great. It’s nice to look our best, to express ourselves through that art, and can even help some people reclaim their sense of self as a result. As long as you don’t pursue this out of a sense of obligation, you may find yourself very much drawn to the wellbeing aspect of style, because it helps you proudly say “this is me,” no matter how deep you go.
We’d also like to point out that often, fitness and fashion can work together, the former making the latter easier and more comforting to deal with. In this post, we’ll explore several reasons why that is:
Your Posture Improves
You carry yourself much more confidently when you’re physically active, but that involves more than just just looking like you work out. Good posture changes how clothes hang on your body and can fit more easily when you have good posture.
That’s because when your core is stronger and your back muscles hold you upright without straining, everything from a basic t-shirt to a formal dress just sits differently on your frame. Some fabrics or styles that used to bunch up in weird places or pull in directions they shouldn’t suddenly start behaving themselves, and you’re not constantly adjusting things or feeling self-conscious about how something fits. It’s a nice change.
Your Figure Becomes More Proportional
Note that this has nothing to do with your weight, size or general shape, nor conforming to some ideal body type or trying to look like someone else. You can look great at any size. But what does happen with exercise is that your body starts looking more proportional as opposed to lopsided in certain ways.
So for example if you have an even workout, or if you swim, muscle groups are being trained to grow together and become more proportional. For example, maybe your shoulders balance out your hips better, or your waist becomes more defined relative to everything else, or you just generally feel more solid and put-together. Everyone has their own shape and dimensions, so it’s not that you need to balance everything out perfectly, but if you want to have wider shoulders, say, you can, and it can hepl you fill out a certain type of garment you like to wear.
You Gain Confidence To Experiment
Physical fitness does something interesting to your relationship with risk-taking, and that definitely spills over into how willing you are to try new things with your appearance.
When you feel strong and capable in your body, bold colors or unusual silhouettes or accessories you’ve never worn before stops feeling like such a big deal, because you’re already getting your own validation not just through fashion, but how good you feel in your body. It also gives you more creative energy to play and have fun with fashion, which is what it should be about anyway.
You Feel Good No Matter What You Wear, Which Opens More Doors
It’s easy to dress to hide certain insecurities or to cover and highlight parts of ourselves. That will likely never change. But the truth is that when you feel physically strong and healthy, you don’t mind being more expressive, even if that means having an insecurity on show or less veiled than it would have been, which completely changes how you approach getting dressed.
This means you can have fun enjoying garments for your own sake, not the sake of how people will perceive or judge you. That can be liberating for so many people who have never really experienced that mindset.
This shift is liberating in ways that are hard to overstate because it means you can consider pretty much any style or trend or color without automatically ruling it out based on your insecurities. Maybe you’ve always avoided fitted clothes because you were self-conscious about your midsection, but when your core is strong and you feel good about how you move through the world, those fitted clothes become an option rather than a source of anxiety.
This has a number of third-order effects, for instance you’ll stop avoiding certain social situations because you’re worried about how you’ll look or feel in the clothes that are appropriate for those occasions. Perhaps you were dreading what to wear for a friend’s wedding this summer, but after two months of working out, you feel ready for it.
Your Inner Critic Shrinks
The good thing about working out, especially after a hard gym session, is that it often silences your inner critic because you give yourself credit for the effort you’re putting in. It’s a healthier way to look at yourself. You might not dismiss your taste just because a color pairing wasn’t perfect, for instance. You cut yourself a little slack, which is important when you’re aiming to have fun.
The fitting room experience gets way less brutal too, because instead of standing there under those horrible lights thinking “this makes my arms look huge” or “I can’t wear this because of my stomach,” you’re actually looking at whether you like the color or if the fabric feels nice or if it’s something you’d enjoy wearing to dinner with friends. You might not even notice that change until you really, really do.
You also stop buying things just because they’re safe, and are happy to try other brands or new styles because they’re in trends. Again, fashion starts coming back to a fun experience as opposed to a test you have to pass. There’s almost nothing more heartfelt than that.
With this advice, we hope you can make fashion easier and more comfortable to deal with, and feel great as a result.
