Find Your Good Points: By Rachel Heffington

Casey is awesome at fashion—don’t we all agree? Yes, I think we do, and since that’s settled, we’ll continue on. When she asked me to post about fashion, I was a little bemused. Sure, I write about fashion on my own blog, but it’s not often I’ve been asked to speak on the topic for other people. But since Casey  asked, I responded, and there you have me.

One of the things I’ve had to learn by trial and error over the years is what my good points are, and how to use them. Neglecting to learn this is the number one fashion mistake most girls and women make when choosing what clothes to wear, what makeup to wear, and how to wear it.

God created all types of bodies, faces, and personalities so obviously trying to fit them all into one mold is stupid. This is the huge lie of 21^st century fashion: unless you look just like the model in the NYC magazine, you’re not beautiful. I’m sorry, but I can’t wear skinny-jeans. 

I can’t wear pencil skirts. These styles are not flattering or modest on me, because I have curves and I’m not a size 2 by any stretch of the fabric.

So what? Does that mean I can’t dress attractively? Does that mean my robust curves aren’t pretty in their own way? No. It just means that I don’t have the long slender legs that a pencil skirt flatters. And squeezing myself into a pencil skirt pretending I have those legs isn’t gonna do any of us a favor. Stand in front of the mirror after you’ve dressed in a favorite outfit and look at yourself, not counting the bad points. Tally up all your good points, and how your clothes affect them, and then work with what you have. In my case, I have a robust hour-glass-ish figure. It could be a bit more hour-glassy around the waist, but in general I make a plentiful curve out-in-out:

That’s a good point. It’s something I can accentuate in a modest way by wearing long-shirts and belting them, or by wearing shirts that have a similar effect:

Another of my better points is my eyes. I like to play around with different styles of makeup and find the ones that make them “pop.” 

The idea here is just to play around with what is flattering to your body, and stop worrying about what the magazines say you ought to be wearing. What on earth do they know, except that some pencil of a Russian model looks moderately attractive in neon yellow skinny-jeans?

The last step in dressing for your own body is your personality. Casey is an awesome, “out-there” person, and her dress affects that. She’s not content with simple earth-tones, or one shade only outfits. She’s always wearing gobs of colors, layers, and crazy jewelry. It’s her personality on her body. Which is really neat when you think about it. Take a sec and think about yourself. What can you wear that says “you?” I know that for me, I’m a romantic, classic person. I like class, elegance, and vintage-inspired fashion.

Peg your style (Pinterest is a fabulous place for this) and then get to work getting rid of the things that aren’t you, and replacing them with things that make you feel like yourself instead of Casey or Me or that Russian model from the magazine. Believe me, dressing like you makes all the difference.

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Rachel Heffington is the grand age of 20 and the oldest girl of 9 kids. She's a lover of books and people, and she conveys this love through her writing. Rachel also has a big interest in fashion and likes to challenge herself and others to do that in a way that honors the Lord. She enjoys to laugh, sing, draw and desires to grow closer to her Savior in all areas of her life.