Who Are You Getting Dressed For?

What celebrities understand about style that the rest of us forget.

From the Writer's Desk

I have a question…

Have you ever had an outfit that just made you feel like you had your life together?

You could have absolutely no idea what you were doing that day, but put on the right dress, the right shoes, maybe a good pair of earrings, and suddenly you’re moving a little differently. You answer the email. You make the call. You leave the house. Somehow, you feel a little more like the person you wanted to be that day…

Follow up question…

Have you ever noticed that you don't dress the same for every version of yourself?

There's the outfit you wear when you're trying to make a good first impression. The one you wear when you need a little extra confidence. The version of you that walks into an interview. The version that goes on holiday. The version that falls in love. The version that's healing.

They're all you.

But they all show up a little differently.

I've been thinking about that this week because, whether we realise it or not, getting dressed is one of the first decisions we make every morning. Before we've answered an email or spoken to anyone else, we've already told ourselves something about who we're going to be that day.

So what if we started thinking about those versions of ourselves a little more intentionally?

Enter the era

This is something celebrities have mastered.

Take Zendaya for example.

She’s in the middle of multiple major press tours and watching how she dresses for each one is basically watching someone build a character in real time.

Her Challengers looks, styled by Law Roach, leaned all the way into tennis. Tennis whites, tiny skirts, sporty references, even the little details that made it down to the shoes… feel connected to the film. It made sense because she wasn't just promoting a movie. She was creating a world around it.

And we've seen this before.

Now, promoting Spider-Man while also appearing for The Odyssey, she's doing it again. Every look feels incredibly well-thought out.Different projects. Different moods. Same woman.

It's become part of the performance.

The same was true for Rihanna during the ANTI era. The oversized silhouettes, the dark lip, the hair, the attitude. It wasn't just an album. It was a visual language. The imagery all became part of how we understood what these icons were doing at that particular moment.

That level of image-making is obviously part of being a celebrity, but I don't think the idea itself belongs to celebrities.

We all have eras.

Sometimes we just don't call them that.

What are you dressing for?

Maybe you're starting a new job.

Maybe you're trying to take your business more seriously.

Maybe you've decided you're finally going to start going out again after spending the last six months in the same three outfits.

Maybe you're travelling somewhere you've always wanted to go.

Maybe you're simply trying to feel more like yourself again.

There is something to be said for dressing in a way that reflects where you want to go, not only where you are.

We've all heard "fake it till you make it" enough times for it to sound almost ridiculous, but I wonder if there's actually something useful in it.

Maybe getting dressed for the person you're becoming isn't pretending at all.

Maybe it's practice.

Sometimes you have to act like the person you want to become before you fully believe you are her.

And sometimes that starts with getting dressed.

Put on the dress you've been saving.

Wear the big earrings on a Tuesday.

Buy the shoes that make you walk differently.

Get the blazer.

Wear the lipstick.

Whatever it is that makes you feel like you've entered a slightly more put-together version of yourself, try it.

Because (unfortunately) clothes can't change your life.

But they can change how you walk into it.

You don't have to stay in character

And this is where I think it gets interesting.

Having a signature look doesn't mean you have to dress the same way forever. We talked about that last week. You can have your favourite gold hoops and still wake up one day and decide you're a silver jewellery girl. You can live in linen all summer and suddenly want nothing but denim.

We're allowed to change.

We're allowed to experiment.

We're allowed to have completely different versions of ourselves sitting in the same wardrobe.

The woman building a business probably doesn't dress exactly like the one backpacking through Europe.

Someone training for their first marathon might suddenly live in trainers.

Someone learning to slow down might find themselves reaching for softer fabrics, easier silhouettes, fewer things.

None of those versions are less authentic.

They're all chapters of the same story.

That's actually the fun of personal style. You get to decide which version of yourself gets to come out today.

And if you're still figuring that out, that's okay too.

So maybe the question isn't whether you've found your signature.

Maybe it's this.

Who are you becoming?

And does the woman getting dressed every morning already know?