Discover how fashion can help you be your most authentic self, attract good fortune, and manifest what you desire. When your beautiful inner and outer realities match, you'll revel in the magic of each day.
Far from being superficial, fashion with intention can be a powerful, life-affirming practice. Build a wardrobe of items that enhances your unique attributes and personal magnetism. Select clothes, shoes, and accessories—including what you already own—that will make you look and feel your best. Put together empowering outfits for every occasion with simple guidance on everything from color, material, and pattern to gemstones, nail polish, and tattoos. Drawing on astrology, feng shui, psychology, and more, this fun, mystical fashion guide will help you express your true essence and activate your happiness and success.
Praise:"Tess Whitehurst illuminates the deeper, more magical side of fashion with humor, heart, and brilliance, giving the reader the tools and inspiration needed to reclaim their everyday glamour."—Melanie Marquis, author of The Witch's Bag of Tricks
"Sure to be welcomed by the open-minded fashion lover."—Publishers Weekly
Discover how fashion can help you be your most authentic self, attract good fortune, and manifest what you desire. When your beautiful inner and outer realities match, you'll revel in the magic of each day.
Far from being superficial, fashion with intention can be a powerful, life-affirming practice. Build a wardrobe of items that enhances your unique attributes and personal magnetism. Select clothes, shoes, and accessories—including what you already own—that will make you look and feel your best. Put together empowering outfits for every occasion with simple guidance on everything from color, material, and pattern to gemstones, nail polish, and tattoos. Drawing on astrology, feng shui, psychology, and more, this fun, mystical fashion guide will help you express your true essence and activate your happiness and success.
Praise:"Tess Whitehurst illuminates the deeper, more magical side of fashion with humor, heart, and brilliance, giving the reader the tools and inspiration needed to reclaim their everyday glamour."—Melanie Marquis, author of The Witch's Bag of Tricks
"Sure to be welcomed by the open-minded fashion lover."—Publishers Weekly
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Overview
Discover how fashion can help you be your most authentic self, attract good fortune, and manifest what you desire. When your beautiful inner and outer realities match, you'll revel in the magic of each day.
Far from being superficial, fashion with intention can be a powerful, life-affirming practice. Build a wardrobe of items that enhances your unique attributes and personal magnetism. Select clothes, shoes, and accessories—including what you already own—that will make you look and feel your best. Put together empowering outfits for every occasion with simple guidance on everything from color, material, and pattern to gemstones, nail polish, and tattoos. Drawing on astrology, feng shui, psychology, and more, this fun, mystical fashion guide will help you express your true essence and activate your happiness and success.
Praise:"Tess Whitehurst illuminates the deeper, more magical side of fashion with humor, heart, and brilliance, giving the reader the tools and inspiration needed to reclaim their everyday glamour."—Melanie Marquis, author of The Witch's Bag of Tricks
"Sure to be welcomed by the open-minded fashion lover."—Publishers Weekly
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9785957339328 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Ves |
| Publication date: | 04/07/2022 |
| Sold by: | Bookwire |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 256 |
| File size: | 2 MB |
| Age Range: | 16 Years |
| Language: | Russian |
About the Author
Read an Excerpt
MAGICAL FASHIONISTA
Dress for the Life You Want
By Tess Whitehurst
Llewellyn Publications
Copyright © 2013 Tess WhitehurstAll rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-7387-3834-5
CHAPTER 1
you are A FREQUENCY
For a long time I thought fashion was fluff. Even though I enjoyed shopping for and wearing things I felt great in, I also felt like I was indulging in something of a guilty pleasure. I wasn't fully aware of it at the time, but perhaps my inner dialogue went something like this: "With all these real challenges in the world, who has time for fashion?"
And looking back, this is strange, because my career choices and the topics of my books and articles were all centered around the idea that our outer and inner environments are linked—and that even something as seemingly mundane as cleaning your house or painting your bathroom can have very positive repercussions in every area of your life. So why did clothes seem like a totally functional thing at best—maybe a little bit fun every now and then, but mostly a hassle or an impulsive splurge, and certainly nothing to really spend any real energy or attention on?
The answer is multi-faceted. First, having judged fashion as superficial, I shoved the whole topic to the back of my consciousness and didn't even notice that I was doing it. Second—and more importantly from a self-growth perspective—having experienced a certain degree of what might be called neglect as a child, my attitude toward dressing, adorning, and caring for myself was something of a carryover from these early experiences. After all, until we consciously change the pattern, we're likely to treat ourselves the same way we were treated as children. And so I was not attuned with how joyful and treasured it would help me feel to reverently select and wear clothes that I loved. As you can imagine, for someone like me—who has made self-healing into a hobby—this was a victorious discovery and provided plenty of grist for the mill.
Perhaps the first inkling that my perspective on fashion could use some revisiting was when I saw the documentary Bill Cunningham New York. Momentarily glimpsing the world through the passionate eyes of veteran street fashion photographer Bill Cunningham helped me to realize that—while the whole fashion "thing" might appear superficial to anyone, say, camping out in the offices of Vogue magazine—it is actually a very personal art form. It's an interface between each of us and the rest of the world. It's a vehicle of self-expression and an aspect of lovingly observing and appreciating the people around us. And it's a way to celebrate the moment—to bring magic to the day. Considering that everything is connected, including everyone's mood and state of mind, these are certainly no small matters.
Once I began to see this way, I could reflect on my life and see the power of fashion at work: the times when I felt great about myself and had fun with my life, my wardrobe reflected that. The times when I felt ashamed or lacked confidence, my wardrobe reflected that, too. Was my mood a reflection of my wardrobe, or was my wardrobe a reflection of my mood? The answer, quite obviously, was both.
Every culture—from every time period, in every country on earth—has exhibited some sort of fashion-conscious behavior: it appears to be a characteristic of humans to take clothing and self-care choices beyond the realm of pure function. On the personal level, there is simply no denying that we feel better on a good hair or outfit day. And when we feel better, we make better choices, exude more confidence, and elicit a greater degree of respect from others. Really, why should we judge ourselves for this, and why should we—subtly or overtly—devalue this aspect of the human experience? A desire to express and enhance ourselves through our fashion choices is obviously human nature. We may as well berate ourselves for wanting to fall in love or walk barefoot in the grass.
Consider the Lilies
Even though my dad's not especially religious, he is literary, and Luke 12:27 has always been his favorite Bible verse: "Consider the lilies, how they grow: they toil not, they spin not; and yet I say unto you that Solomon in all his glory was not arrayed like one of these." I know because he often reminded us of the fact as he recited it to my brother and me when we were kids. At the time, I thought it meant "Who cares what you wear or what job you have? Flowers are prettier than kings." But now I interpret it with a bit more depth. Now when I "consider the lilies," I consider how each and every blossom is a precious and divinely perfect being, exactly as it is—just as I am, just as you are, and just as Solomon was. His kingly raiment didn't hold a candle to his intrinsic beauty and perfection: he was not arrayed like one of these—he was like one of these.
And when it comes to fashion, we must start with this knowing. We are already beautiful! We already possess an innate divinity and glory. We are already lilies. Once we're grounded in this awareness, when we choose the royal vestments with which to array ourselves, we'll remember to experience joy (rather than worry or stress) as we do so, and to honor the perfect beauty that we already possess. We don't want to obscure this beauty; we want to allow it to shine.
Besides, let's be real: as lovely as the lilies are, if we tried to follow their example and go naked, in most cases it wouldn't go over too well. Indeed, one can only imagine that it wouldn't have worked out too well for Solomon.
What It Means to Be a Magical Fashionista
Okay, now that we've debunked the myth of superficiality and really considered the lilies on a deep level, let's talk about what it means to be a magical fashionista.
If the universe is pure vibration—as many modern physicists and spiritual teachers have hypothesized that it is—you are both part of this vibration and a unique frequency unto yourself. According to metaphysical theory, the clearer and more appealing your transmission, the more positive attention and desirable conditions you will attract. And, like your radio station's loyal listener base, things that are in alignment with your vibration—i.e., conditions and people that are similar in essence to what you are broadcasting—will be irresistibly, magnetically drawn to you.
One of the most potent tools we have at our disposal to clarify and enhance our energetic frequency (and subsequently attract the things we want) is in our closet: our clothes and how we wear them. Few "inanimate" objects have more power over us (I use quotation marks here because nothing is truly inanimate when you consider that everything is alive with energy). To illustrate, consider that a single outfit can affect our moods and actions in ways that might reap such immediate blessings as getting the job, hooking a new love interest, or simply having a great day. And, since most of us wear something every single day, the power of a wardrobe—like flowing water softening the edges of a river rock—is relentless. Being a magical fashionista is about tapping into this power, fine-tuning our frequency, and turning up the volume on our personal radio station so that we can broadcast the messages we want to send, feel our best, and consistently attract the conditions we desire.
You have a divinely beautiful essence that is unlike any other. Like a diamond, a snowflake, or a cloud (or a lily! Or a king!), there has never been a being exactly like you, and there never will be. And while you are much too magical and mysterious to ever be nailed down or understood completely by anyone (including you), doing your very best to follow Shakespeare's advice to "know thyself" is a primary key when it comes to enhancing your personal vibration through the power of your wardrobe.
Once you begin to identify the beauty of who you are, how you feel, and how you naturally express your distinctive personal essence, you can adorn yourself with clothes and accessories that are specifically chosen to enhance your mojo and fuel your energetic momentum. That's why, throughout this book, we'll be exploring the unique inner and outer ways your essence expresses itself. Concurrently, we'll be looking at strategies—both practical and mystical—that will nourish and amplify that essence in the most attractive and beneficial of ways.
Your Unique Essence: Making First Contact
Grab a notebook or journal and, without thinking too much, reply to the following:
1. If I could be any animal, I would be a:
2. Three qualities I admire about this animal:
3. Three people I really admire (may include celebrities, family members, friends, fictional characters, or anyone else):
4. Three people I am (at least a little bit) jealous of:
5. Three dead celebrities I wish I could have hung out with:
6. Three qualities I would like to embody:
7. Three cities I would like to visit or move to:
8. Three qualities I wish people would use to describe me (even if I don't necessarily embody them now):
9. If I were a flower, I would be a:
10. Three qualities I admire about this flower:
Now take a moment to review what you've just written. Keeping in mind that your responses in some way reflect or indicate your inner essence, does your outer expression reflect this? For example, if you said that you want to visit India, do you ever listen to Indian music, watch Bollywood movies, or wear bangles? Or if you're jealous of Angelina Jolie, do you have at least one sleek black dress? (Often jealousy disappears when we claim the parts of our personality that the object of the jealousy represents.) If you wish you could have hung out with Jack Kerouac, do you sometimes have conversations about poetry, listen to Charlie Parker, or stay in a little cabin by yourself in the middle of nowhere? If you relate to lilacs, does your wardrobe, garden, or perfume reflect this?
When our inner and outer realities match, our goals become clearer, we manifest our desires more easily, life becomes amplified, and everything becomes a lot more fun. And since what we wear is literally sitting on the border between our inner and outer realities, our fashion choices are a really powerful way to get them in alignment.
The Power of Costumes
When I was fresh out of high school, instead of going to a normal college, I went to an acting school. And while I am no longer an aspiring movie star, I still value a lot of the wisdom I gleaned from my time there. Case in point: the power of costumes. I truly couldn't count the number of times I would be watching fellow students doing a scene over and over, and one day one of them would bring in a particular costume piece such as a hat or a scarf or a pair of shoes—and then suddenly the essence of the character would arrive in the room. The actor would no longer be plodding along through the lines but be alive with a magnetic and mesmerizing sort of confidence or authenticity or whatever it was the character called for. "Bravo," the teacher would say as the class cheered. "That hat really changed your whole attitude. You weren't acting anymore, you were being. We suddenly all believed you."
I know that in our day-to-day lives we are not acting, but we are being. And if we want to feel confident (or authentic or whatever), a particular scarf (or hat or pair of high heels) might be just the thing to help us get there. This is not a way of being phony or shallow: while the wardrobe addition might be "just a thing," our resulting feeling is more than that. Feelings powerfully underscore and influence our entire life experience, including our actions and how others see us and relate to us, and there is nothing phony about that.
So grab your journal again and jot down ten feelings you'd like to experience on a regular basis or qualities you'd like to possess. Then take a moment to think about "costume pieces" that might help you access these feelings or qualities. Cowboy boots? Luxurious pajamas? Bright red lipstick? Perhaps some of the items you're envisioning are already in your wardrobe, perhaps not. At this point, all I'm asking you to do is consider. We're still just getting warmed up.
Dress for the Life You Want
It is no mystery why one of the most recognizable and overused clichés in the English language is "dress for success." Certainly most of us would agree that we do not expect to meet the love of our life or get our "big break" when we are wearing sweats and look like we just rolled out of bed. In my work as a feng shui consultant, this is similar to the precept "create the space for what you want to experience"—create a romantic atmosphere if you want to experience romance, create a serene study space if you want to experience scholastic success, and so on. It's really simple, and yet it can be helpful to remind ourselves that if we want to draw a certain condition into our life, it naturally increases our chances if we are actually prepared for it to occur. Additionally, if we can make preparing for it a fun exercise in joyful expectation, then all the better. It's a way of putting ourselves smack into the middle of the feeling we want to experience, which (if you will recall) tunes us to the frequency of our desire.
To put this another way: when we truly feel from the bottom of our hearts that we are destined for a particular life condition, and when we behave as if we already are the person who is experiencing that destiny, it becomes exponentially more likely that it will manifest in the physical realm. Again and again, we hear of famously successful people who have put this precept into action: Dale Carnegie, Russell Simmons, Louise Hay, Jim Carrey, and Oprah Winfrey, to name just a few. And of course dressing the part is a vital component—not to mention a fun one!
Grab that journal again, and respond to these questions:
• What do I want to experience in my career?
• How would I like to creatively express myself?
• What do I want to experience in my love life?
• What type of recognition and success do I crave?
• What does my ideal financial situation look like?
Now consider: do your clothes help you feel as if these conditions are already in place in your life? If not, or if you could use a little fine-tuning in this area, keep these goals in mind as you read through the remainder of the book, and be sure to jot down any ideas or sudden bolts of inspiration you may have.
Please note: if your most burning desire is (let's say) to go to more cocktail parties, I am not suggesting that you should wear a cocktail dress on an afternoon outing to your local coffeehouse. Since situation-appropriate attire usually looks and feels the best, you might instead choose to dress in a casual-yet-polished, coffeehouse-appropriate way that also makes you feel like someone who is invited to a lot of cocktail parties.
But then again, maybe you'll find yourself in the mood to look sexy, so you'll throw on heels for a trip to the supermarket, like my cousin and bestie, musician Emily Whitehurst. She recalls:
One time I decided (on a whim) to dress up to go grocery shopping at Trader Joe's in the middle of the day. I wanted to put on heels and a cute dress—something I would wear to go out at night or to play a show. My usual is jeans and a T-shirt, and I felt like being sexier that day for some reason. It totally worked! People were definitely looking at me differently, and I imagined they must have been wondering what I was up to since I was wearing that outfit grocery shopping. It was a fun way to use my own image for my entertainment.
What Message Are You Sending?
There is also the matter of the messages we are sending out into the world via what we wear. While at first glance this might also seem shallow (after all, it's what's on the inside that counts, right?), it's actually not. Responding emotionally to the patterns that we see in the physical world is simply an aspect of human nature. We all do it. In fact, as I alluded to above, in every culture on earth and in all time periods, particular types of clothing have sent particular types of messages to other humans regarding things such as one's personality, marital status, or degree of affluence. So instead of judging this or fighting against it, why not have fun with it and use it to our advantage?
For example, it may sound hackneyed, but it's real: have you ever really considered how much joy something as simple as a smile can create? You smile warmly at someone, which brightens her day, so she turns around and smiles warmly at three other people, which brightens their days, and so on. Now consider how much more you feel like smiling when you feel beautiful. In your mind's eye, see yourself feeling beautiful, smiling, and radiating the message that life is good and all is well. Everywhere you go, peace and beauty follow in your footsteps, creating ripples of peace and beauty in the very fabric of existence via the perceptions and emotions of your fellow humans, who spread the feelings to other humans, who spread the feeling to other humans, and so on and so on.
(Continues...)
Excerpted from MAGICAL FASHIONISTA by Tess Whitehurst. Copyright © 2013 Tess Whitehurst. Excerpted by permission of Llewellyn Publications.
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