Shopaholism is a modern disease of the 21^st century, we keep buying more and more not paying much attention to the fact whether a given item is the thing we truly need or not. I’ve also been affected by this disease, despite the fact I’ve tried to overcome my weakness and turn it into my personal success. Oh well, I’m not a total shopaholic yet, although I always try to look for bargains, things which in my subjective opinion are unique and match to the person I’ve become, as I wasn’t always myself from 2019. What am I talking about? Well, to be exact about fashion and clothes!

In the past I wasn’t really interested much in what I was wearing, I also didn’t know how to choose proper pieces of clothing. One cannot also forget that prices in the shops are often quite high and despite the fact that chain stores frequently bombard us with super bargains and sales, it happens that we can’t always find there the stuff we need at a particular time … it’s at least so in my case. A few years ago it was hard for me to find something right for myself at the markets, not to mention second-hand shops, whose phenomenon I simply couldn’t understand at that time. Everything changed around two years ago, when I regained a slightly better body and I lost some extra weight, which in turn made my self-confidence boost by at least 100%, although I still need to work on this particular aspect of my personality. It was the time when I discovered an amazing market in the nearby town, which can be visited only once a week. One can find there almost everything and in spite of the fact that the prices have also started increasing there, they are still competitive compared to other places and one can find there real treasures. It’s also difficult to see many people wearing those clothes in the streets, and even if we bump into someone wearing the same skirt, it won’t be on a massive scale. Last year I started buying loads of things in the second-hand shop, which was open in the vicinity of my house. It’s a kind of a shop which I can’t really leave without bags filled with unique clothes and accessories. Unfortunately, my wardrobes can’t get any bigger and it’s sometimes difficult to use all of my clothes regularly, that’s why I try to focus only on the items I truly need. Here are a few tips, which allowed me to find myself in this rather difficult world of fashion:

• Experiment.

We don’t always know what we really like until the time we finally decide to try something on. Don’t reject a given thing at once, if you think you may look good in it. Sometimes we perceive some clothes as inappropriate because of our height, our figure flaws or the kind of looks we have, and we’re not always able to assess our own potential well.

• Be unique.

When I visit second-hand shops I always try to pick these clothes which look different and the ones which are unique. My colleagues often ask me where I bought a given piece of clothing, such as a sweater or a coat. Whenever I proudly admit that I bought a given thing at the market or at the second-hand shop, girls always laugh I should have pretended that I had bought everything in the most expensive boutique in the town, whereas I’m always proud of the fact that I’ve bought something eye-catching for real peanuts.

• Try to hide the parts of your body which don’t look good and present the ones which are beautiful instead.

Sometimes I observe beautiful girls wearing miniskirts, the girls whose figure requires another type of a skirt and the whole effect is unattractive. Nobody has a perfect body, but the trick is to choose the clothes in a way they could hide the major flaws of our figure and could highlight the aspects which are beautiful in us. If your knees don’t look too good, but your calves are outstanding, try to choose a little bit longer dresses or skirts which could hide your knees and present your calves well instead. The same rule applies to other parts of your body.

• Buy timeless clothes.

I usually don’t follow fashion or I start to like some clothes during the late season, when they are no longer that fashionable. Sometimes it has also happened that I stayed ahead of the current trends, buying something that wasn’t commonly available at that particular time. Despite the fact that I purchase quite a lot of clothes, it’s still not so easy for me to say goodbye to some of them. If I’ve got high quality clothes, I can wear them during a few following seasons. That’s why, it’s good to have some pieces of clothing which are always in fashion, the ones which are timeless or neutral, I think that totally unique clothes can also be a part of this category.

• Listen to yourself, treat other people’s comments with a grain of salt.

The most important for you is to like yourself and to feel comfortable in your own skin. Such a positive perception of yourself will truly boost your self-esteem. It’s so in my case. Since I can remember I never accepted my appearance and I could notice only these aspects which I found wrong or unattractive. It often didn’t match the reality and what other people thought about me in fact. Nowadays, I feel quite comfortable in my own skin, I’m not perfect, but I do like myself. Such a positive attitude has improved my mood and has made my contacts with other people much easier. We should remember that if we don’t love ourselves, we won’t be able to love other people. When it comes to other people’s comments we should treat them with a grain of salt, as everyone has a different taste. We shouldn’t ignore our close ones’ ideas, but we should also keep in mind that they may be simply wrong. For example, earlier this year I bought pink shoes fastened with a pink ribbon, my friend told me it must have looked rather ridiculous. Did I get offended? Not really. But why? Because I was sure that I looked good in them, and it turned out that shoes with ribbons instead of shoelaces are a real hit this year. Not only feminine, but also delicate.

There’s no single way to deal with fashion. Some people will love our outfits, and some not. Don’t try to satisfy everyone, as in turn you won’t satisfy anyone, and on the contrary, you will lose your healthy self-esteem and the feeling of your own uniqueness. Be yourself, enjoy the fact that you’re healthy and you can still conquer the world. And if you are not liked by this or that person, ask yourself a questions how important it is for you. When you find the right answers to your own questions, you’ll become a happier person one day.

See you around!

Yours,

Passion Piece