The First Steps in Style..a primer
Posted: Thu Sep 01, 2016 7:52 am
A few words to give those of you interested in developing your own style a few practical ideas and exercises to train by.
But first, have you ever gone on a nice vacation to the hill country of Texas, or the lovely slopes of St. Anton, the splendid avenues of Paris? When you were in Texas you might have purchased a handsome ten gallon cowboy hat or boots. In St. Anton a set of gorgeous hand sewn Trachten mode might have tempted you. A chic beret in Paris? But when you got home and put these on to show your family and friends, did you experience a shyness, a feeling of self consciousness when you did? Almost all of us do. No shame in it. But that self consciousness and timidity that you felt is our enemy. It is the one thing we need to learn to combat and vanquish.
The first thing I would like you to do is to dress yourself in your favorite way and stand in front of the mirror a few minutes. What do you feel? Do you feel confident? Is there a radiant, cocky smile on your face? Do you feel buoyant and ready to tackle the world? Well you surely feel something positive if it is your favorite wear. Now I want you to remember this feeling. I want your to remember how it physically makes you feel. Physically is very important. What do you feel in your body? What does this dress make you want to do? Practice this for a few days with the same dress. Are new things happening? Note them if they occur to your spontaneously. Let the feelings come to you, don’t chase them.
Lets try something new, another item of dress. If you need to wear a suit for your work, lets start with a suit, shirt, tie and shoes. Pick one that makes you feel the same way as the other clothes you practiced wearing previously in the first exercises. Do you find something that makes you physically feel the same thing when you are wearing something you have to wear instead of something you want to wear? Keep changing your clothes until you start to feel that good feeling physically. Remember the feeling, practice feeling it.
Now if we have one suit that works well to the degree that the physical feelings and impulses are there, we can proceed to the next step. By the way, most of you have something like this in your closets now to work with in these excercises, if not you will have to buy, beg or steal something. More on that later.
When you leave the mirror in your room or home and see your family in the house, do you still have the same physical feeling as when you are alone? You may or may not. But note the differences keeping squarely on the mainline feeling of your favorite dress. If you have practiced you should feel exactly the same buoyancy and zip but other things might occur to you. Maybe your sister is teasing you because she thinks you look great and if she does so will other ladies. Keep the feeling with you and take a step into the real world filling your sails with it. Is that a quick lithe step you notice? Are you dancing along the pavement? Every day something new will “occur to you.” Listen to that inner voice. Enjoy it.
Now once you can do the above with your favorite things and you have practiced for six weeks or so every day. Lets try something more complicated. Let's start from scratch in front of the mirror and make a new combination. Put the things on until you physically feel the things you did with your trusted favorites. You will feel things. Your inner voice will counsel you.
You may have to put on a variety of things. But when you find the same feeling, go with it. Try another combination always working towards the physical feeling and responses you have trained with previously. Don’t be surprised if they change over time. They will change. But always from the baseline of You that you are learning to recognize physically not intellectually. Don’t try to reason with it. Learn to feel it. You are learning to use your instincts. They come from deep within you and you are learning to surface them. Your eye is developing. This is the lifetime of enjoyment that awaits you as you explore the art of dress. You are the creator, the designer, the master builder, the magician of your own style.
As your interest develops, you will see pictures, read books, you will notice things. Good, keep your brain at bay. Just feel what these images do to you physically. Take them inside you. Listen to the voice. Leave the images where they are, never try to copy them. Let elements of them resurface by themselves if they stick with you physically. They will resurface by themselves, if you allow them to. Allow is a key word we will come back to often.
You will very surely physically feel the same self consciousness as with the ten gallon hat when you see some things. Good, that is you saying “No!” You are learning to recognize what we call affectation. When men have no training and live parasitically from others, they are affected. They have no you. They waste entire precious lifetimes trying to be something they are not.That path leads to unhappiness and the death of the soul. Flee from it.
Wait until and if any image creates the positive physical feelings you have trained yourself to feel. Now this seems like a lot of work, but it is fun since your discovering. Remember your earliest memories, what were they, what do they make you feel physically? Was it a walk in the park with your mother? Go there. Hear things, let it affect you physically. You are training your eye. What were the colors, the sounds. How did they make you feel? All of this kind of work is good. Always let yourself be surprised by this exploration and banish any a priori. You are a butterfly and not a gloomy bird of prey. Like a bee take from each flower within you as it presents itself to you.
Challenge yourself with new combinations of dress always waiting for the physical feeling, the YOU in them. Be relaxed and patient each time. Let it happen to you. Never try to force it to happen with your brain, the terrible tiger of Will lurking in the bright of the night. Follow your physical impulses with every change. Trust them. They are you.
It is quite possible you never knew you. Most men never know themselves. You do. Embrace you. It is the guide that will never fail….You!
More to follow….
PS I insist on stating that none of the techniques described above are original. They are techniques used by artists, creative and performing, from time immemorial and can be found in the writings of masters. Today they are taught to actors, poets, novelists, sculptors, musicians, painters in master classes all over the world to incite spontaneous, organic creation. I have merely adapted these techniques to the “art” of dressing. And that is exactly what I consider dressing to be when it is done at the highest level, an artistic form of self expression.
But first, have you ever gone on a nice vacation to the hill country of Texas, or the lovely slopes of St. Anton, the splendid avenues of Paris? When you were in Texas you might have purchased a handsome ten gallon cowboy hat or boots. In St. Anton a set of gorgeous hand sewn Trachten mode might have tempted you. A chic beret in Paris? But when you got home and put these on to show your family and friends, did you experience a shyness, a feeling of self consciousness when you did? Almost all of us do. No shame in it. But that self consciousness and timidity that you felt is our enemy. It is the one thing we need to learn to combat and vanquish.
The first thing I would like you to do is to dress yourself in your favorite way and stand in front of the mirror a few minutes. What do you feel? Do you feel confident? Is there a radiant, cocky smile on your face? Do you feel buoyant and ready to tackle the world? Well you surely feel something positive if it is your favorite wear. Now I want you to remember this feeling. I want your to remember how it physically makes you feel. Physically is very important. What do you feel in your body? What does this dress make you want to do? Practice this for a few days with the same dress. Are new things happening? Note them if they occur to your spontaneously. Let the feelings come to you, don’t chase them.
Lets try something new, another item of dress. If you need to wear a suit for your work, lets start with a suit, shirt, tie and shoes. Pick one that makes you feel the same way as the other clothes you practiced wearing previously in the first exercises. Do you find something that makes you physically feel the same thing when you are wearing something you have to wear instead of something you want to wear? Keep changing your clothes until you start to feel that good feeling physically. Remember the feeling, practice feeling it.
Now if we have one suit that works well to the degree that the physical feelings and impulses are there, we can proceed to the next step. By the way, most of you have something like this in your closets now to work with in these excercises, if not you will have to buy, beg or steal something. More on that later.
When you leave the mirror in your room or home and see your family in the house, do you still have the same physical feeling as when you are alone? You may or may not. But note the differences keeping squarely on the mainline feeling of your favorite dress. If you have practiced you should feel exactly the same buoyancy and zip but other things might occur to you. Maybe your sister is teasing you because she thinks you look great and if she does so will other ladies. Keep the feeling with you and take a step into the real world filling your sails with it. Is that a quick lithe step you notice? Are you dancing along the pavement? Every day something new will “occur to you.” Listen to that inner voice. Enjoy it.
Now once you can do the above with your favorite things and you have practiced for six weeks or so every day. Lets try something more complicated. Let's start from scratch in front of the mirror and make a new combination. Put the things on until you physically feel the things you did with your trusted favorites. You will feel things. Your inner voice will counsel you.
You may have to put on a variety of things. But when you find the same feeling, go with it. Try another combination always working towards the physical feeling and responses you have trained with previously. Don’t be surprised if they change over time. They will change. But always from the baseline of You that you are learning to recognize physically not intellectually. Don’t try to reason with it. Learn to feel it. You are learning to use your instincts. They come from deep within you and you are learning to surface them. Your eye is developing. This is the lifetime of enjoyment that awaits you as you explore the art of dress. You are the creator, the designer, the master builder, the magician of your own style.
As your interest develops, you will see pictures, read books, you will notice things. Good, keep your brain at bay. Just feel what these images do to you physically. Take them inside you. Listen to the voice. Leave the images where they are, never try to copy them. Let elements of them resurface by themselves if they stick with you physically. They will resurface by themselves, if you allow them to. Allow is a key word we will come back to often.
You will very surely physically feel the same self consciousness as with the ten gallon hat when you see some things. Good, that is you saying “No!” You are learning to recognize what we call affectation. When men have no training and live parasitically from others, they are affected. They have no you. They waste entire precious lifetimes trying to be something they are not.That path leads to unhappiness and the death of the soul. Flee from it.
Wait until and if any image creates the positive physical feelings you have trained yourself to feel. Now this seems like a lot of work, but it is fun since your discovering. Remember your earliest memories, what were they, what do they make you feel physically? Was it a walk in the park with your mother? Go there. Hear things, let it affect you physically. You are training your eye. What were the colors, the sounds. How did they make you feel? All of this kind of work is good. Always let yourself be surprised by this exploration and banish any a priori. You are a butterfly and not a gloomy bird of prey. Like a bee take from each flower within you as it presents itself to you.
Challenge yourself with new combinations of dress always waiting for the physical feeling, the YOU in them. Be relaxed and patient each time. Let it happen to you. Never try to force it to happen with your brain, the terrible tiger of Will lurking in the bright of the night. Follow your physical impulses with every change. Trust them. They are you.
It is quite possible you never knew you. Most men never know themselves. You do. Embrace you. It is the guide that will never fail….You!
More to follow….
PS I insist on stating that none of the techniques described above are original. They are techniques used by artists, creative and performing, from time immemorial and can be found in the writings of masters. Today they are taught to actors, poets, novelists, sculptors, musicians, painters in master classes all over the world to incite spontaneous, organic creation. I have merely adapted these techniques to the “art” of dressing. And that is exactly what I consider dressing to be when it is done at the highest level, an artistic form of self expression.