Style Vs Function is definitely an issue I face with my clients on a weekly basis. Women commonly dress to either feel physically comfortable OR for the wow-factor, with few outfits achieving both. It can often end up that their more uncomfortable wow factor outfits, rarely see the light of day, but the fact that they keep wasting money on unworn ‘wow’ garments tells me that their day to day wardrobes aren’t fulfilling them and that a bit of ‘wow’ needs to be injected in to the comfort of their practical wardrobe.
Where comfort rules, it’s obviously physically great for the body, but somehow the ego and its’ confidence levels don’t seem quite as at home. The garments that women class as comfortable are usually things like boyfriend jeans, leggings, tracksuits, combats, loose jumpers and t-shirts and flat boots and shoes. It is quite rare that I come across women who describe heels and dresses as ‘practical’ or ‘comfortable’ although it certainly isn’t unheard of.
In my experience when women wear such garments they refer to the clothes as ‘quick’, ‘easy’, ‘practical’ and ‘comfortable’ and to themselves in the clothes as ‘unfeminine’, ‘scruffy’ and even ‘unattractive’, which is obviously a concern when the majority of the wardrobe reflects this. Even for the office, the idea of comfort and casualisation has become the ‘norm’ in the wardrobes I see, with many women choosing ill-fitting black trousers, v-neck jumpers, ballet pumps or low heeled boots as their work-wardrobe staple, because they find it a cheap, easy and comfortable solution for work. However I am seeing the negative effects that casualisation and practical-led wardrobes are having on today’s women and can recognise that this can be the start of a journey to low self-esteem.
I once worked with a post-operative transsexual in her 50s whose comments in the changing room one day gave me a real ‘lightbulb’ moment and insight in to all of my other female clients and explains the effect of clothing in relation to self-esteem. My post-op transsexual client said ‘You know, I have spent my whole life wishing to look and feel like a woman – really feminine. I’ve always had the mind of a woman, and now I have the female form to match, but I feel that I still dress like a man wearing jeans, trousers, jumpers and flat shoes or boots. I don’t feel feminine at all, even though for the first time, I am a real woman. As I don’t feel feminine, I constantly compare myself to and envy other more ‘feminine’ women and feel worse about my appearance.’
‘Feminine’ is defined as having the qualities or appearance associated with a woman. The connotations of this word, can change according to the society we live in and its’ traditions, culture and trends, but where and how we have been raised, and what we define as feminine, will undoubtably shape the way we see ourselves in relation to what a woman ‘should’ look like.
However to add complications, in Western Society over the last few decades thanks to the women’s movement in the late 19th century, androgyny became a more common trend in fashion, as women were entering the workplace and various other cultural shifts meant that gradually, the resistance against trousers for women diminished. Thanks to renowned designers such as Yves Saint Laurent who designed the famous tuxedo suit for women in 1966, it’s become increasingly more commonplace and indeed fashionable, for women to wear trousers.
In addition to androgyny on the runways, the general cultural trend of casualisation in our society such as ‘Casual Fridays’ and dress codes at work, not to mention how jeans became a wardrobe staple throughout the 80s and 90s, which now mean they are acceptable attire in bars, restaurants and clubs, have often come to mean that women now sometimes feel ‘overdressed’ in a skirt or dress. However the problem lies in that women often say they feel more ‘feminine’, ‘attractive’, ‘thinner’ and ‘stylish’ when wearing a skirt or dress, however they very rarely do.
Obviously we all need practical and comfortable clothes; and trousers became the ‘norm’ because we needed and deserved the choice! So I’m not saying that walking the dog, nipping to the supermarket or going to the gym needs to be a fashion parade, but in my experience too much of the ‘Practical Factor’ can lead to a woman feeling unattractive and unnoticed, eventually lowering confidence levels. And in the case of my clients this certainly has seemed to be the case, as when asked to finish the sentence ‘I would like to look more...’; over 90% of clients responded with the words ‘feminine’, ‘stylish’, ‘thinner’ or ‘smarter’.
On the other end of the style scale, I find that women these days can be great at dressing to work the latest trends and look more glamorous, but can end up feeling uncomfortable or even in pain by the end of the day, because their outfits aren’t as practical or as functional as they like. These are the women who sometimes live by the motto ‘Beauty is Pain’ which later in life manifests as a variety of health problems such as back pain (due to oversized handbags), fungal infections (due to tight, un-breathable underwear), and migraines and headaches (due to over-tight waistbands and belts).
The short-term health effects of impractical fashion can even be quite shocking, as it is estimated that 60% of GPs have treated foot and ankle injuries as a result of wearing heels, including fractures and broken bones! Ouch! My eyes personally became opened to the dangers of wearing high heels too frequently when I worked for a company who supplied the orthopaedic and podiatric industries. There I learned that the long-term wearing of heels could induce unsightly and painful bunions, shortening of the Achilles tendon (making it painful to wear flats), Metatarsalgia (pain in the ball of the foot), arched toes and even ankle, knee and back strain that can lead to other symptoms such as migraines. Obviously I am not saying women who choose style over function go to such extremes as these, and am using worst case scenarios here to make a point; but function and practicality should be an important part of your style day to day. Of course you can wear the sky scraper heels on a night out and we all need a big handbag here and there but it’s important not to allow fashion to rule over our health.
So these are obviously extreme ends of the style spectrum with style and fashion at one end, and practicality and functionality at the other. Most women I find are somewhere in-between and fit in to both the Style Camp or Functionality Camp, depending on what day of the week it is. For example some women admit they make less of an effort to dress stylishly at work, whilst have no problem glamming up at the weekend. Other women say they find dressing smartly for work easy compared to find a ‘smart-casual’ outfit option for the weekend.
My answer to all of these challenges is that we need to start combining both style and function, and it is so much easier than a lot of women think. You still get comfort, practicality and function but you feel feminine and look really stylish. It really doesn’t need to be a choice and hopefully by the end of this article, you will realise this too.
