BBC has a tv series called “A Week of Dressing Dangerously”.
“Is the real you hiding beneath dreary clothes? In A Week of Dressing Dangerously, U.K. fashion journalist, Angela Buttolph, commandeers women’s closets for one week, challenging them to play dress-up in order to develop an aspect they feel is lacking in their personalities.
A housewife may be asked to dress like a punk rocker on one day and a glam movie star the next. Or, Angela might assign a 40-year-old divorcee to dress like an Amazonian cave woman for the day in order to learn how to stop caring so much about what people think.
In the end, the women are surprised to find how they behave when their regular clothes are off and people start taking notice. They also learn to have lots of fun with their new personas, and the confidence they inspire. A Week of Dressing Dangerously is a makeover show from the outside-in. “
It taught me that we will act up to the outfit. If we wear grey sacky things, we WILL act as if we WERE grey mice. If we wear colorful, sassy outfits, we WILL bring up the colorful and sassy in our nature. I always thought that it’s the woman who makes the outfit, but that is not the case…
BBC also has “What Not to Wear”, which has taught me that ANYBODY can look nice. I don’t need to loose 50 pounds and get plastic surgery and expensive hairdo/makeup, all it takes is to get clothes that become us, not try to hide behind the clothes.
(BBC also has “How To Look Good Naked” with the same message – but where they go even deeper… EVERYONE has beauty naked… one just has to accept this.)
Third thing to add into this, my friend was at Anthony Robbins lecture, and they were experimenting with voice, postures and expressions… She said that “act as if” really works. My therapist has been trying to teach me that because we react physically into fear, we can “pretend” the physical “peace” behavior and stop being afraid… When I’m feeling anxious, I’m to relax, breathe deep, straighten up and smile.
So when I’m feeling grey and dull, I’m to pretend I’m cheerful, happy, up, exited… and surprisingly, you start feeling exited, happy, energetic, eager to get on with things…
It really is amazing how things work. Here we have been taught that outside doesn’t matter, when in reality it does matter and it matters a lot!
I have been wearing “comfortable”, non-confrontational clothes and have become a “couch-potato”. I’m not non-confrontational person! I’m highly excentric and confident person with strong opinions and I’m not afraid to speak up… nevertheless, during these 20 years of wearing beige sacks, it’s very difficult to see… it’s almost impossible even FOR MYSELF!
So I am going to start changing my wardrobe and start wearing bohemian, colorful, romantic, folk-lore, Belle Epoque (not Victorian) rainbow-goth clothes, which are more “me”…
Now, I love the gothic style, with corsets, baroque sleeves, hourglass figures, wide skirts, high heels, layers, buckles, leather, velvet and kick-ass boots with something dainty and feminine, like tutu… I love the hair – long, spiky, redlocks… I love the makeup with dark eyes and red mouth… I think the idea of showing some cleavage and legs is very nice 
I know very well that the idea is an oxymoron, as goth IS black.
I like this one Lacy underpants and two layers of net stockings with those boots… If it was black, it would be Goth.
[...] need to get my sewing machine fixed and start sewing. I want to get myself a whole new wardrobe in my own ethnic- shabby-romantic-bohemian style. I want to get a corset and wear it in public, and I want to start wearing real clothes in daytime [...]