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I’m in lockdown since Tuesday 10th March 2020 and Sunday 22nd March I posted the first video with the hashtag #ShopInYourWardrobe.
Those who have been following me for a while know that I opened Instagram late, that I understood why and how the stories worked with delay and that I don’t post unless I have something really interesting to say.
But when this all has started here in Milan, I wondered if I, as a personal image consultant, could (or should) contribute in some way, to the well-being of people locked at home, like me, looking for: concentration to work, strength to find a new job or inspiration not to let go.
I found this strength and motivation, in getting dressed every day as if I had to leave the house; I was overwhelmed by the overload of information that was beginning to come up about new things to learn, do or buy to “cope with quarantine“.
I was convinced, and still am, that I should start from within myself.
So I talked to my collaborators and we decided that sharing my personal experience, having fun experimenting with different and rigorously out-of-my-closet created outfits could have been the way.
I do not hide that I had moments when I thought that all this could have been immoral, especially when the only news on TV, newspapers and social networks reported escalations of contagions and deaths.
Then I remembered the words of my first client and the experience I had recently started in January with the association fraparentesi.org in favor of women and young adults suffering from cancer: beauty is therapeutic.
On the other side of the screen there were maybe sick people looking for relief or healthy ones looking for optimism and strength: if only one of those people had written me that he/she was benefiting from my videos, my contribution would have made sense and I would have continued.
I never thought that after a few weeks or a little more the theme of “how to dress at home” in the form of challenges, videos, articles would become a new trend all over the world! 😀 In my VIP stories you will find the most beautiful examples for me!
So I started every day, wearing only what I had in the closet: I have a limited wardrobe, I haven’t bought anything new in the last 2 months and I am committed to dressing differently every day, to better face commitments, online meetings, lectures, consultations.
Doing #shopinyourwardrobe, allowed me to:
– tidy up and clean
– make the most of everything I already have, realizing that it is enough
– experimenting combinations never made or “extravagant”
– keep my fitness state under control
But over time (today I will celebrate the 22nd video!) I realized that #ShopInYourWardrobe is actually a life metaphor: digging in my closet meant digging into my memories, my experiences, my relationships and my heart to find out how use tools already in my possession in order to find new solutions to unexpected and sudden situations (for example the Covid-19).
The first girl who started playing my game, wrote to me that this “exercise” helped her become more aware of herself, another wrote me that in these days she had a new business idea, another one that she feels better.
At a time when everything seemed to stand still, my game gave birth to new collaborations: like my lessons tonight and tomorrow at the Universidad Europea de Canarias, where I will be virtually a guest teacher, to talk to the students about the importance of the image online and offline or my intervention on Power V (face, neck and neckline) on Tuesday 28th April during the new cycle of virtual aperitifs by Leviosa Network.
But above all the live instagram interviews were born, talks with professionals who decided to play #ShopInYourWardrobe and then talk about how this daily practice, a metaphor for the inner search of solutions to unscheduled plans, can help to better face the quarantine days. We talked, and we will talk, about the importance of cultivating quality relationships, new ideas born in this period, organization and discipline to encourage productivity, recycling of ideas and resources, the therapeutic and psychological value of beauty and much more that maybe I still can’t imagine.
So far I hosted: Sambu Buffa-Digital Media Trainer, Annanisia Centra – Psychotherapist and Fashion Therapist, Paola and Ale from Organizzatessen, Nancy Connor from Smart Adaptive Clothing (watch the whole interview here).