Episode 112: Fashion + Body Image (Solo Episode)
Episode 112: Fashion + Body Image (Solo Episode)
In this episode we sit down with....your host, Katelyn Parsons.
Katelyn Parsons is a Certified Intuitive Eating + Body Image Coach, Speaker, and host of the weekly podcast, Body Truth.
After years of struggling with bulimia and disordered eating, she not only found recovery but recognized a crucial missing link in the wellness industry- empowerment + individual sustainability around health. This inspired her entrepreneurial journey and life mission to shift the conversation toward healing our relationship with food and body.
For the past 4 years, Katelyn has helped countless creative leaders transform their relationship with food and body image through an integrative, evidence-based process so that they can move through each day feeling more present, empowered, and comfortable in their skin, without worrying about what to eat.
You’ll also find Katelyn snuggled up with her cat or strolling the beach in sunny San Diego with her husband and their pup Winnie.
In this conversation I talk about:
My personal journey with fashion- from playing dress up as a kid to majoring in fashion in college
How fashion ties into our body image
Using fashion as a way to reconnect with self, feel safe, and express myself myself
Questions to explore your current relationship with fashion
Connect with me...
IG: @katelyn.parsons
Website: katelynparsons.com
Resources I mention in this episode…
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TRANSCRIPTION Episode 112: Fashion + Body Image (Solo Episode)
Katelyn:
Hi, welcome back to the show. I am your host, Katelyn Parsons, it's just you and me today. I'm actually in my kitchen recording this, I'm standing up exactly where I stand anytime I throw a little gathering or a dinner party. And I'm just imagining that you are right here with me. And we are having a cup of tea or a glass of wine just talking.
I was on a walk earlier today, with a great friend of mine, Tyler Rolling, if you don't follow her on Instagram, and you are looking for inspiration around embodiment, or expression, or dance or anything related to body image and intuitive eating, I highly recommend following her she is also a former guest of the show.
Anyways, you may not know this, but Tyler and I often do soul walks and we will meet up and go for a walk in the neighborhood together, she lives not too far from me. And we just walk and look at beautiful things around us and have a very heart-to-heart conversation. And I always walk away feeling so inspired. And the inspiration that came through on our walk today was really about fashion, and how that ties into our body image.
And I want to share this with you today. Because this has been really present for me for a long time, personally, and has really shown up professionally in the past couple of years in doing deeper body image work with clients and really going beyond traditional body image work with clients too.
And one of the things that kind of separates me from other coaches out there as I really don't define body image as just the physical skin that we're in, I really, I really look at body image more holistically, in terms of who you are being how you feel in the skin that you are in, physically, mentally, emotionally, inside and out.
It's very expansive, it's multi-dimensional in the sense that it really ties into different elements of our life, too. And so one of those pieces in the self-expression of body image work is our relationship with what we wear every day, and how we define ourselves by what we wear. And how we feel about ourselves around what we wear.
Now, this has always been really important to me. I remember not too long ago, I was having a conversation with somebody and they asked me, What is a snapshot of a moment in your life that really just defines you as a person, they asked me this, and I didn't even give it too much thought I just really leaned into what was present for me at that moment intuitively, and the first thing that came up was me in a dress-up box when I was a kid. And I think that's very true. And that's been my clothing. And that expression has been so ingrained in me and such a part of my life since I was a kid, and I think that it's so relevant for so many of us today too.
And so because this is something that just is so naturally occurring for me, I want to just offer how you might be able to create more of this in your life as well too.
If this resonates that you might hear this conversation today and just feel like oh my god, I don't even get what you're saying I hate clothes. I don't have any interest in expressing myself through clothing whatsoever. Totally fine. I want to invite you to just hang out with us though and see what you might walk away with.
So when I was a kid, I did grow up in a dress box basically, I remember my mom had this box that she kept in her closet. And she would basically just stock it with things that she found at thrift stores and garage sales and costumes that she would make for us or buy for us just random things and then I eventually started to contribute to that box just through things that I felt like I wanted to and I have no idea where I got these. These pieces from Everything from hats to long, long dresses and sweet sequined tops and shoes and glasses and hoop skirts.
Seriously, I had this very strong memory of my mom coming home with this big hoop skirt that she probably found from a thrift store from somebody's wedding, like a wedding dress hoop skirt. And I loved this thing. I felt like I was Joe from Little Women every single time I put it on. And I just remember putting that on with a long dress and running around the house, playing Little Women.
And why I'm sharing this is because at that moment, I was transported based on what I was wearing. I was a different person, I felt different in my body at that moment.
And that was so impressionable for me, because I was so young, and that carried into my life and different parts of my life very organically, too. But it's just interesting to kind of understand what the history of that is and where that started for me.
And then, of course, you may or may not know this, but getting into acting when I was a kid and went to an art school in high school. And just being in that world of theater, film, and costumes and all of those things was also another opportunity for me to express myself and just try on different identities based on the clothes that I was wearing.
And then when I got into college, I majored in fashion, also a way to kind of just connect the dots. And a big part of that was also because of how fashion and clothing had made me feel on that connection and that energetic connection and that embodiment piece that I couldn't really, I couldn't really define at the time, but it just felt really good.
And so, beyond that after college, and getting into my career, I started out in fashion pivoted. I went through this period where I did not it was kind of like breaking up with fashion, like, I did not want to associate myself with what I was wearing.
I felt uncomfortable so many times in my life, based on what I was wearing from a body image perspective. And, and really just paused that relationship with clothing and fashion and self-expression in that sense. And honestly, it really shifted during the pandemic.
And actually, as I'm saying this to you, this is kind of the first time that I'm thinking about when this shifted, but it really was, it really was the pandemic when I really started to kind of reassess my relationship with fashion, which is wild because, of course, we were locked in our homes and nobody was nobody needed to get dressed.
And for me, and that moment of going into lockdown, and isolation and all of those things.
I pulled that tool from my toolkit, intuitively, and I really used fashion as a way to reconnect with myself and feel safe with myself and express myself. And honestly, it was a big saving grace for me in a lot of ways, because I still got dressed every day.
And that is a personal tip that I share with anybody who wants to take it, I think it's one of the best and most effective ways that you can change your mindset for the day by just getting dressed. This will look different, based on the day and based on your emotions and what you are walking into and whatnot but just getting dressed into some type of outfit versus pajama pants, or pajamas or sweatpants or yoga pants or whatnot into something that makes you feel even slightly more elevated. And really going back to that during the pandemic. Really reinspired this competence around clothing and helped me remember how important that is and how effective that can be as a tool for our body image in the sense of how we're feeling about ourselves, our confidence around ourselves, the person that we are, the person that we are becoming who we are stepping into.
And so I really want to share this with you today and just invite you to consider what your relationship with fashion is right now.
How do you get dressed every day? How do you get dressed? Most days doesn't even have to be every single day. But how do you make the choice around what you're wearing? Do you find yourself just kind of mindlessly wandering into your closet and throwing on things without getting, giving it a lot of thought? Or are you agonizing over what you think you should be wearing? Are you finding yourself blocked by putting on clothes because of fears that are coming up around your body changing? Or just body insecurity in general?
Any of those things? Or do you find that it's so easy in that you love expressing yourself through fashion? Or maybe you're similar to me, where you perhaps loved it before and kind of forgot how powerful that love was? I really want to just offer this to you to consider building in the self-awareness right here right now.
What does your relationship with fashion and clothing look like today? And how do you want it to look? How? How do you want? Who do you want to become? I guess that's what I want to ask you? And how is your relationship with clothing? Either moving you towards that version of yourself? keeping you stuck or holding you back? And whatever you answer, just let it be. And that's the best place to start.
Any type of transition moving forward is just understanding Well, where am I today? And how do I want to move forward? Who do I want to become? What do I want my relationship with clothing and fashion to look like. And this is deeply personal.
I want to highlight this because this can quickly become tied up in unrealistic expectations, setting comparison worthiness pieces, deeper insecurities, all of these things, your relationship with close is a relationship. And you don't owe an explanation around that relationship to anyone. This is your relationship with who you are becoming and how clothing reflects the person that you are becoming.
So I hope that's helpful to just begin thinking about today and as you move into this week, and also how you might be able to reach for inspiration around how clothing makes you feel. I can't wait to hear what you think if you are really feeling inspired by this conversation. Or if a light bulb is going off for you.
I would genuinely love to hear please email me at hello@katelynparsons.com. I can't wait to hear from you and just see how this resonated and also just find out and discover what your relationship with clothing and fashion is like in general, what's your story, share anything that you want to me and I am sending you all of the love and courage and confidence in the world.
I hope you have an amazing day and a great week and I'll talk to you next time.
