Stop looking at aliens and learn to see and dress your own body

First thing to know – fashion illustrations are drawings of aliens.

I used to love sewing. But I stopped loving it because I was constantly disappointed and began to feel disgusted by my body.

You see, I loved the fantasy of looking at the sewing catalogues with the glamorous drawings and photos of models, but I didn’t have any idea how those same clothes would look when scaled to my actual human body.

Had that experience yourself? Wondered what was wrong with you? Well, it turns out, nothing is wrong with you.

Look at this picture below – fashion drawings are made so the model is nine heads tall. Actual humans are, on average, around 7 to 8 heads high.

No wonder I didn’t feel good about my body

That’s my body on the right, by the way (made using www.mybodymodel.com), so no wonder I was constantly disappointed that clothes made to look nice on the alien fashion illustration didn’t look the same on me.

I’m commenting on fashion illustrations here to make my point, however we also look at fashion models, who are a very tiny proportion of the population, and artificially created images. It doesn’t make us feel good to compare ourselves with these pictures.

The antidote? Get used to seeing your body as it is – anyone for a game of croquis?

Many of us compare ourselves constantly. Oftentimes we’re comparing ourselves with ‘aliens’ and images that are filtered and altered.

One positive thing we can do is start seeing ourselves accurately, then find creative ways to dress our actual bodies.

I found it really useful to create an outline (croquis) of my own body and start sketching clothes on it. I’m no fashion designer, but the act of drawing basic clothes on my outline showed me pretty quickly why some styles work for me and some never will. It somehow took me away from my inner criticism and fear and ‘how I wanted to be’ and ‘what I don’t like about my body’ and made it into a game, like dressing a paper doll.

Make a croquis (fashion drawing outline) of your own body

Have a go! Make a fashion drawing outline of your own body at www.mybodymodel.com. (I’m not sponsored by them, I just think it’s a great site. I’m going to buy my croquis once I get someone to help me take my measurements more accurately.)

Bung in your measurements at www.mybodymodel.com to create a free croquis and you’ll only need to pay if you want a printable version without their watermark.

Reset your brain by looking at other people’s body outlines and the clothes they make

While you’re at www.mybodymodel.com explore their blog to see what other people make. Or search on Pinterest using ‘mybodymodel’ to find people’s croquis’ or search on Instagram using #mybodymodel.

The images below are from www.mybodymodel.com.

It was a wonderful sorbet for my brain to see real people with their real body outlines making clothes they like, that FIT.

I hope doing some of these things helps you reset your brain so you can see your own body accurately.

You might also like my article about giving yourself a visual reset, with a steady diet of lots of other very human people with bodies of all shapes and sizes, who are enjoying dressing themselves.