Undressed review
Undressed is a new reality tv program that is right up my alley. As someone who has only rarely enjoyed this genre, I’m surprised to be saying this. However it’s based on the kind of work I do (and love!) so that explains it.
I’ve written before about clothes being a visual shorthand to what’s going on internally and that they express all kinds of things about us including our values, self esteem and priorities. Undressed teases this concept out.
In brief
Host, Kathryn Eisman, conducts herself more like an image consultant (which is what I trained as) than did many of the earlier ‘makeover’ show hosts. I say this because she goes beyond aesthetics as she works individually with the line up of strangers awaiting her. Instead of foisting on them whatever she thinks will look good, she actively involves them in the process, and listens to them. They are all both unhappy with the way they’ve been dressing, and have some deep image wounds that are uncovered throughout the program. This is what makes Undressed so interesting to me.
Image wounds uncovered
Kathryn Eisman questions each person, probing in a gentle manner, to uncover where they got stuck in their relationship with clothes. There are various responses to this question:
Low self esteem
The need for permission to experiment beyond conventions
Losing sight of who they are
Not having overcome cruel comments by those they trusted
Schoolyard bullying
Not having overcome assault and betrayal
Not having overcome family rejection
The need to manage disabilities and the prospect of further disability through a degenerative condition
Many of us, including me, can recount similar experiences and it is astounding how these deep wounds can influence our perception of self into the future. This is part of why I find what people choose to wear so fascinating; clothes represent our frame of mind and they tell our stories. Even the clothes of someone who declares they don’t think about clothes broadcasts plenty, because they, like anyone, must make sartorial choices.
What can be done?
In Undressed Kathryn spends time exploring the image wounds of the people she meets in order to understand why they dress the way they do. Depending on the issue, she might suggest they do things such as:
Spending as much time dressing themselves as they do their children
Trying things on in shops to see how they feel in different styles
Practising self love
Looking at their reflection in the mirror through a new lens
Trying to wear clothes they’ve bought yet never worn
Wearing different colours
While these things might sound easy on the face of it, they are not easy for a person whose self esteem is low. Challenging our self image, if we are not ready for it, can be fraught. I’d like to think that the Undressed production team included counsellors and psychologists to offer support throughout the process. Suggestions for changing the way someone presents themselves need to be handled with care as clothes are the intimate barrier between our otherwise unprotected bodies and the outside world.
If we get it right, a client’s circumstances can be transformed! I’ve seen people pleasantly surprised to be offered jobs they were not confident of getting, to see themselves through a new lens and to feel so much better about themselves in general (and that is better than anything!).
My experience
I have worked with vulnerable people around their sense of self; in fact this is where my work with how people present themselves first began. I was an advisor in London for recipients of the UK’s Incapacity Benefit. We underwent extensive training in how to work with people who have mental illness, as well as trauma survivors and otherwise vulnerable people. We trained for weeks before we were allocated any clients. When we finally returned to our home offices to consult with clients one on one, we had a psychologist in every office for extra support if we needed it.
What I do now
When I work with clients around their self image these days, I ask them to think about their goals, priorities and values and how they’d like to be perceived in the world. I make recommendations based on these things as well as their physicality. The process is future focused, positive, supportive and respectful.
Delving into what lies beneath the surface, particularly understanding a client’s values and priorities (and placing at least as much emphasis on this as on aesthetics) is the key difference between how I work as an image consultant and what a fashion stylist does.
For me, it’s not all about finding ‘flattering’ clothes. The reward in my work comes from helping someone to rediscover joy in dressing, seeing them stand taller (metaphorically and physically) and showing them how to control their own narrative through what they wear.
If you’d like to explore this with me, there are a few ways:
