A good (quite recent) friend messaged me. About a month ago.
She had an unusual question for me. And it apparently took a lot of courage for her to ask.
So I was flattered.
(By the way, I am going to use a lot of ‘she’ and ‘her’ in this story. I don’t like doing that normally. But as I am not going to name my friend – I will use them on this occasion).
Style
My friend asked me to help her on the subject of styling. Specifically, how she should dress for a new chapter in her life.
I have never put myself out there as a stylist. But I am known (in certain quarters, it seems) as a chap that dresses confidently. And, of course, I have founded a luxury clothing brand called Always Wear Red.
The request still took me by surprise though.
Maybe it shouldn’t have because, entirely unconnected, I delivered a workshop the week before on the very subject of styling. I twisted the narrative of the workshop from:
“Here’s How to Style Yourself.”
to
“Let’s explore the relationship between what you wear and how you feel (as opposed to how you look). And then let’s look at how you approach life when you feel great!”
Again, I was approached to do this.
Virtuous Circle
(I’m going to digress for a second. Before coming back to my friend’s question. Because there is a connection).
- When we wear truly great clothing, what we want, for ourselves, we feel great. Confident. We are not worrying about being judged.
- When we feel confident and amazing, we do confident and amazing. We do braver.
- When we do braver we are even more likely to wear what we want for ourselves, to push boundaries further, to wear even more adventurous things and feel even greater.
- And so on.
That was my workshop.
Now back to my friend…
My Friend
We chatted.
She was grateful.
She sent me a picture of herself looking BEAUTIFUL and confident and relaxed and funky and sexy.
My friend had done (probably) just one thing that I’d floated as an idea. Everything else came from her. I don’t think she realises how much she owned the decision making. And the look. But she did. And that’s why she looked so brilliant.
All good.
Creep
Anyhow the point of this little tale is to shine a light on ‘creep’.
How, when you are brave and adventurous and you do interesting things, your work ‘creeps’ into areas you’d never imagined or planned for. People ask you to do stuff.
And it feels really good.
My core learning and expertise, which is building a globally significant clothing brand (fingers crossed!) crept into advising a friend on styling. And running a workshop on decision making and styling.
And yes – I know they sound connected. But ‘fashion’ is a big area. Like ‘IT’ is a big area.
Creep is Good
Creep is good. Who knows where it might take you?
It teaches you things about yourself. Work creeps. Ideas creep. And you creep into new and exciting areas because the people around you take you there.
So have a great day.
And if you get the opportunity… creep!
