Why self doubt got between me and my love of leopard skin.

Why self-doubt got between me and my love of leopard skin.

I have always loved leopard skin. I can’t exactly tell you why (though I could definitely tell you why you like certain things), but I’ve always been drawn to it.

The first time I bought anything made of leopard skin, I think I was about 13 and it was a one piece leopard skin bathing suit. I remember arguing with my mother about it because leopard skin is a polarizing subject.

I loved that bathing suit. In hindsight, it wasn’t the most flattering, but oh, I felt amazing in it. And really, that’s what matters.

The next leopard skin item I bought was a pair of leopard skin dance tights. They were thick, they were stretchy, they were opaque, you couldn’t see through them. And oh, I loved them.

It wasn’t really the fashion at the time to wear leopard skin dance tights, so I kept them for Halloween and dress-up parties and theme parties. I found a way to work leopard skin tights into almost any concept that you could imagine.

I managed to combine the leopard skin tights and the leopard skin swimsuit by writing the school musical. This was loosely based on Alice in Wonderland.
I cleverly wrote myself a part as the Cheshire cat, who in this form was a DJ who wandered around the entire time wearing a leopard skin bathing suit and leopard skin tights. Don’t worry, I was adequately covered.

So, many years on, that leopard skin bathing suit eventually got worn to death, but those tights turned out to be very long-lasting. There was something to be said for quality. Even more so that they were secondhand, though I don’t remember where I got them from, probably a flea market.

The tights stayed with me as I traveled to London, Tokyo, around the world. They may have been in my suitcase, they may have been in storage, they may have been in a box under the pool table at my mother’s house, but I kept them for a very long time.

A couple of decades later, I was moving to America in 2014 to be with my now husband. For some reason, a moment of self-doubt crept in. I don’t know why, but I let go of those leopard skin tights.

For one brief moment, I doubted my own Style Statement. I doubted for one brief moment, and I forgot who I was.

In my mind, I thought, well, these won’t work with my new life. It’s time to let them go.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with letting things go. We pivot all the time, our circumstances change, our lifestyle changes, our dreams and our vision changes, so does our career.

And I love releasing clothes back into the wild.
I’m sure somebody somewhere found those leopard skin tights and was excited, happy, thrilled, thought they had come across the best thing in the world.

They may have worn them to a Halloween party, or maybe they wore them to work. I don’t know. But I’m sure they brought great joy.

So I don’t regret that they left me as such. I regret that I doubted myself enough to release them for the wrong reasons.

I’m now in America, and you know what? Those leopard skin tights would be just fine. I would find a way to wear them, and they would look amazing, and it would make me feel great. And even if I didn’t wear them, I’d open my drawer and there they would be. And they would make me happy.

If you would like to learn more about how self-doubt gets between you and what you love to wear, reach out for a free thirty minute discovery call.

Aroha,
Erin..

Photo by Gerardo Marrufo on Unsplash