Outfit Therapy

 The Justification

Three years ago The Photographer was in a bad way after multiple  trips to A&E (ER), hospitalisations and surgeries.  There's a reason why I'm telling you this historic stuff.  It's a justification for what is to come.

 
During that 6 months period, I chanced upon blogs, which became a haven.  A place of calm, a breathing space.  A way of visualising that things would get back to normal, I suppose.  Blogs helped me cope and thus support TP to the best of my ability.
A year later, when he was fully recovered, I started up my own blog.  And if my blog gives even just one reader a haven in troubled times then my blogging has not been in vain.

So as a way of telling myself that we are getting back to normal again at Chez Pout, I just have to squeeze in a bit on outfits I wore in recent weeks. 
Please don't judge me.  Please don't think of me as shallow.  It's my coping mechanism.
And fortunately my patient gets this and what I wear is important to him too.  Read on.

The Therapy

 In a crisis, what-to-wear is totally irrelevant, so very way down in the pecking order.  Yet in these past few weeks I knew that what I wore would matter.  It mattered to TP, as during his previous hospitalisations I had noticed that he paid attention to what I wore each day, for he sometimes commented on an outfit.   What I wore, how I looked, somehow brightened his long bleak days in hospital.  It was a kind of therapy.  Outfit therapy.

Perhaps it was his haven, his coping mechanism.  What's The Pout going to walk in wearing today?

Perhaps it was when the Photographer With Fashion Views was born!

The Crisis Capsule

In the two days leading up to TP's unplanned hospitalisation I was wearing this.

Black column with berry cardi.

Blanket scarf.

Black column with red cardi.

I found myself drifting zombie-like to these core pieces each day.

 Without any conscious input on my part,  a crisis capsule evolved.  I dressed without any real thought, other than to look presentable for the poorly patient.  Zombie-dressing allowed me time to  focus on what mattered.  

The formula was simple.  Berry cardi and cami, red cardi and cami, black jeans or blue jeans.   Black or white cami.

Dressing was a no-brainer yet I still looked nice for him each day.  He commented on one or two OOTDs so the outfit therapy worked.

And by way of celebration, on "release day" I wore my berry coated jeggings.  Well, you see, I don't think he could have controlled the palpitations, seeing coated berry in his weakened hospitalised state! 

Of course, no photos were taken during this time.  Rest assured, I am not that person.   But I am pleased to report that this morning, and without any bullying  prompting or cajoling from me, TP announced that he is now ready to take outfit photos when I am ready.  Now that does tell me that he is truly on the way to recovery!

So, being in a happy place where I can write about this stuff brings joy to my heart.  For it's beginning to feel a bit like Normal.

Now tell me, do you sometimes make a conscious effort to dress to cheer up a poorly person?  Using Outfit Therapy?

And have you discovered that capsule wardrobes sometimes evolve without your conscious input?  Like I did?

I'd love to hear in the comments box below.

A la perchoine.