Why I Dress To Say “Look What You Made Me Do”

(Did you know you can be among our “Only Inclusive Fans” a.k.a. “Lookability Club Stars” & get an Insider 1st Look at our  Lookability Clubhouse Confessions when you subscribe to our Blog for free? Please visit our Only Inclusive Fan Club Page for more details.)

When I look in my closet I see what my clothes say about me. I like my dress and style to say, “Look What You Made Me Do,” which I consider a powerful, thought-provoking song by Taylor Swift.

Some people may look at me and would never think that I listen to Taylor Swift because of preconceived ideas they formulate about me just by the way I look. It always makes me ask- what should inclusive fans look like? What should an inclusive world look like?

When you look in your closet, what do you see? Are you dressing as a typical person, an inclusive influencer, a differently-abled person with a disability, a member of the LGBTQ community, or someone who represents a different platform? 

Or are some of you dressing just to be a little flirty to say to someone special in your life, “Look what you made me do” as in “Look what you made me wear today.” 

No matter what the reason is for what you decide to wear, make it your own.  If you live with special adaptive needs or mobility, sensory, or medical needs, I think dress and style should look and feel like who we are born to be.  Whether you are off to work, school, play, or a Runway of Dreams Fashion Show or a RuPaul’s Drag Race Fashion Show Watch Party, if you are like me then you want to dress your best and dress to impress with a style that says who you are. 

When I dance with my “Person” I think of myself as an inclusive Music Fan because of my inclusive playlist. Plus I even asked my “Person” and a few other friends to become an “Only Inclusive Fan” of the Lookability Club not because I work here but because they were looking for more inclusive experiences. I listen to all different kinds of music that I find transformational for my dress and style. It’s even about my sense of empowerment as a woman. 

So whether I am in a room at work sitting at a conference table with all men, despite any setbacks I have faced, my dress and style say-  empowerment for women, no matter where I am. 

Most of us have favorite songs that inspire us. We listen to songs that influence our lifestyle from the clothes on our backs to all the other stuff we buy. Everyone does not always agree on things like fashion, style, and music that’s what makes us all so different. We should be celebrating our differences but that’s not always the case. 

Depending on what we listen to, some of us may even have had our grandparents’ generation view the music we listen to as a bad influence on us depending on the message in the lyrics. 

When I first heard the song, “Look What You Made Me Do” by Taylor Swift, I could relate to the lyrics and found that it influenced how I dressed based on my life experiences good or bad.  Whether you are a Swiftie or not. Like many Swifties, some people like this song while others don’t like it as much as her other songs. 

Now, I am someone who enjoys listening to a variety of music. It helps me to keep my listening experience inclusive. On any given day depending on my mood, I listen to a wide range of music from artists like Aretha Franklin, Whitney Houston, Taylor Swift, Beyonce, JLo, Mary J. Blige, Dolly Parton, Michael Jackson, Jelly Roll, Shaggy, Sean Paul,  Run DMC, Biggie Smalls, Shania Twain, Dua Lipa, Luke Bryan, Tim McGraw to Missy Elliot and the list goes on and on. There are simply too many artists for me to have on my Playlist.

There is one thing that I am willing to admit and confess. As I said, I style my outfits in a manner that reflects influences and nuances from various music and media; however,  I keep elements of my own individualized fashion and style when I dress. For example, when I select clothes from my closet,  I style the colors that reflect bright colors like yellow, green, or red that represent my Caribbean and Portuguese cultures.  You will even see some colors that musical artists like Bob Marley have worn inside my closet. Some of my Spanish friends style vibrant colors from their rich Spanish heritage.

I don’t believe that I need the fashion police but I like to warn people who want to look inside my closet that they may have to wear sunglasses before I let them take a peek inside my closet. They can expect to see the bold colors and sometimes soft nuances of how various musical artists have impacted my clothes and played a role in how I dress. I have so many examples of different musical artists who are part of my eclectic style. 

For example, when I listen to Taylor’s, “Look What You Made Me Do,” I think of the people in life who represent people who failed me by failing to keep an open mind about me, failing to let me be who I was born to be, or failing to understand my differences. You name it,

 I am talking about differences like being differently-abled, being born with a disability, being of a different culture, being LGBTQ, or any and everything that makes me different from others who act like they were born perfect, who made me feel like I was not enough. But I still had the wisdom to show them kindness. 

I could have turned my back on them the way I felt that some people who acted like this turned their backs on me, but I would never treat others like that because I accept everyone for the way they were born to be.  

Despite how some people may have acted towards me or reacted towards me because of the things about me that made me different, somehow I gained the strength to step out of the closet that they wanted to place me in. 

Plus, I am talking about the closet that felt like a prison for me just because I was born different from the norm. That is if “normal” truly exists at all for any of us. Because there will always be someone else who looks better than us, especially those who look better in a bikini or swimsuit. Or someone who looks perfect.  Yet they say appearances can be deceiving. Probably because people who appear to be a Billboard of perfection don’t always view themselves that way.”

Sometimes, the negative things someone says can play tricks on our ability to look and see our own beauty inside and the beauty we bring to the world.   It can be something an old friend or “Frenemy” said or even statements an ex-boyfriend, or ex-partner said. I found that things that people said played a role in making me feel like I was not enough in life. 

What’s important for me is growing into who I was born to be. I gained the strength to live my lifestyle like who I was born to be, I began to feel like the weaker parts of me died and the stronger parts of me survived any negative judgments or perceptions about me.

I think it’s a beautiful thing when we allow ourselves to blossom into who we are born to be and not listen to any of the negative comments or remarks that anyone else says. 

 When I began to think like this, I put it into action. I made changes for the better from the clothing in my closet to my fitness, nutritional meal plan, and more. 

It was around the time when I started turning up the volume on songs like, “Look What You Made Me Do.”

I started to dress like I was saying – “Look What You Made Me Do.” 

I can even dress and look as good as a Victoria’s Secret model at a New York Fashion Week show or other fashion shows like “Runway of Dreams” and walk or rock and roll with my fellow models and inclusive friends whether they roll down the Runway in wheelchairs or strike a pose from Paris to New York.

I can dress to make a statement about how strong I am no matter what negative things anyone ever said about me, no matter what anyone ever did to me that was meant to devalue me. Instead, I value who I was born to be.

I take a positive stand and say to those who don’t show kindness to others –you’re just          ” somebody that I used to know,” which most of us recognize as the lyrics to the song by Belgian Australian musician, Gotye which features vocals by New Zealand singer Kimbra.

I make sure that I value all the things that make me different. I now celebrate the way I look and my dress and style.  I celebrate my differences. I celebrate different friends I get to encounter at inclusive events.  

Let me say once more, that I can dress to make a statement about how strong I am no matter what negative things anyone ever said about me, no matter what anyone ever did to me that was meant to devalue me. I didn’t allow negativity to devalue me because I leaned to value who I was born to be and celebrate inclusivity and diversity too.

Today my closet reflects the best clothing and styles like the fashion shows from New York to Paris but I have individualized my styles to represent who I am. 

I know I am not perfect. I am still working towards creating a more inclusive Contact List on my Smartphone.

If I am going to live an inclusive lifestyle then I even want my Contact List to include all kinds of inclusive friends who enjoy a variety of activities whether we attend a Fashion Show like Runway Of Dreams together or an inclusive convention like the Abilities Expo or other events with friends in the LGBTQ community like events for National LGBT Health Awareness Week or Pride Events. Let’s hear it for Inclusivity and diversity. 

# AbilitiesExpo,#InclusiveFashion,InclusiveStyle, #TaylorSwift,#Beyonce,#Aretha Franklinfans, #Whitney Houstonfans,#Swifties, #Taylor Swift, #Beyonce, #JLo, #Mary J. Blige, #Dolly Parton, #Michael Jackson, #Jelly Roll, #Shaggy,   
#Sean Paul,  #Run DMC, #Biggie Smallsfans, #Shania Twain, #Luke Bryan, #Tim McGraw  #Missy Elliot, #DuaLipa, #Victoria’sSecret,#RunwayOfDreams,

Click to listen highlighted text!