June/ July Wrapt
This week I sat down with a friend, who shared that she was pregnant. An unexpected gift, she hadn’t yet wrapped her head around the news. She shared, that upon telling another friend of the news, her friend suggested that she make the most of her cute tummy and we just looked at each other…like when you are feeling, tired and sick, pregnant, and have other children, it’s an achievement to leave the house with a bra on let alone in clothing you didn’t sleep in.
I get it, I had morning sickness, but I also had relatively good pregnancies. I loved my body when I was pregnant, my extra thickness turned tight to accommodate new life, I felt womanly, powerful and majestic. I bought few clothes while pregnant, but when I did, they were usually tight so to showcase my joy. But, I also knew that this was not a reality for many many of my friends and colleagues who navigated the waters of pregnancy very differently. To expect my reality was anybody else’s reality would be to peddle a farce of the grandest proportions.
But this is something that we see day in and day out- women projecting unachievable expectations upon each other. About fashion, about weight, about style, about pregnancy, about labour…yes, even how you should labour, how you should breastfeed, raise kids, and the list continues. We like to blame men, the patriarchy, but how many of our own problems are our own making?
Recently, a post came across a quote on my feed that said “We don’t need a handful of people doing zero waste perfectly. We need millions of people doing it imperfectly.” (Anne Marie Bonneau, Zero Waste Chef) and I thought how profound it was in its simplicity. It was about shifting focus and changing our personal behavior. It was a post about awakening the collective- the masses- to do something! Do anything! Start slowly, but start! It was an achievable call to action.
Consider if we apply such an achievable simplicity to all the things we assign our value too; body image, food consumption and it’s disorders, beauty standards, the fashion industry, womanhood, gender politics, medical care, mental health and wellbeing. We can’t expect change overnight, next week or even next year, but if we all hesitate to buy into the peddle next time, or second guess what we are told, we may turn the speechifying, the adverts, the policy and the posts into some meaningful dialogue. Perhaps then we will start to see the change we so desperately need.
My Summer Edit, clockwise from top: Oversized Shirt and leggings, COS, Coordinates, Lee Mathews, Blazer and Pant, Tibi, black shirt and striped skirt, Lee Mathews, Oversized blouse by Ronnen Chen x MMMWA, Sandals, Arizona LOVE, Sunglasses, Marni #WraptbyChav
Speaking of advocating for change, this upcoming month of June is International Pride Month and we want to wish all our LGBQT brothers and sisters a happy pride month and our hope that we will no longer need a finite measurement of Pride because the LGBQT community will be met soon with the ongoing respect, acceptance and representation deserving of all human beings. There are a couple articles we have published which speak to intersectionality of our community- from individual experiences to grappling with the intersectionality of religion and LGBQT rights. But a very important article I want to bring to your attention is Ronit Peskin’s article in Times of Israel which I think speaks to the changing times and prevailing attitudes within the conservative world.
Over the next couple months we have a little more fashion specific content, much of which will revolve our sustainable design practices, new book club and #mumlife columns, and with summer about to be upon us we remind you if you are looking for swimwear to turn to last year’s swimwear editorial and profiles. Additionally, amongst the editors, the discussion about modesty and fashion continues- we encourage you to join in and share your opinions in the comments section or our social media platforms.
Sending you my sincerest wishes for some meaningful discussions,
x Chav
Chava Kuchar and Team Wrapt