Virginia Knight is a fashion historian who believes that old clothes can help us explore a better relationship with our bodies. A writer and vintage clothing seller based in Asheville, North Carolina, she is deeply invested in interrogating the relationship between fashion and the body, and she offers personal styling services to fashion-minded women who have fallen out of love with dressing themselves. In this episode, Virginia shares her own honest story of how her love of fashion, combined with her diagnosis of an eating disorder and Body Dysmorphic Disorder helped her to realize the ways in which vintage clothing can allow us to explore a better relationship with our bodies and with the struggles many of us face in getting dressed each morning. Virginia talks about the problem of focusing only on clothes that are “flattering”, and about the body shaming that can often exist in the personal styling industry. She shares the specific tools that help her when she’s having a not-so-great body image day herself, and we dig into a few ways that folks can start in crafting their own personal style. This conversation went in so many good, helpful directions, and at the end of it I was left feeling a new sense of joy for the future of my clothing and my body. I hope you enjoy hearing from Virginia as much as I did! (more…)