When we consider these hues, we might ask: Who are the wearers of the red, white and blue? Is there a deeper meaning to the colors we wear and why? And what about your style—is it conservative, authoritative, easy breezy, or a wardrobe full of hand-me-downs? If you stop and consider your options and listen to the voices in your head, you may find there is a whole lot of chatter going on. Whose voices are those and do you agree with what they are telling you?

I believe that we all dress and present ourselves, using color and style, according to archetypes that reveal our fashion icon personalities. Archetypes, as described by Plato, are mental collective forms imprinted in the soul before it was born. Carl Jung adds that these collective forms are innate universal prototypes for ideas that may be used to interpret observations.

This means that in our unconsciousness there exists a committee of hundreds of personalities voicing their opinions and influences on our choices. When we observe how we dress, how we walk, how we respond to the ups and downs of life, we may have a better idea of who is running the show. I have observed a number of archetypes or characters and I have identified 10 Fashion Icon Archetypes. We can interpret which archetypes are most influential when we pay attention to who we are, how we dress, and how we show up in the world.

Archetypes are also related to the symbols that are part of our everyday life. For example, the symbols that adorn our flag have hidden messages to inspire integrity and honor; stars and stripes represent beliefs, values, and traditions. While these symbols may change over time, they bind us together as a nation by reminding us of our history and our principles.

Let me introduce you to what I refer to as The Ambassador Fashion Icon Archetype:

Think of First Lady Michelle Obama wearing the soft, flowery white chiffon inauguration dress for her first public appearance: in white, she sent the message of peace and goodwill. After four years in office as FLOTUS, the President’s wife earned her stripes, so to speak, and at the second inauguration she wore what the press called victory red. Never before has a First Lady been so bold. This demonstrates the personality of this archetype, a person who seeks value in all they wear and do.

The Ambassador Fashion Icon Archetype is a class act that evokes a certain status and success. Ambassadors of fashion love quality, name brands, and tailored looks. Through this intentional way of dressing, they influence and educate. The character Olivia Pope on Scandal is styled in such a way that she radiates her authoritative warrior and her triumphant gladiator persona through her well-thought-out style, taking command of any room the moment she enters.

In their best expression and their light side, Ambassadors are protective humanitarians; their shadow is headstrong and arrogant. Yet they may also have hidden professional agendas with sparks of naivety that fly like fireworks in the sky. No wonder America gets itself in trouble sometimes! But let’s not judge this archetype unfairly because the Ambassadors seek to be used in service for the greater good.

My most notable example of the Ambassador Fashion Icon Archetype is and always will be Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis. Who can ever forget the pink hat Jackie wore the day America lost its most beloved Democratic President? That fashionable pillbox, designed by Halston, illustrated a sign of the times—a poignant metaphor for the first time Americans had a pill for everything (like the baby blue valium prescribed to calm one’s nerves and the contraceptive little pink pill that symbolized the 60’s sexual revolution.)

As an image consultant and style writer, I embody the Ambassador Fashion Icon as my most dominant archetype. The qualities of authority, wisdom, experience, and grace inherent in the ambassador in me give me the audacity to ask these questions of you, “Who are you and why do you wear what you wear?”

How do you take command when you walk into a boardroom, a ballroom, or a classroom? I invite you to consider your personal style and see how the leader, boss, author, or expert is reveled in how you dress and what you do. The Ambassador archetype may not govern your style—perhaps you are a Maverick, a Spartan, or an Alchemist—but I know there’s one lurking somewhere in your psyche!  So for the Fourth, let your flag fly and sport the red, white, and blue.

Lorelei Shellist, founder of Fashion Icon Archetypes™ Personality Programs, is a Speaker, Host, Model and Inner Beauty Empowerment Coach. Author of Runway RunAway: A Backstage Pass to Fashion, Romance and Rock ‘n Roll, She holds an MA Spiritual Psychology, and Consciousness Health & Healing from University of Santa Monica. Lorelei coaches Executives, Women, and At-Risk Teens and facilitates Prison Inmates with Freedomtochoosefoundation.org.

For more information on discovering your personal Fashion Icon Archetypes™ visit loreleishellist.com.

Lorelei Shellist

Lorelei Shellist, author of Runway RunAway: A Backstage Pass to Fashion, Romance and Rock ‘n Roll, is a speaker, host and model, Image Consultant, Inner Beauty Empowerment Coach, and the founder of Fashion Icon Archetypes™ Personality Programs. She holds master’s degrees in Spiritual Psychology, and in Consciousness, Health and Healing from the University of Santa Monica. Lorelei coaches executives, women, and at-risk teens, and facilitates spiritual psychology workshop activities with prison inmates through the Freedom To Choose Foundation (freedomtochoosefoundation.org). Visit: www.loreleishellist.com

www.loreleishellist.com

The post The American Ambassador Fashion Icon Archetypes appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

As Mother’s Day approaches, I am reminded that I never had children of my own, something that always surprises me. I love children, and I always assumed I would have them. It’s not that I didn’t want them; it’s just that my life didn’t turn out that way.

It’s okay: I have filled the void by finding other ways to mother. I’ve mothered my friends, lovers, animals, and other people’s children. I’ve helped raise my sister’s children and their children’s children. I have a grown stepson and a multitude of at-risk teens whom I mentor and mother in my own I AM Dreams With Wings workshops. I spend several weekends a year at prisons listening with a mother’s unconditional love to the men and women in blue. My mothering plate feels pretty darn full. Then why does it bother me when mothers bring their babies and toddlers to my beach yoga class to play in the sand while we practice?

It’s not that their children aren’t cute and cuddly, but they can be distracting and noisy. As we greet our practice with our palms together, connecting and chanting “Om,” I hear screeches and cries and mothers shushing their children. I take a deep breath and exhale an exasperated sigh thinking, “Oh, great, another round of Romper Room yoga.”

With every breath, I practice letting go and recall the following quote from “The Mother,” the co-founder of Integral Yoga at the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, India: “The true aim of life is to find the divine´s presence deep inside oneself and surrender to it, so that it takes the lead of the life, all the feelings and all the actions of the body.”

I begin to soothe and mother myself while reminding myself that yoga is not about perfection or having things be the way I think they should be. It is the practice of allowing things to be as they are—kids or no kids.

Some days it’s easy, and I enjoy it when one of the toddlers crawls over to my beach mat and plays underneath the arch of my down dog. Other days, I beg our teacher Joanne to add “child-free classes” to her schedule. This has gotten me nowhere except into self-judgment for being grouchy. When did I become like this? What part of me doesn’t like kids? Is it the part of me who doesn’t have one to bring? Is it the part of me who misses her mother? Aww, that may be the catch. Further questions arise: Who will mother me? How do I mother myself? Am I allowed to play in the sand?

As I flow through my sun salutations, I try to be mindful so as not to judge the situation, or even myself. I hear my teacher’s voice, “Notice where you are and how your body feels.” I allow myself to observe my judgments and then let them pass through the way I imagine a mother would. I move forward in my practice through each asana telling the child in me, “It’s really all okay,” and my body relaxes, too.

Between classes, I learn more about my teacher.

Jeanne Ortiz grew up on the sands of the Caribbean. After the birth of her first son, Jeanne wanted to give him the same feeling of freedom she’d had as a child. She began teaching yoga on the beach as a way to entertain him as well as to take care of herself. Jeanne began inviting other moms, creating a community of moms in need of some self-nurturing time. “It’s a community of moms helping moms,” says Jeanne. “What a wonderful way to mother yourself,” I thought.

At the end of class, I lay on the beach in savasana, listening to the waves crashing on the shore, to the giggles and cries of happy children playing in the sand, and to the voice in my head saying, “That’s what we are all here to do, child—mother ourselves as a good mother would.”

Lorelei Shellist, author of Runway RunAway: A Backstage Pass to Fashion, Romance and Rock ‘n Roll, is a speaker, host and model, Image Consultant, Inner Beauty Empowerment Coach, and the founder of Fashion Icon Archetypes™ Personality Programs. She holds master’s degrees in Spiritual Psychology, and in Consciousness, Health and Healing from the University of Santa Monica. Lorelei coaches executives, women, and at-risk teens, and facilitates spiritual psychology workshop activities with prison inmates through the Freedom To Choose Foundation (freedomtochoosefoundation.org). Visit: loreleishellist.com

Lorelei Shellist

Lorelei Shellist, author of Runway RunAway: A Backstage Pass to Fashion, Romance and Rock ‘n Roll, is a speaker, host and model, Image Consultant, Inner Beauty Empowerment Coach, and the founder of Fashion Icon Archetypes™ Personality Programs. She holds master’s degrees in Spiritual Psychology, and in Consciousness, Health and Healing from the University of Santa Monica. Lorelei coaches executives, women, and at-risk teens, and facilitates spiritual psychology workshop activities with prison inmates through the Freedom To Choose Foundation (freedomtochoosefoundation.org). Visit: www.loreleishellist.com

www.loreleishellist.com

The post Yoga and the Inner Mom appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.

If you are like me, you may have one or two favorite pieces of clothing that re-appear only at this time of year. As I unpack my Christmas sweaters, holly scarves, and jolly ornamental jewelry from their boxes, I feel the season’s spirit of joy.

For me, the light of the holidays is reflected in the glow of gratitude and rebirth. Accordingly, an important gift I can bring to others is the way I show up in the world. My intention, then, is to bring more of my light to the season by wearing the colors and beauty reflective of celebration.

My favorite holiday dress was designed by the Italian designer Alberta Ferretti. I wore it in a fashion show I did in Nashville, of all places. This warm and cozy woolly blanket of a dress is a floor-length, dusty-red, and sage-green plaid. No one I’ve known has ever worn this same iconic dress, and so every year, I put it on as if I am wearing it for the very first time. It always sparks a conversation, inviting others to share in its little story, and to offer their own tales of favorite festive outfits over the years. Such connection and interaction adds dimension to less compelling small talk at parties or other possibly awkward get-togethers.

Who doesn’t want to shine or feel good about themselves at their own office party? To talk about something other than the long shopping mall lines and how much work it is to wrap presents? Dressing with the intention of giving your light to others is a meaningful way of sharing your own inner beauty and style over the holiday season.

These inner qualities are illuminated when you are conscious about how you dress and how you show up in the world. When deciding how to dress for the holidays, ask yourself the following questions:

1. What qualities or gifts will I bring to the party? (Some examples: joy, elegance, fun, light, romance, and accessibility)

2. How do I want others to perceive me?

3. What experience do I want to have at the event?Dress according to your inner choices and watch how your wardrobe magically reflects your light and love as you join in all the reindeer games.

Lorelei Shellist, author of Runway RunAway: A Backstage Pass to Fashion, Romance and Rock ‘n Roll, is a speaker, host, model, stylist, image consultant and inner beauty coach. She is also the founder of Fashion Icon Archetypes™ Personality Programs. Lorelei holds an MA in Spiritual Psychology, with an emphasis in Consciousness, Health and Healing, and she puts her skills to work coaching women, at-risk teens, and the incarcerated: loreleishellist.com.

Lorelei Shellist

Lorelei Shellist, author of Runway RunAway: A Backstage Pass to Fashion, Romance and Rock ‘n Roll, is a speaker, host and model, Image Consultant, Inner Beauty Empowerment Coach, and the founder of Fashion Icon Archetypes™ Personality Programs. She holds master’s degrees in Spiritual Psychology, and in Consciousness, Health and Healing from the University of Santa Monica. Lorelei coaches executives, women, and at-risk teens, and facilitates spiritual psychology workshop activities with prison inmates through the Freedom To Choose Foundation (freedomtochoosefoundation.org). Visit: www.loreleishellist.com

www.loreleishellist.com

The post Holiday Dressing To Join In All The Reindeer Games appeared first on LA Yoga Magazine - Ayurveda & Health.