BEING WELL DRESSED IS NOT THE SAME AS HAVING PRESENCE: HERE IS THE DIFFERENCE
THE PRESENCEEveryone knows how to get dressed. Few women have presence. The distance between the two is shorter than it seems, and it cannot be bought.
You have walked into a room and known, without thinking, which woman to look at. She was not necessarily the best dressed. She was the one who seemed to be entirely where she was. Presence is not a question of clothes. It is a question of one's relationship with clothes.
Being dressed is answering an occasion. Having presence is answering yourself. The woman who dresses for the event is always a step behind, wondering whether she got it right. The woman who dresses for herself no longer asks the question. She decided who she was going to be before she left home, and the clothes simply confirm it. It is a silent difference, and it shows completely.
Confidence is built in repetition. No one has presence by accident. It is built choice by choice, until the wardrobe stops being a problem to solve every morning and becomes an extension of who you are. That is why the women with the most style almost always seem to repeat themselves. It is not a lack of imagination. It is the assurance of a woman who already knows what she likes.
The ritual of getting dressed. There is a gesture, in slipping on a black swimsuit of clean lines or fastening a necklace against the nape of the neck, that has nothing of vanity and everything of intention. It is the moment you decide to enter the day in a certain way. To turn that daily action into a small ritual is, perhaps, the simplest way to begin to have presence: to pay attention.
Less, but felt more. Presence rarely comes from a lot. It comes from the right thing. One piece chosen with care, worn with conviction, says more than ten chosen in a hurry. This is the philosophy behind every Sofia Godinho piece, and it is also, in the end, a philosophy of life: choose less, to feel more.
To have presence is not to be seen. It is to be present. And that, unlike almost everything else, cannot be worn. It is recognised.Sofia Godinho
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