Behind the Outfit: The hidden struggles of dressing with scoliosis

By Stacey Teytel

It is often understated how difficult it is to pick an outfit. It is a joke in most shows and movies that the self absorbed character takes ages to put together a basic combination of shirts and pants, but never truly appreciates all the time and effort she puts in. Maybe the viewers can appreciate a cute wardrobe choice on the big screen, but it always has to be truly show stopping. We sit behind our phones and we judge the actors at the Met Gala and the models at the Victoria Secret Fashion show, but usually all we say is “they should have done better” and not credit the designer who spent hours at the drawing board. But, as difficult as it is to create a wardrobe for ourselves, it is even harder when someone has scoliosis. I have spent the last few months searching my entire wardrobe for cute outfits to make an outfit idea out of for this website, but I can never seem to find anything. Maybe once or twice I made an outfit that I would be truly proud to wear out, but usually it is just what I would wear to school, sweats and a hoodie. It is never appreciated how difficult it is to create cute outfits that could be worn for a photo trip with your friends. Especially when the style now is to wear a tight shirt and baggy pants, if it is hard to fit an undershirt and brace under another tight shirt that is the equivalent of an undershirt. Now, while I understand that we cannot change all of society’s opinions on what looks good to conform, I do believe that if companies like H&M and Garage pushed more clothes that would be easy to wear a brace with for people who do not have to worry about it then we would have a much smaller struggle trying to fit in with the fashion that everyone is wearing.