On this past Saturday, StyleLikeU team and creators of the What's Underneath project came to Bard College to present on documentary filmmaking, talk about their story and host a workshop. Mother-Daughter team Elisa Goodkind and Lily Mandelbaum are dedicated to the body positivity movement, to staying unique and passionate in the face of mass media, and to themselves. They founded StyleLikeU in 2009, and they have had an amazing impact since then.
If you've heard of StyleLikeU, it's probably from their hugely popular What's Underneath project. What's Underneath is a video series in which stylish people from diverse backgrounds answer questions while removing articles of clothing. The process is cathartic naturally, with such questions as "What has been a struggle which you've turned into a strength?" and "Why in your body is it a good place to be?" Beginning with the outer shell, our clothes, What's Underneath slowly reveals a person's story, and by exhibiting the inside, what people wear becomes more meaningful. Because what we wear has so much to do with what we love about ourselves, what we want the world to think of us, and perhaps even what we are trying to hide.
Currently the StyleLikeU group (consisting of five employees) are working on a What's Underneath documentary film. Their Kickstarter campaign for the project reached 135K of its 100K goal, and now they are traveling and Skyping with fans from all over to share their message and reach the whole world.
Their story began when they couldn't take the bullshit anymore. Elisa worked as a stylist in the fashion industry. She watched as magazines began to stop celebrating uniqueness, interesting styles, and creative minds, and began photographing the same body type wearing the same three brands. She became miserable with the industry that she was a part of. She hated that the fashion she loved had become a machine with the express interest of making people feel bad for not fitting the societal ideal.
Lily, being of a curvier build, felt alienated by this ideal growing up. She dieted obsessively to fit in, trying so hard to be skinny and wafey like all of the girls she saw in Cosmo. Miserable, like her mother, with this ridiculous beauty standard, she dropped out of college and the two of them founded StyleLikeU.
They began with their closet series, videos going into the closets of all sorts of people and asking them about how they dress and why, of which they've done over a thousand. They were thinking about a new series (actually in order to get sponsored by an underwear brand) when they thought about what it would be like to have people discuss their insecurities and reasons why they have found themselves "problematic" within the ludicrous standards set by society. Somehow H&M came upon their pitch and put out an ad campaign with the exact same description, questions, and message. Devastated, the StyleLikeU team rallied and put together their first string of videos, putting them up on YouTube as quickly as they could. H&M was never able to mount their campaign, because the videos soon went viral.
Since then the StyleLikeU team has interviewed big names, like "Orange Is The New Black's" Lea Delaria, Bard Alum goddess Juliana Huxtable, and Instagram famous non-binary star Tyler Ford. What's Underneath has grown to affect millions, including yours truly. Their videos helped me to realize that your self-consciousness and the problematizing of your own body only haunt you if you let them.
The StyleLikeU team ran their first workshop here, speaking with Bard students about their bodies and their style. The workshop helped us, as a group, to confront our assumptions about others based on style, as well as what our style says about us and our stories. We ended with the trademark prompt of the What's Underneath videos: "Can you talk about why in your body is a good place to be?"
I think we should all marinate on this question. On what our bodies do for us, on how we can help our bodies and accept them as they are. As young people and as consumers, it is our job to say no to the demeaning and degrading media we are subject to. We should not learn that fat is a punchline from our favorite sitcoms. We should not see beauty as an unattainable standard, but instead as the bravery to be wholly yourself. As StyleLikeU says, style "is comfort in your skin, is your spirit, is immaterial. It's What's Underneath."
If you are interesting in learning more, watch the StyleLikeU mission video and check out their website.
