I receive countless comments from my followers across all my social media about how much they admire me just being myself. Somehow this seems very courageous to people. I find that shocking and not shocking. Being yourself and finding ways to express that in how you dress, how you negotiate life and in your behavior is what in my view makes you the most attractive. It makes others take notice. It makes you stand out.

Recently during fashion week, the weather here in New York was very cold and on one particular day freezing rain and ice. As I arrived or waited on a line I saw women posing without their coats in order to show off an outfit, take the perfect fashion week photo and hope to be featured in the street style photos appearing in the online fashion magazines every day. They and I were surrounded by photographers taking our photos. Although I had lovely outfits, gifted or lent by designers, it never once occurred to me to take off my coat…BECAUSE IT WAS COLD. Once inside it was another story and sitting in the warmth with beautiful clothes certainly helped to mitigate the shyness that still accompanies me like an accessory into big events like fashion shows.

The day of the ice storm I had been given some incredible boots with heels to wear with a dress and coat from perhaps my favorite designer of the week. I carried them in my bag and put on my good old clunky Stutterheim rain boots with their cheerful red accent. I thought I could change when I got to the show. As I nearly slipped and fell 3 times, even in my appropriate for the weather boots, I decided to forego the perfect high heeled look for the sake of beauty and make a pragmatic decision in the service of self-preservation. I entered the show with my snowboots and took a seat.

However, the funniest part of this story is that all through fashion week every day I attended, I appeared in Vogue.com, each time my coat the prominent feature. The photographer, Phil Oh, who I got to know told me he loved my collection of coats! The day after the ice storm, when I checked, there I was in my beautiful grey coat, complete with my Stutterheims and their cheeky red stripe. The ladies with the strapless tops, slip dresses, super high heels and goosebumps were no where to be seen. The moral of this story: being you is always going to be the real star of the show.

What are you wearing when you are “doing you” and feel most yourself?