Fashion & Flat Whites: Amy Abrahams
Amy is ready for anything in this gorgeous outfit, incorporating one of her current favorite pieces in her wardrobe!
How would you describe your style?
I would describe my style as bold classic.
I love bold color, I’m wearing a hot pink shirt today. It’s very rare for me to be in a muted or neutral outfit, there’s always some color in there. One of my favorite pieces at the moment is this amazing sequin skirt in a royal blue, I think they call it a princess blue, from Eloquii. I have nowhere to wear it, but I bought it anyway and it will live in my wardrobe for those special occasions where I can pull it out. I’m obsessed with it. The other favorite piece I have is a gorgeous jumpsuit, it’s called the Helena, and it’s from Embody Women via LeukBook. It’s incredible! It’s just beautiful, comfortable, easy to wear, it’s silver… it’s just gorgeous, love it.
What inspired your interest in fashion?
What properly started my interest in fashion is that I got a job with a fashion retailer when I was at university, I was probably about 22 or 23 at the time. I got a job as a part-time employee for Taking Shape, and I really enjoyed it. I enjoyed the clothing, and I enjoyed being able to see the way that fashion, styling, and clothing had an impact on people - on their confidence and on how they felt about themselves.
Taking Shape is a plus-size brand in Australia, and when I was 22 as a size 16, there weren’t very many of the plus size brands around. Watching women have that experience, and helping women have that experience, of going “Oh! I feel different!” or “Oh! I feel better!” or “I feel more confident,” or “I feel more beautiful when I have clothes that work for me!” really helped me build an interest in fashion and an interest in the power that sits behind it.
At one point when I was working as a store manager for Taking Shape, there was a woman who came into the store and she was probably on that size 14 to 16 cusp. She’d been wandering around the store and I happened to be one of the only people manning the concession at the time. I asked if I could help her find something, and she was looking for black pants, and I was like “Oh I’ve got some, I’ll show you.” I helped her style them, and it was all fine, she left with a pair of black pants. She wrote this amazing letter that stays with me to this day, where she called it crossing the aisle. It’s about this fear that we have sometimes about moving over into the plus size section - that stigma that is probably still around to some degree, potentially definitely still attached for some women, around that idea that once you hit that size 14 to 16, you rely on brands to be generous cuts, or even regular cuts to make sure that you can still shop there. Anyway, she wrote this amazing letter about that experience for her and how I’d make her feel comfortable, and she left with a great pair of pants, and all this sort of stuff. And then she became an area manager for Taking Shape later on. She was like, “That experience really stuck with me and I just knew that was a brand that I would like.” It was pretty cool! I like those stories.
“Mys Tyler, as a platform, is giving people the opportunity to see themselves reflected back in a fashion context. ”
Was there a turning point in your life where you started thinking more creatively when it comes to what you wear and how it makes you feel?
I can definitely pinpoint a time where I really embraced color really, which is when I started my Instagram account in 2020, just after I’d had my baby. There was a mindset that I was always waiting to be thinner again to get back to wearing clothes I loved. In the meantime, it was a placeholder. So in 2020, I made this Instagram account and the purpose of it was to really challenge myself. I needed to stop waiting to be this pre-baby person who, in hindsight, wasn't really living or maintaining her weight in a sustainable or healthy way. But, that’s a different story.
The reason behind my Instagram account, and why I called it wearthedamndress, is because I set myself a challenge that I was just going to start wearing things. I threw out everything that didn’t fit me anymore. I had tubs of “get back into pre-baby clothes,” and I just said to myself, “Nope, I’m going to wear what I want to wear.” And it was really hard, but that was the turning point for me being more openly creative with my fashion and my styles and what it is that I like and choose to wear.
That was the moment where I was like, “You’ve got to get out of your own head a bit. Nobody probably cares about this as much as you think they do, or as much as you do. So, you’ve got to just get out there and start wearing these things you always told yourself you couldn’t wear until you were thinner.” So yeah, that’s probably the tipping point for me in terms of being more creative and out there with my style.
It’s still so rewarding to hear people sometimes say, “If you can do it, I can do it,” or “If she looks like that in that dress, I’m going to go out and try on that dress.” That’s why I do this. That’s why I like it, and that’s why I got into styling, because I think that a whole lot of people feel the need to be seen by somebody who is doing fashion, and there’s a lot of incredible people out there doing it. That’s one of the incredible things about social media: it’s opened up a platform for people who have not been taken up by mainstream fashion and mainstream media to be able to show, “Hey! Here’s me, and my body, and what I’m doing, too!”
What is your profession, and how does what you wear impact your profession?
I’m an HR manager actually. I worked for Utility, but I just changed jobs into Consulting.
I wouldn’t say what I wear impacts my profession. I had to get myself out of that mindset of if you work in an office, there are certain things that you have to wear. I dress professionally, I make sure that I’m always appropriate for the office, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t play around with pattern, color, style as well. I do have field base work force, or if I’m going up to a board meeting, I’ll have a think about how I’ll tone myself down a little bit. But, having said that, there’s nothing that I own or wear to work that is not office appropriate. I really look at it as an extension of my personality. If I’m feeling comfortable and I like what I’m wearing, then I feel more confident and I do a better job.
I’m a bit lucky though that I work in HR, in an office predominantly with women. There’s less of that stereotypical pressure to try to compete with the boys or look like the boys, that kind of thing. That’s a challenge and a hard mindset to get out of, and unfortunately it’s something that still exists where we have to prove ourselves as equal. The hurdles ahead of us to get respect in the workplace are still higher than there are for men, and that can be harder for women, particularly when it comes to expressing ourselves through fashion.
Can you tell us a bit about your passions?
Styling is a reasonably new thing for me. I used to get a few questions about it through Instagram and through my blog, and I wasn’t sure if that was something I could do. But I did decide to get accredited, and that’s something really exciting that I have kicked off of. One of the main things that’ll be coming through with my styling is more of the Masterclass pieces, so looking at programs to help women focus less on the fashion rules of “How to dress for your shape” and all those sorts of things, maybe there will be elements in there, but really it’s more about how to unpack your mindset and rethink your brain to understand what it is that you want to wear, not what it is that you think you have to wear, and then work through that process with them to get the point where you can then talk about tips to play around with color, here’s some ideas for how you can dress for your body shape if that’s what you’re into. Really the focus of my styling is unpacking that mindset and trying to help people move past this is where I have to shop, this is what I have to wear, this is who I have to be, because that’s what everybody tells me. I love that about my styling.
I do have a written blog as well as my Instagram account, and that is again focused on fun pieces to challenge people’s perceptions of what they think plus size style should be. I do some fun capsule wardrobe pieces and capsule challenges with a friend of mine who’s also on Mys Tyler, @plussizestylefiles. We do some challenges focused on versatility of getting different pieces and how to challenge your sense of style to be able to get it to a point where it feels like you, rather than what you have to be.
I like having fun, and I’m a funny person, so my blogs are lighthearted, funny, and not too focused on current trends. It’s mostly about finding self-expression through style.
Amy rocking these beautiful, bold pink pants and a gorgeous white bodysuit top! Can’t forget about the accessories, either!
Can you tell us about your journey to body confidence?
It's an ever evolving process and involved a lot of unlearning about everything I thought bodies should look like. My biggest tip for anyone looking to start is curate what you see, review who you follow on social media, and seek out people who look like you, but also people who just look different to what mainstream media shows you. The more diverse your feed, the more you are likely to start changing your own perceptions about your body.
Also, accept this journey is ongoing. I still struggle some days. There is no magic bullet. It's acknowledging your days where you feel bad, but not letting them define you forever.
How did you find out about Mys Tyler?
I was very lucky to be an early Contributor! It was such an incredible concept, how could I not want to be a part of it!?
How has using Mys Tyler impacted you?
Mys Tyler, as a platform, is giving people the opportunity to see themselves reflected back in a fashion context. One of my biggest bugbears is where brands will say they’ve extended to a size 20, and I’m like “Amazing!” and I’ll go onto their website, and every single style was on a size 6 to 10 model. I’m like “Cool, I still don’t know how it’ll look on me! You do up to a size 20, but I literally have no idea how this will look above a size 6.” And then it plays with what sits in your mind when you don’t see yourself reflected in fashion, or reflected in society or media in general - it becomes really hard to convince yourself that you can do that, too. I love that’s what Mys Tyler is doing.
The Mys Tyler team has created this incredible sense of community and belonging for all bodies. Being shown such an incredible array of people with something in common with me is uplifting, and gives me a sense of belonging. It also gives me the confidence to try different looks and expand my style!
What's the perfect formula for a feel-good outfit?
Always something colorful, and I must say that's usually yellow or bright pink (or occasionally sequins). Even at work, I will find a way to sneak a hint of color into my look.
If you could tell your younger self anything, what would you tell her?
The problem isn't your body, it's how much you let other people's opinions weigh you down. One day you will see people like you doing amazing things and it will change your world.
If there’s anything you’d like readers to take away about styling from you and this interview, what would that be?
Styling can help you as a starting point to work out how you unpack or unlearn what you've always told yourself about what you should wear and help you start branching out. It can be tough doing it on your own, particularly if the opinions or beliefs of family and friends have impacted your view of yourself (in a negative way).
Amy wearing the Helena jumpsuit that she mentioned earlier on - looking absolutely incredible!! We can clearly see why she loves it!
Amy is one of Mys Tyler’s Contributors, inspiring women across the world with her classic and colorful fashion. You can follow Amy on Mys Tyler to be inspired below!
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