Wear Proclaim | You are BEAUTIFUL
We are beautiful! You, me, them, us... beauty is part of us all. I am my biggest critic of myself but I think that is most peoples struggle. I think I can say I have become the most comfortable in my own skin in the last couple years. I actually think that is a strange thing to say because I have areas of my body that I hate since giving birth to my babies. I know some mamas would say embrace it and look at the stretched skin on my tummy as something beautiful. I get what they are saying but I don't embrace it the same way and I think that is okay too. There are other areas that I don't love too but what I have learned and continue to learn is that I am way too hard on myself! I think I see things in ways that are distorted and I am thankful for my husband and friends who tell me how crazy my thinking is.
Lately I have been embracing me. I am okay with the areas I don't love and I am doing what I can do to feel good in my own skin. I enjoy eating healthy. I love lifting weights. I wear what I want rather then worrying about whatever I worried about that led me not wear certain things. I don’t know what exactly trigged the shift in my head to embrace who I am and what my body image is but it feels good to embrace it. Maybe my age has something to do with. 30's so far have been the best!
All this to say, this is me. I have been created beautifully just like YOU. You too are lovely! Perfection is impossible. Life throws crazy good and crazy hard things our way but thats okay. You may look in the mirror and see the flaws but look past those and see what you love. Work on what you can and accept it all. Life is too short not to. So much joy comes when you learn that you are you, and that you were created with great purpose. YOU ARE BEAUTIFUL.
So here I am in this amazing bralett from Proclaim. A year ago I wouldn't have posted an image like this. Damn, I wouldn't have posted this 3 months ago. But here I am. Me. Embracing who I am and proclaiming that we all should embrace who we are and love those around us well.
Shobha is the woman behind Proclaim. She wanted to create a bra that would embrace all women. She wanted to embrace the beautiful truth that there are all kinds of different colors of skin and that "nude" looks different for each. She all women to feel cared for. So with that, meet Shobha.
Can you share a bit about yourself? My name is Shobha and I’m the founder of Proclaim. I’m originally from St. Louis and moved to San Francisco 10 years ago. My background is in Marketing and I worked in supply chain forecasting and market research before starting Proclaim.
So why bras? What inspired you to pursue creating a better bra? As a woman of South Asian descent, I was frustrated with the lack of “nude” bra options in my skin tone. It was something I had always been aware of and frustrated by for as long as I can remember wearing bras. I had come up with work-arounds to not owning a nude bra; sometimes the right shade of lavender did the trick of hiding under a sheer top. But I knew I wanted to do something about this issue that clearly millions of women deal with. On top of this, something that has bothered me is the lack of transparency in the fashion industry and not truly knowing what I was supporting when I spent money on clothes. How was it made? Who made it? How were they treated? If I was going to start a fashion brand, it would have to be one that aligned with my personal values of caring how things are made and the environmental and social impacts.
Before starting Proclaim, what did you do? My background is in business across different industries. My first job after college was at Target Corp in Merchandise Planning for women’s apparel. It was my first introduction to fashion retail. I had roles in supply chain at large corporations before moving to Market Research where I designed surveys for mostly government clients.
I love that you wanted to create “nude” tones that considered many skin colors. Have you found that has been encoring to women? I love hearing from customers that this is their first true “nude” bra. I’m happy I can be a part of the movement in the fashion industry to celebrate women that don’t necessarily fit a narrow euro-centric definition of beauty. I think it’s’ empowering for women to have that perfect nude bra – something they can feel good in and feel good about.
What are your hopes for the future of Proclaim? As we grow, I want to continue to expand our size offerings. We’ll be introducing new styles as well - there are so many wardrobe staples that women need in all shades of nude