The Fault in My Clothes

I have an interesting sense of style. When I was a bit younger and even now people always thought I was a tomboy or some emo kid. In reality, I just like wearing what’s comfortable and cool looking. For the last 2 years, I’ve been having a problem with clothing. It’s not that I can’t find anything that looks cool, trust me I can find a lot of that, it’s more of finding clothes that are actually comfortable and don’t affect my eczema.

Not my favorite jacket

I had recently purchased an N7 Mass Effect jacket when my eczema returned. It was a pullover hoodie and had vinyl cuffs. The inside of the cuffs were completely different from the rest of the jacket. Everything else was super soft, where the cuffs were a bit itchy, which was fine until I experienced an eczema flare.

Creative solutions

It aggravated my rash by making it itchy, red, and swollen. That was when I realized that I had to stop wearing the hoodie or do something so my jacket wouldn’t trigger it. I eventually started wearing gloves under the hoodie, so that I could comfortably wear it without hurting my wrist. Sadly not every issue I had with clothing could be solved this easily.

And those jeans

I had a pair of jeans that I absolutely loved, but sadly over time, as my eczema got worse on my inner thigh, the jeans started to bother me. I did everything I could. I applied medicated lotions before putting my jeans on. I tried wearing comfy shorts under the jeans, which just lead to being more uncomfortable and was anything but attractive.

Not so lucky

After a while, I decided to not wear them anymore, admittedly they were getting slightly old, but I couldn’t justify wearing jeans that triggered my eczema. As cool as they looked, they were making me severely uncomfortable. Luckily, I found a few pairs of leggings that were amazingly cozy and looked rad as heck.

Inspiration

I really love the Outrun aesthetic. For those who don’t know, Outrun is kind of a subgenre of music and media. Think motorcycles, bright neon lights, leather jackets and lots of 80s themes. If you want some good examples, watch Blade Runner or Drive, and maybe listen to Gunship and PYLOT.

Learning to be cozy and cool

Anyways, I really love this aesthetic and most recently I’ve been slowly transitioning my clothing style towards it. I love wearing leather jackets, fun jeans that are ripped in a neat way or have a cool look to them, boots that are both fashionable and practical, etc. It took a while, but I finally found those types of items that didn’t worsen my eczema.

Success!

My jeans are super soft, they almost feel like a blanket. My new N7 jacket is a leather one that has enough room for me to wear cardigans under it. It was overwhelmingly hard at first, but once I started researching certain clothing brands and testing out what clothing feels good or not, it started getting a lot easier.

My solution

I still struggle when clothes shopping, but as long as I continue researching what fabrics bother me and try as much on before purchasing, I should be okay. I still have slip ups every now and then, like how I accidentally bought a shirt that was incredibly itchy a few months ago. But for the most part, what I've been doing is working and as long as I make sure that the clothing is cozy, then I’ll be happy.

Has clothing affected your eczema? If so, how?