Last weekend, I had the most magical time at Scarborough Renaissance Festival — and not just because of the turkey legs, the jousting, or the incredible artisans. It was the people that moved me most.
Everywhere I looked, I saw bodies of every shape, every size, every age — draped in velvet, lace, corsets, flowing skirts, and armor. And every single one of them looked radiant. Not because they fit some narrow standard of beauty, but because they were dressed in exactly what made them feel alive.
The Renaissance Faire Is a Permission Slip
There's something almost revolutionary about a renaissance faire. The moment you step through those gates, the rules change. Nobody is dressing for the male gaze. Nobody is dressing for the female gaze. People are dressing for their own gaze — for the version of themselves they see when they look in the mirror and feel like a goddess, a warrior, a queen, a woodland fairy, or all of the above at once.
A woman with a full, beautiful figure in a stunning emerald corset, owning every inch of herself. A petite woman in an elaborate fairy costume with wings taller than she was. A man in full knight's armor, beaming with pride. Teenagers in matching peasant dresses, laughing and twirling without a care in the world.
No one was asking, "Does this make me look...?" They were asking, "Does this make me feel like ME?"
What If We Brought That Energy Into Everyday Life?
Here's the question I couldn't stop thinking about on the drive home: What if we dressed like this every day?
Not in full renaissance regalia (though honestly, no judgment if you do). But with that same spirit — that radical self-approval, that refusal to shrink yourself to fit someone else's idea of what looks "right" on your body.
We spend so much energy dressing for external validation. We ask our friends, we scroll through trends, we wonder what people will think. But the most confident people in that faire weren't thinking about any of that. They were thinking about how they felt. And it showed.
You Are the Only Gaze That Matters
At Call Me Goddess, this is the energy we're built on. The name isn't aspirational — it's a reminder. You already are one. The question is just whether you're dressing like it.
Body positivity isn't about loving every inch of yourself every single day (that's a journey, not a destination). It's about making choices — including what you wear — based on what lights you up, not what you think will earn approval from someone else.
So the next time you're standing in front of your closet, try asking yourself a different question. Not "Will people think I look good in this?" but "Do I feel like a goddess in this?"
If the answer is yes — wear it. Own it. Walk out the door like you're entering the faire.
Because you are.
💛 Dress for your own gaze. Always.
