I proved it so many times in my life that something miraculous happens when you let it go and enjoy the flow. And I was about to experience it one more time.

On the morning of January 11, 2022, I took a plane from Cancun to Mexico City with a population of over 24 million people. It wasn’t the first time I had flown there, but it was the first in the role of a model-photographer traveling with three pieces of luggage. One of them, a big turquoise color suitcase, I safely checked in with overweight, for which I had to pay an extra fee. And I gladly did it without hesitation because inside was something priceless and beautiful.

Every time I fly on the plane, I read a book, sleep or/and do some work on my golden color MacBook. But this time was different. One hundred and twenty minutes of flight I spent listening to music and occasionally looking out the window, where the clouds were restlessly taking different shapes, playing an endless game with my imagination. At some point, I became an active player and stopped only when the pilot announced a coming soon landing at Benito Juarez international airport.

By the time I arrived at the hotel “Geneve CD de Mexico” it was 2 pm. I had only two hours before meeting a photographer Olga, who I had hired to do my first personal branding style photo session in a city. I liked her genuine-elegant artistic style, which resonated with my photography and the idea behind my new project, “Fine Art Lifestyle,” where I was planning to use those photos.

The photo session went very well, and the next day we met to take another set of photos for me. And that’s when I had to unpack my big, heavy suitcase and let the magic out.

The “Flying Dress” photo session is a liberating experience.

It didn’t contain anything mysterious or supernatural. It had twelve dresses, but very special – Flying Dresses!

Four of the dresses were meant to help shine four women the next day when I scheduled a collaborative photo session in Mexico City’s downtown (read about this at the end of the article). I had to bring twelve dresses to ensure that I had a backup. Initially, I wasn’t planning to wear a flying dress, but that moment on the plane, when I was enjoying an illusional, creative game watching the clouds, I realized: “Why not?! I also want to have photos in a flying dress!” And since I had extra flying dresses, I asked Olga to squeeze in my flying dress photo session in my second photoshoot.

Red is one of my favorite colors, and it’s timeless, vibrant, glorious, and passionate. That means it was the perfect color for a liberating “Flying Dress photo session” experience.

So, on the second day of my creative trip to Mexico City, I met with Olga at 10 am in the historic downtown Zocalo. Following our photography knowledge, we decided to take my flying dress photos on the street with good light – soft shadows with the playful morning gleams of the sun. And the creatively-liberating process started.

When I was getting ready for this trip, I didn’t expect to do my own flying dress photoshoot, but I surprised myself by doing it.

I was there to liberate myself from the wounds of the past, worry about the future, and celebrate my life in the present! And my red flying dress was a silent and soft companion, sharing with me the magic of the red color – courage and bravery.

I am a photographer and feel very confident helping people with posing, but I was scared when I stood on a crowdy street in a gorgeous red dress and a camera pointing at me. “Stop hiding, stop running away, stop feeling invisible,” – I told myself before stepping out at the spot Olga pointed to me.

And then she counted until three and I started walking in my red flying dress! Chin up, back straight, smiling and looking around me. Then, step by step, inhale-exhale; that’s when the magic happens – fear dissolves.

You don’t sit and wait for something good to happen, you go out there in the world, and despite all the crazy thoughts saying that you can’t be this or that, or you don’t deserve good, you DO IT. You make things happen! You and only you! You have all the magic inside to create the best life for you because – you deserve it!

Since my late childhood, I was self-conscious with low self-esteem, and I created an invisible cage around myself that was meant to protect me, but as I found out later, it did just the contrary. All those moments when I neglected myself and my feelings, I have been choosing fear and staying in my comfort zone. All those days when I felt invisible and was trying to be a “good girl” taught me that it’s the wrong way to happiness. In fact, at the end of that road lives only more fear and confusion.

My red flying dress photo session turned into a symbol of a liberating experience: I left in the past my two unhappy marriages and painful divorces, a physically abusive first ex, an emotionally unreliable second one, erythrophobia, and other consequences of a SAD, it’s the past, and it belongs there.

I am here now, and I love and accept myself as I am. I know my past, I am aware of the future, and I live now, not the next moment, just NOW!

Flying dress photo session – empowering woman and femininity.

At the age of forty, I finally agreed with what so many wise people told me: life is not about following someone’s plan but creating your own. Nobody knows all the answers. Nobody knows how is the right way to live a life. The population of our planet is 8 billion people, with around 10000 religions, 195 countries, and about 3800 cultures (according to some scholars). And every country has its own behavior that is considered appropriate and acceptable. So, is there one that is regarded as universal?

On the base of those numbers, it becomes obvious that empowering femininity will be understood differently in every culture. I perceive empowerment – as an action or set of events that makes one stronger and more confident. Thus empowering women and femininity is nurturing feminine qualities, and by doing this help, a woman becomes more confident. In this article, I focus more on my story, where a significant part of empowerment after my second divorce resulted from reinventing myself as a feminine woman using the power of the dress.

A dress has a long history. The first one (Tarkhan Dress), founded by archeologists, dates back to the dawn of Egypt around 5100 -5500 years ago. Since its invention, is turned into one of the women’s symbols.

You don’t sit and wait for something good to happen, you go out there in the world, and despite all the crazy thoughts saying that you can’t be this or that, or you don’t deserve good, you DO IT. You make things happen! You and only you! You have all the magic inside to create the best life for you because – you deserve it!

For me, there is this sense of a visual abundance in wearing a colorful dress at home, outside, and everywhere I go. Even during my photo sessions in Cancun, I was wearing a casual dress that made it easy and convenient for me to move around while taking photos.

I decided to do an empowering flying dress photo session on the streets of a big city because it symbolized liberation from the fear of being judged. Until a year ago, I was living my life being afraid of what other people think of me, answering “I am fine”, when in fact, I wanted to cry, hiding behind the perfect image of success and glorious achievements. And now I understand it doesn’t matter!
Elizabeth Gilbert writes in her book Big Magic: “Long ago when I was in my insecure twenties, I met a clever, independent, creative and powerful woman in her mid-seventies, who offered me a superb piece of wisdom.
She said: “We all spend our twenties and thirties trying so hard to be perfect because we are so worried about what people will think of us. Then we get into our forties and fifties, and we finally start to be free, because we decide that we don’t give a damn what anyone thinks of us. But you won’t be completely free until you reach your sixties and seventies when you finally realize this liberating truth – nobody was ever thinking of you, anyhow”. They aren’t. They weren’t. They never were.”

And here I am in one of the biggest cities in the world, walking along the main street in a red flying dress, exposing my athletic, not runway skinny legs, my arms and body, exposing myself to the people and gently getting rid of limiting thoughts “What will they think about me” and thus nurturing my spirit.
And do you know what people did? They didn’t care. Someone stopped for a moment, others just gave a quick look passing by, and many others were walking, trying to avoid being captured by Olga’s camera.

I realized that most of my fears and insecurities existed only in my head, and people around they didn’t judge. They may occasionally take a look, put a like on your recent photo on Instagram, and then continue with their own lives. Time is so limited that daily twenty-four hours is just enough to keep track of your own life and distract yourself by scrolling through social media. But it’s not enough to focus daily on someone else’s life.

I love this type of magic – liberation from my fears and feminine empowerment.

Even writing this article, as well as “How did I overcome the “I feel invisible” thought pattern?” was a breakthrough experience. I am no longer afraid to be vulnerable and share my past personal experience. I don’t want to follow those empty guidelines of perfection and high achievers that lead nowhere. Abundant and happy life has little to do with marital status and position at work, number of followers, likes, cars, diamonds, etc. It’s not about the number but the quality.

Empowered femininity has nothing to do with power and manipulation; rather, it’s about kindness, creativity, unconditional love, nurturing, tenderness, sensuality, warmth, beauty, intuition, grace, and support.

Go out there in this beautiful world, live your life, and don’t allow the question “What will they think about me?!” to stop you. They won’t, and you might all of a sudden become happier.

And on that day in Mexico City, I let my dreams fly again and let the flying dress forever stay a part of my mid-life rebirth. Because sometimes it’s not about therapies and reading books, and more about simple things, like wearing a beautiful dress. And suddenly, life becomes so much joyful. Maybe sometimes, when a productive lifestyle doesn’t work, we have to look for alternatives. So, how about the Italian lifestyle – “La dolce vita”?