About The Girl Behind “Story Behind The Cloth”:

Hello! My name is Alissa Ackerman.

Some people call me Ashley–because that’s my middle name and they get confused by all the “A”s.

Alissa. Ashley. Ackerman. Aa A Aa…
…1, 2, 3, 4, 5 A’s–*phew*…

Also, yes, if you were wondering, all those A’s put a lot of pressure on me as a kid to do well in school
–despite being homeschooled and not graded!–
I felt it couldn’t be in my nature to get just A’s…They had to be A++++’s (You know, one A for each A in my name…).
Talk about perfectionism? A bit of a nightmare, i’ll confess, with a lot of self-doubts.

–Silliness aside–
I grew up with a love for learning, creativity, and exploration side by side.
Sketching people and “fashion collections” from a young age,
going on road trips and serendipitous adventures,
studying overtime and self-directing my education in my teen years (my greatest pride as well as insecurity)…
Often combining multiple creative projects with my studies to double the fun.

That leads me here to Story Behind The Cloth.
A Blog i built in 2015 during college as both an outlet for creativity
and for exploration of philosophy, psychology, and humanity through fashion.

It’s been an imperfect journey, but here we are!

Enjoy reading some of my journey backwards, via the following blog posts! 😛

I find my time getting dressed to be very therapeutic. Especially as somebody with wacky mental health! I have depression, anxiety, bipolar, ADHD, and PTSD–managing my wellbeing is a balancing act! There are many different parts to my journey towards wellness–Spending time exploring my personal style is one small but extremely impactful component. Getting dressed up gives me time and creative opportunity to slow down and remember the person whom i want to be.

I love juxtaposition, duality, contrast, dialecticality… No person or thing on earth is just one thing…And we even, often, “contradict” ourselves… Our quirks are what make us beautiful and unique. And i think the most beautifully interesting styles are the quirky, juxtaposed, “contradictary” ones, too, because they embrace the weirdness of individuality.

I am a wild but docile, perfectly imperfect walking “contraction”.

I am idealistic and cynical, bubbly and introverted, emotional and stoic, strong and delicate, blissful and melancholic, adventurous and cozy, hopeful and jaded, friendly and skeptical, open-minded and decisive, curious and complacent, optimistic and unsure, lovelorn and independent, peaceful and chaotic, opportunistic and cautious, dutiful and rebellious, silly and serious, quiet and talkative, playful and responsible, organized and scatterbrained, sentimental and forgetful, intelligent and hungry for knowledge, humble and proud…

I love all things creative
–whether i’m part of the creative process myself,
or just watching in admiration of the creativity of another.

My favorite form of creativity is personal style.

Why?:

• It’s intimate and personal,
• It’s accessible and everybody participates in it to some extent, 
• It’s with you wherever you go, 
• It builds confidence, 
• The options are nearly endless for expressing yourself
your way if you open yourself up to explore, 
• With each passing year, we get more ideas to work with
as designers play with new silhouettes and create new fabrics.

I use fashion as a tool for exploration and therapy every day.
Getting dressed each day helps me check in with how i’m feeling
and set goals and intentions for the day ahead.

I enjoy exploring personal style in light of life stories–Our clothes are capable of speaking something deep about who we are if we allow them.

My passion is seeing people honestly, genuinely and fearlessly express themselves, and fashion is a beautiful and comfortable step in the journey of self-discovery and expression.

My desire is to help you discover the styles and pieces that best express who you are, and why that is, and give you the confidence to own that.

I’ll also mention: i don’t capitalize “i”, except for emphasis, as a statement of equality–i’m no greater than you, him, her or them…so why should i capitalize “I” and not “You”?

I’m excited for you to join me in a journey of self-discovery as we uncover why we dress the ways we do, and how we can confidently express who we are!

My other interests include (but are not limited to):

Dancing (modern, ballet, salsa and ballroom, jazz, hip hop), deep conversations with fascinating people, organizing (I know..weird interest!), music, hiking and being outside in nature, photography, anthropology and culture, movies, design, fictional (especially screenplay) writing, sketching, history, singing (if nobody hears me, heheh…), painting, travel, creative cooking, scrapbooking, long meditative drives/car rides, roleplay video games, puzzle and strategy or mystery games, and politics (i’m a left-leaning independant, if you were wondering–I value all opinions, though, because we all have reasons for arriving at them and i strongly believe that nobody is perfectly correct, anyway, including myself–we’re always learning and growing).