Most of us take selfies to capture a moment, share online, or just feel good about ourselves – but snapping a quick photo can serve a number of additional purposes.
In a recent video with KLOSS Community, supermodel Aweng Chuol shared some of her most iconic selfies, alongside a habit she swears by that can do wonders for your self-confidence.
The South Sudanese-Australian model, who has walked for top fashion houses and graced the covers of major magazines, flipped through snapshots of her life, with everything from candid shots in kebab shops to glamorous pics at Madonna’s parties.
Ranking her favourite behind-the-scenes pictures, she chose a candid shot taken in a lift in Tenerife, which is one of the numerous selfies in her camera roll.
‘When I’m inside an elevator alone, I always take a selfie,’ explained Aweng
‘Sometimes I don’t even post the images, I don’t even show the images, I just do it for myself but it’s just to have a look at how I left the house. I want to just see it on my phone.’
Megan Watkins, head stylist at Silkfred, recommends the ‘simple yet effective styling trick that can help elevate your outfit’ to all her clients when curating their style.
‘Sometimes an outfit can look great in your head or even in the mirror, but capturing it on camera gives you a more objective view,’ she tells Metro.
‘You can spot if your outfit needs more structure if accessories are clashing or if the fit is slightly off.’
She says it’s a great confidence booster too, commenting: ‘When you see your outfit from a different perspective and love how it looks, it naturally gives you that extra bit of confidence before heading out the door.’
These aren’t the only benefits though; looking back at the picture can also help you assess colour combinations.
Megan explains: ‘Seeing your outfit through a photo helps you pick up on whether tones are complementing each other or if you need to break things up with a different texture or pop of colour.’
And once you make these for-your-eyes-only selfies a regular part of your routine, you’ll gradually ‘create a reference bank of looks you feel confident in, making it easier to put together outfits in the future.’
Bear in mind before you start, you might find the stark contrast between how you look in the photos and how you look in the mirror getting ready strange initially.
The version of yourself that you see in the mirror has been reversed from front to back, with your facial asymmetries flipped.
Over time, you get used to seeing yourself this way, which is why photos can sometimes feel jarring.
According to aesthetic doctor and founder of Age Well, Dr Sophie Shotter, this phenomenon is called familiarity bias.
‘When we look at ourselves in a mirror, we see a reversed version of ourselves. Our brain gets used to this version and prefers it,’ she tells Metro.
‘Which is why when you see a photo, which is how others see you, it can look slightly off as it’s unfamiliar to us. This can create a disconnect where we prefer a mirrored reflection over our photographed selves.’
Lens distortion is also an important factor, as Dr Shotter adds: ‘Camera lenses, especially phones and wide-angle lenses, distort our proportions. They can make faces look stretched, squashed or skewed. Mirrors don’t do this.’
Try not to get discouraged if you don’t like what you see from these initial pictures. If you power through and keep up your selfie-taking ritual, you’ll be feeling like a supermodel in no time.
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