Stacy London says her work on the "Uncover Your Confidence" psoriasis campaign supports her mission of helping people look and feel their best.
The New York style guru also has psoriasis herself and is happy to advise people dealing with the immune-mediated skin disease through UncoverYourConfidence.com, a website set up by AbbVie, a research-based pharmaceuticals company.
"AbbVie approached me after my book came out. I talked a little bit about having psoriasis on 'What Not to Wear,' but not extensively. But I did talk a lot about it in the book and, certainly, as a kid, it's not like I was filled with confidence, and, so, it really has been this kind of perfect storm for me -- to [not only] be able to talk about my personal experience, but to be able to put my skill set into this particular campaign, which is about empowerment and, certainly, about patient advocacy," London told United Press International in a recent phone interview.
She went on to say she wants people with the skin condition to know "psoriasis is just a part of you, like your height or your weight or your eye color and you can either work with it or against it.
"If you work with it, chances are you're going to look better and feel better and be able to accept yourself more wholly," London said. "It's not about hiding. I think that goes for style in general. If you don't like something about yourself, you don't hide it because hiding already implies shame. It's about conscientious camouflage in a way that you feel like you're putting your strengths forward and whatever you think are your weaknesses, you are just conscientiously camouflaging. That [feature is] not what you lead with."Organizers of the campaign said it aims to provide people living with psoriasis with resources, support and style information to encourage them to take a proactive approach to their condition.
