Can Fashion Transfer Your Energy?

Nieve Tierney believes in 'wardrobe healing'. Best of all, there's no need to buy anything new.

I’m seeing a lot on the rise of ‘woo’ recently. The Times reporting on the rise of Millennial religion, the NY Times asking if we’re having A Spiritual Awakening and then life imitating art when the majesty of Conclave came to life at the Pope’s funeral last week, (and who didn’t love those scarlet robes?). There’s the unstoppable rise of fragrance brands like the shamanically blessed Vyrao, and the explosion of ‘spiritual wellness’ and all that entails. Even bloody AI is getting in on the act, says Wired. So could it be fashion’s turn?

Nieve Tierney thinks so. An art director with a roster of luxury behind her, from Maxmara to Harvey Nichols, she has pivoted her career into energy healing. And now she’s bringing it to fashion.

Nieve Tierney can channel your fashion energy

Nieve does not look like Mystic Meg in the slightest - instead she looks like someone who could give you very good styling advice. We are on Zoom, and her manner is soft and kind, as she explains to me that harnessing your energy can help you win at life. “If your energy is feeling scattered, if it's feeling depleted, if you're moving through a particular energy challenge, I will support with that.”

As someone who travels to Ibiza a lot, I know the world is divided into people who believe in energy healing, and those who think it’s nonsense. There are also those of us who sit in the middle and believe there may be things out there we can’t rationalise, or don’t yet know about. A chief believer in mysticism was Coco Chanel, who loved her tarot cards, studied astrology, held great respect for the number five (obviously), and frequently wove these symbols into her collections.

Nieve has grown into this. Whilst working in fashion, she began to sense other people’s energy around her, and could see ways to harness and leverage it - her own and theirs. She began to practise it, found she was intuitively good at it and is now a full time energy healer with a roster of private clients in New York, Paris, London and Dubai.

But let’s step back a little before I lose you all.

You’re all probably thinking What’s she bought this year, how’s this going to help me with my Rule of Five? Bear with me. If Rule of Five is all about helping us leverage what we already have, this could be a way of looking at your wardrobe with a new set of eyes.

What is energy? We all know people who can put us on downers. They carry negative energy with them and a short time in their presence can leave you feeling sucked dry. Equally there are those upbeat characters who raise everyone around them. Drains and radiators, I call them. That’s energy, according to Nieve. “We all hold this frequency, this vibration. Teaching how to better look after energy, how we can look at energy leaks, energy boundaries, optimizing it, is what I do.”

Inspired by Coco Chanel, Nieve has now written a book to “help people to consciously tune into this frequency that we all have, through the ritual of getting dressed. The book will share wisdom on colours, silhouettes and the textures of the materials you wear to change your frequency.” She suggests we use the book as a divination tool to answer a particular fashion dilemma - like what to wear for a particular event or a particular moment in your life.

Aside from being a really fun book club night, Nieve thinks it will also be a helpful way of circumventing the manipulative tools of consumerism. The fashion industry is a powerful manipulator, making us think of clothes in certain ways - what’s on trend, what’s relevant, what you ‘need’, but ultimately the success of how we wear something rests on how we feel wearing it. If a particular shirt makes you feel amazing - well, you probably look amazing in it too. We all have lucky jackets (or knickers), dependable LBDs, comfort jumpers, statement handbags and so on, that help us deal with situations in our lives - this book claims to go even further. A collection of 70 different archetypes, Nieve suggests you use it as a divination tool, like tarot cards: ask it a question, then open it at random to see where you land.

“There's a lot of psychology behind power dressing and the colours we wear,” she says. “If we wear red, we're going to feel powerful. There's a chemical change in our minds that takes place through colour. But the book goes deeper. What clothes are going to help me signal, not only to the world around me, but also to myself.”

Well, it’s one way to get more out of your wardrobe, so I agreed to give it a go.

And so we meet on Zoom, and Nieve wants to start with an energy clearing “to ground and anchor your energy ahead of the consultation.”

I’m quite staggered Nieve thinks she can do this over Zoom, so I just sit there while she looks away, tuning into my energy. This is the first time we have met and she knows nothing about me, but here’s the thing. She starts to make some observations about me that are insightful and relevant. I’m quite taken aback and I ask her how she’s doing it.

“We all hold a frequency,” she says, “and this frequency is connected to the moon above us, to the ground beneath us, and we're always doing this dance of energy with the world around us. And because every single thing is connected, I'm able to connect into your frequency just through the ripple of connections. I'm able to read what's going on with your energy field, where traumas may be stored. I'm able to ascertain the kind of self-talk that you might have, what's going on with your throat in terms of words you're saying to yourself, words that you're saying to others.”

She goes on to tell me my “BS radar is very high,” which is helpful in journalism and also why I’m trying hard to reject a lot of the quite personal and private things she (a complete stranger) is telling me about myself.

How could she possibly know?

“The most talented artists in the world have such a sensitive energy because they're able to see colours other people can't see. They're able to have visions of what the world can be. They're so sensitive to this world around them, they're able to create from that place of sensitivity when other people are looking at the world in black and white. Poets have it, artists have it, but also traders have it, their ability to know when to buy, when to sell. They have this ability to be in tune with the world at large.”

She then gave me an ‘energy clearing’ via a meditation, intending to “flush out heavy energies I can tell that you're holding around your hips and lower stomach area. These are often very old energies around those parts of your body. We have this highway of energy that courses through us marked by chakras.”

After 15 minutes with my eyes shut, I feel exhausted. Nieve laughs and says that’s quite normal as I’ve just been to the energy gym.

Now we are ready for our fashion oracle consultation, and apparently I need a question. “Some people might find they're always reaching for the same things and they just want to feel a new energy and wear something different, or there might be something coming up where they'd like some energetic support.”

I decide to tell her something I have noticed about myself in the last year or so - that I’ve stopped wearing dresses and skirts and seem to wear exclusively trousers. I also have stopped wearing anything tight, and the few pieces I have invested in recently have mostly been oversized.

“There's a sense of not wanting to be fully exposed,” reckons Nieve. But while I love this new uniform, I do miss my feminine self, I tell her. “I think the question we could ask is how to step into the most up to-date version of your femininity,” she suggests. “Revisiting what femininity means to you at this moment.”

The way to use the book is to flick through it from back to front, until I say stop. And we see what comes up.

“Stop,” I say.

”Whoa!” she says. “Okay. So, we landed on The Mistress, which is interesting because that's a very powerful divine feminine energy.

“The mistress suggests to allow red to symbolize your strength, your confidence, and the unapologetic expression of your desires. The mistress archetype embodies themes of femininity, power, and allure. Chanel's visionary designs and her unapologetic attitude exemplify this archetype. A woman who commands respect and admiration wherever she goes. Wear red boldly embodying the essence of a sovereign ruler of your destiny. Commanding respect and admiration wherever you tread. Wear your confidence like a cloak and let your intuition lead you.”

An affirmation comes with each archetype and mine is:

I don't chase, I attract.

“Use red as a symbol of your strength, confidence, and an unapologetic expression of your desires,” says Nieve, advising a red lip, a red nail, or even a full head to toe red look. “What's nice is you have this permission to slip into this aspect of yourself that is wanting to be heard. An aspect that's saying, I am strong, I am confident, I am powerful. You can just simply be, and turn up in spaces confidently and have things come to you.”

I’ve been thinking about this for the last week and discover that my wardrobe is basically beige, brown, navy, black - and red. I do actually love to wear red. So I start to wear red with intention. And I paint my toes red. And I put on a bit more make up, and I feel good. It has also helped me see new outfits amongst the clothes I already have, as I try and weave something red into each outfit - even if it’s just a ring, (and I have a ruby ring, and a vermilion Solange lips ring). Nieve’s right, it does change things.

”There's just so much guidance and wisdom that I tell my clients all the time that I've woven into the book. It helps you connect to yourself in a more nuanced way, but it will be bespoke to you because of the divination aspect of it. Just flick through it at random and trust the message.”

My dear Rule of Fivers, I never thought I would be issuing you this advice, but for £16.99 or $19.95, you might just start to see the way you dress differently.

You can buy the book here or you can book a session with Nieve here.

Let me know how you get on!

Tiff