The link between clothes and mood is so strong that we wouldnโt rule out the possibility of a doctor or therapist one day prescribing an outfit rather than a pill to combat feelings of depression!
Karen J Pine, Mind What You Wear: The Psycology of Fashion
Feeling excited about what to wear? Or at the same time, youโre confused about what to wear? Even sometimes you donโt feel like dressing at all! We all have our comfort clothes, few, that we wear almost all the time in our daily life. But there are someday when we reach to our wardrobe we feel like particular very fashionable not the very comfortable garment is calling us to wear her! I know it happens! If so, Wear her! It will enhance your mood.
Views of Psychology in Fashion
In Psychological Science by Janine Willis and Alexander Todorov, an important study was published that we determine someoneโs attractiveness, liabilities, trustworthiness, competence, and aggressiveness after just one hundred milliseconds of seeing them. After five hundred milliseconds participantโs judgment becomes more negative and confidence in judgment increases. Thatโs right. That is how much we take to judge them even we say donโt judge a book by its cover, but the fact is Book Cover Matters. The first impression is not maybe the last impression but the First Impression Matters, especially in the interview room! We donโt judge others by choice but itโs a sudden repercussion.
Mood Illustration Clothes
In very simple language mood illustration is that illustrate your current mood. When you dress according to your style, comfort, and mood. Everybody has a unique style. And Style is so different from Fashion. Well, I will talk about that later. For now, when you respect your emotional state and dress effortlessly that is when youโre illustrating yourself through your dresses. It can be simple, it can be bold does not matter, it all depends on your emotional state.
Until today we knew that uniforms are identification of who you are, they are but uniforms illustrate moods for particular work. If youโre a flight attendant and wearing your uniform properly that just doesnโt identify you but passengers also admire you more. The same goes for doctors. Patients feel safer with those doctors who wear white coats.
If somebody is anxious, going through some sad period, or depressed may wear pale clothes. Or even their clothes are okay they seem pale because of their hair or makeup. Hair and Makeup also come under Fashion right? Fashion does not mean only clothes. Fashion is Trend, trends are fashion. Whatever, the point is if a depressed person is looking pale, she or he is respecting and illustrating their mood through their fashion. So, the conclusion is a selection of clothes that reflects the full range of emotions.
Mood Enhancement Clothes
When you dress to conquer, when you dress to enhance or uplift your mood is mood enhancement. For me, maybe for you too, most of the day I wear sports shoes or sneakers with my jeans, or skirt. Thatโs me, that is my style. I feel so comfortable when I wear sports shoes. But there are special days I love to wear heels with my skinny or bootcut jeans. It lifts my mood instantly even they are not as comfortable as sports shoes.
Mood enhancement never means disrespecting your style or mood. Follow your mood and dress up a little bit extra. To enhance your mood you donโt have to change your total outfit you know! You can give little effort and as I told you a different pair of shoes can boost your mood. Or a leather jacket or a crazy color cat-eye sunglass can cheer up your mood for rest of the day.
I donโt know if you attended any cosplay yet, but if you dress like a doctor you will act like a doctor. On Halloween people do act like the particular costume they are wearing until they are overexcited, happy, or sad. Before I talked about how uniforms illustrate moods but here it also enhance our mood in a particular manner even we are not that person.
Fashion Incongruence
Fashion incongruence is having fashion anxiety. It is a fear that fashionable items are not for you. You considered yourself as a fashion backward girl/boy. Maybe you love fashion, you want to buy fashionable items but know that you canโt carry them. It happens when your favorite dress even gets negative comments from literally everyone negativity starts developing inside you that fashion is not for you. So basically when your favorite dresses are incompatible with you you became a Fashion Victim.
Fashion Fatigue
Fashion Fatigue is something when you become puzzled. This happens normally when you have a lot of choices to choose from. But why become fashion fatigued when you have a lot of options? Well, that cause mainly for one reason that is personal style does not match with your wardrobe collection. And after passing a few minutes maybe an hour, you choose your regular exactly particular dress for the hundredth time. In conclusion, you also suffer from Repetitious Wardrobe Complex. But when you continuously buy something you donโt like after some time, that time you need to realize that itโs time for a change.
Fashion Assimilation
When you dress to blend within a fashion-forward group or want to stand out from the crowd you assimilate fashion. Following fashion, all the time can be very exhausting not to mention expanding a lot of money. Not a problem, you have money, so you spend it. But how are you feeling did you ask yourself? You look cool not a question but do you want that street fashion style? Or rather you want classic chic but in your mind classic means old school? Consider again.
Fashion Effects 3rd Personโs Psychology
We know how clothes impact our mood also illustrate it. This illustration can leave for a third person. When you see a person wearing any clothes, any, your mind receives signal automatically. If you see a person wearing formal attire on Christmas eve, either youโll think oh! this man is doing his job even today and that can make you a little sad or satisfied that you are not doing office on that day. You also can think of other ways that he does not have any style sense. As well as you send signals if youโre wearing a particular dress. For ladies, the red dress can be very tempting to men. Disclaimer ladies! I am not saying you dress to provoke or something but every color and dress code has its language.
Did not you think when Kim Kardashian cover herself in a black Balenciaga look at the Met Gala, 21? You may not judge in your conscious mind. But you thought what was she thinking, or whatโs the concept behind that dressing? Well, I thought. I am not a fashion designer, not an influencer, I research and write. I love fashion. But that does not make me Fashionista! Not in a bad way, but in a good way, I tried to understand her dressing many times. But you know thatโs not the point. The point is we get the first impression after just 100ms as I told you before. So, we all thought something after right? Shhh ๐คซ
These unspoken communications happen all the time when we are in public places. We judge in our unconscious mind. Donโt feel ashamed for that. That is all fashion psychology.
Self Expressing
Ther are Fashion Followers. But within them, there are Fashion Victims also. I love fashion, thatโs why I research and write. But I donโt follow them all. Because I donโt wanna be a victim. No, I am not saying that the following fashion means you are a fashion victim. Pushing yourself too far for what youโre not is a fashion victim. Sometimes I think fast fashion is not my thing. Nowadays, most of the time I like to stay in neutral colors. That is what I am. Just because I love fashion, does not mean I have to follow neon colors (Just saying).
In history, people wore clothes according to their position in society. The lower the class was poorer the material was. The lower classes used non-tailored clothes. While upper classes had their tailors. That self-express. So, you see, self-expression through clothes is not a new thing, itโs coming from centuries. But if you are not expressing yourself but just following what an influencer or celebrity is doing thatโs not a clothโs purpose. In this modern era donโt forget not who but what youโre. Find your style.
Specially we ladies, have dresses in our wardrobe we donโt like it anymore. That is what exactly happens when you buy on a craze following fashion. I think We all are fashion victims at some point because it takes time to find your style. At least after twenty, I guess. Once you have a clear sense of what you are, the confusion while choosing a dress reduces. Because you start to buy accordingly to your taste and your wardrobe fills with all your favorite dresses.
Fascinating Facts on Fashion Psychology
- Red color signifies authority, and power and Blue represents peace.
- Neutral Colors (Blacks, Blues, Browns) are the best for Job Interviews.
- People who dress more professionally are more likely to get jobs and promotions.
- Women dress more provocatively when they are ovulating.
- For Women, 90 Percentage of them have a dress they didnโt wear a single time. For men, itโs 30% to 35%.
- Colors have effects on a personโs emotional stage. Right colors can make people feel less anxious.
- A wide shoulder line creates an illusion of a smaller hip.
- Men check themselves in the mirror twice as times as women do,
- Quality matters. Quality clothes boost confidence.
- Sports attire boosts energy.
- Colors impact Sports performance, for example, red colors boost performance.
- If you wear everything in one color, that will blur dividing lines and you will look slimmer.
- Human eyes travel slower across patterned designed clothes and that makes the body look larger.
- Ladies wear jeans more while depressed. Itโs not about India, where to go to pants is jeans.
- Ladies wear a suit in interviews because female candidates who dressed in a masculine style are more likely to get appointed than the female candidates who are very feminized.
- Only half of the men have more than ten pairs of shoes as compared to women.
- Men buy clothes after trying, is twice the number of women who buy clothes after trying.
- People approach faster to someone who is wearing red than blue.
- Men approach women for dates if she is wearing red.
- Conflicts receive a harsher sentence if they are wearing Black.
- We do think that men notice face and body first. But no. Men notice the dress of women first. While women noticed their faces, and eyes first.
- Women Wear less than half the cloth they own. Of men, itโs 20 percent of them do that.
- Women better perform in math while wearing sweaters than wearing swimsuits.
