Inner wellbeing and clothes - are they related?
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Whatever we do in the day, there is one thing probably the majority of us do most of the days: To get dressed! There might be a few exceptions of some people enjoying their days without clothes, probably not so much in public since most of us live in cultures where this is not accepted, if you are a nudist you might enjoy your day without them. But for those of us who are not, we can probably associate with the idea of starting our day by getting dressed. Some might first wear their robe before picking today’s outfit and some might already have chosen their outfit the day before. Some might even have a uniform for work.
We’re guessing that many of you probably pick your own outfit for the day and that the majority of you care about what you wear (since you do read a blog about fashion). What you should know is that what we choose to wear does have an impact on how we feel. How we feel can also have an impact on what we choose to wear. For some, the clothes they wear are an expression of their personality, while for others it’s a routine they barely pay much attention to. What we wear does influence our cognitive behaviour according to research from Northwestern University (2012). It summarises that clothes do have a symbolic meaning and they call it “enclothed cognition”. This study showed that people wearing a lab coat in a research environment increased their performance on attention-related tasks.
We can imagine ourselves, how does a blazer make you feel? A suit? A dress? High heels compared to flip-flops? The study also showed that the feeling can be negative too, there can be certain clothes associated with negative emotions. What matters here is that it is not what item you wear, but what that item of clothes represents to you. For some, high heels might indicate power, strength and business while for others it might be discomfort and stress. Some might feel more comfortable and relaxed in a dress while others find it disturbing.
Further, how we dress and what we wear also signal different things which might result in certain social feedback. We might be embraced, noticed and complimented, which makes us feel good. Or we might experience certain looks and social exclusion depending on how we dress. What we can do here is to increase our awareness of how we view others and pay attention to if we have certain ideas about others depending on how they dress. Maybe there’s space in our hearts to be more curious about other people’s choices of clothing instead of judging them?
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Here comes our guide on how to get to know how your clothes related to your wellbeing
What clothes in your closet make you laugh?
What clothes in your closet make you feel confident?
What clothes in your closet make you feel relaxed?
What clothes in your closet make you feel productive?
Keep on exploring your clothes in relation to certain emotional states, next explore clothes in general:
What kind of style makes you want to get to know people?
What kind of style makes you interested in people?
What kind of style makes you want to work with certain people?
What kind of style makes you want to avoid people?
Maybe you can’t answer the questions or you realise you don’t care that much! No need to worry, that is great. We all want to create space for anyone to be whoever they want to be (including expressing themselves through their style), but this exercise can help you to figure out if you have any unconscious biases that you could work on.
This post is all about bringing awareness. If you want to use your insights to enhance certain emotional states through clothes, do it. It’s absolutely fine to keep on wearing whatever you feel like without paying too much attention. But if you want to go from a low mood to a better mood, putting on your favourite amour has scientifically proven to work!
So why not try it out?
Photo by Faruk Tokluoğlu on Unsplash