I firmly believe that our clothes and moods are intertwined; if you’re wearing a cute outfit, your mood is automatically boosted, and so is your confidence. Moreover, wearing an outfit that may be well-fitted instead of loose-fitted certainly improves your confidence level. Emotions play a significant role in our clothing choices because, more often than not, it’s not just the clothes that we wear that determine how we feel, but also the feelings we associate with them.
Several studies have been conducted on this topic; “The Lab Coat Sample” is one of them. This was an experiment conducted in late 2013 by the Kellogg School of Medicine. This experiment involved two groups of people: Everyone was given a white coat, but the twist was that one group was told it was a doctor’s coat versus the others who were told it was a painter’s coat. The results were astounding! The first group – i.e. the doctor’s coat group – performed their tasks with greater concentration, as they subconsciously embraced traits associated with doctors: determination, focus, and engagement.
‘Enclothed cognition’ is the term sometimes used to explain the systematic effect that clothes have on the wearer’s psychological processes. Understanding this effect helps us understand why we wear certain styles of clothing in certain circumstances. Sometimes it may be a suit and tie to boost our confidence in an interview, to wearing a simple sweatshirt and shorts to blend into the crowd and remain unnoticed. Our clothing also affects how others relate to us, and it determines the self-image we project to them.
The more you like your appearance, the more confident you will be. This emphasises the importance of the short and long-term impact of our clothing choices — if we wake up in the morning and choose an outfit that is ill-fitting and drains our confidence, we will be self-conscious for the rest of the day, which will likely affect our behaviour. We may act awkwardly and become highly introverted. On the other hand, an outfit that makes us feel confident and empowered will have the complete opposite effect!
Our clothes, confidence, and mindsets and moods are, in fact, woven together, and the science behind it has been proven time and again as well!
