How Does That Make You Feel?

Fashion’s Impact on Our Emotional Wellbeing

Many of us are aware fashion isn’t just about appearances. Psychologists have published many studies over the last few years showing the profound effect clothing has on our mental health. What we wear affects how we perceive ourselves and others, while also affecting how we preform tasks. (Enclothed Cognition by Hajo Adam and Adam D. Galinsky, Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, vol. 48, Issue 4) We shape our personal style based on how it makes us feel. When we get dressed in the morning what we wear sets the tone for the day. Choosing to wear clothes that fit our personal style can boost confidence, empower us, and build self-worth.

This begs the question: if it’s so impactful, why isn’t everyone doing it? A large factor is developing personal style requires a period of trial and error and with such, the risk of rejection. Our confidence is frequently tied to our personal appearance and the fear of being viewed as socially out of step can keep many people from experimenting with their clothes or even wearing what they feel comfortable in.

It’s interesting to note, in 2020 while a large part of the world was staying home and cut off from social contact, those interested in fashion began using their newfound free time to discover their own styles and aesthetics. For the first time in most of our lives we had the opportunity to experiment with our wardrobes and experience our own taste and flare without the fear of outside judgement. If we liked what we put together we could upload a picture on our social medias and bask in the praise of our mutuals in the form of likes, shares and comments. If we decided we didn’t like the outfit we wore the solution was simple; don’t post it. We could chalk it up as a lesson learned and no one would ever have to know how ridiculous we may have looked while trying something new. We also had the advantage of accessibility. With the rise of brands like Shein and Temu, and the moral implications of creating a fast fashion supernova not yet fully realized, we had all the means for dressing however we wanted literally at our fingertips.

Now days we may not have the advantage of testing new outfits and aesthetics out of the public eye, however, resources are anything but scarce. Why then, have we stopped playing dress up? Lockdown was five years ago and rather than encouraging individual styles we’ve fallen prey to a whirlpool of micro trends drowning us in overconsumption.

That brings us to the topic of sustainability. The word has graced the headlines of newspapers, magazines and blogs all over the world in the last five years, but has anything really been done about it? The pertinence of the subject seems to have grown from our own crippling buyer’s guilt. No doubt sparked by the sheer amount of waste produced by the fast fashion industry. Buyer’s guilt alone seems to be our beacon of hope that the public’s minds are becoming more environmentally aware.

The industries have become aware too, however, and have proven themselves more interested in sales than in actual beneficial change. Thus sparking controversy and the birth of “green washing” as a means of falsifying their claims of ecological responsibility.

Now the consumer is left going through the five stages of fashion grief. First denial, that anything was truly wrong. Then anger over the fashion industry betraying the environment. We bargained with our own conscious when buying new clothes, (“The label says 100% polyester, but the sign says sustainably made…”) until finally, finding ourselves in the depressing reality that unless we change our shopping habits, the industry is not about to change its manufacturing practices.

So what’s next, acceptance? I think not. In our present economic and environmental climate we’re seeing all the signs that usually point to a recession.  Whether this truly means we’ll be growing our own gardens or opening our homes to boarders is yet to be seen. However, the aesthetic of the mindset is already here. We see it in the growing popularity of minimal living, longer hemlines, natural color pallets and thin, willowy body types being romanticized by the media.

As always, there is an optimistic way of viewing this, as people lean towards “recession era” mindsets the demand for long lasting products grow. If the common thought process is that we will have to grow our own food to eat, we’re not going to want to garden in jeans that give out in the knees after two washes. Already we’re seeing a collective interest in learning a craft or trade. This is reflected in the fashion world as a growing interest in Japanese brands (Cottle, Garcons, and Yohji Yamamoto come to mind.) that are recognized for putting a greater emphasis on the craft and longevity of their clothing than many western brands.

I’ve heard the phrase “late-stage capitalism” thrown around a lot lately, though it may or may not be true, I find it interesting when we feel our way of life as we know it is facing immanent change our instincts lead us back to the art of creating with intention. Whether the intention is to survive or simply to create something more meaningful differs on the individual. When we find ourselves romanticizing the holes in our jeans with hand sewn patches or buying a new shirt from a brand that hand dyes their collections one piece at a time, the message is clear; we want to feel something.

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-Coco Elouise Marie