Credit: Unsplash, Burgess Milner
Clothes have a massive impact on our daily lives and how we style them. The weather can also influence how you dress. If your hair is not done the way you want it to be, it will ruin the mood and affect the way you look.
Clothes are a huge confidence booster. If you feel confident in what you wear, it will affect your emotions and attitude towards others. According to Juliette C, a French fashion designer, “Fashion psychologists term this relationship between fashion and your emotional state as ‘enclothed cognition,’ referring to the way clothes influence the psychology of the person wearing them.”
If the outfit is too tight or too baggy, you might have a challenging time enjoying your time out, especially if you are too focused on trying to adjust your outfit.
The choice of color can also decide the mood for the day. If you tend to wear brighter colors, you can come off as someone with bright energy, while someone wearing darker clothes can come off as gloomy and dark. As mentioned by Mental Health America, “Bright, warm colors like red, orange and yellow, stimulate energy and happiness while cool, subdued colors like blue, green or purple are seen as soothing and calming.”
This phenomena has to do with color psychology. “Color psychology (using colors to influence your mood and behavior) is a new science, and there’s some evidence it helps reduce stress, improve sleep, and more,” according to Mental Health America. Health and wellness writer, Stephanie Nicola, said that color psychology is used in product design. Orange and yellow are typically associated with joy and green is associated with contentment, she explored.
Going out with friends can also be a hassle for clothes, especially if no one clears up the dress code. This means feeling underdressed can affect the mood and bring down your confidence.
According to Hallie Abrams, a wardrobe consultant, she believes the term “Dopamine Dressing” means dressing for joy in order to release the peripheral hormone, dopamine. The point of “Dopamine Dressing” is to trick yourself to improve your mood even if you are feeling down or insecure.
So, what does this mean for SUNY Old Westbury students?
Around campus, you can see many students wearing all kinds of clothing brands and styles. Some students prefer to dress comfortably while others prefer dressing up for class. Wearing a specific clothing style to class can also change your mood or performance.
Bethany Watson, an alumni from SUNY Old Westbury and writer for the Catalyst, believes that clothes are particularly important to how a mood can change.
“When I wear my favorite outfit, I feel put together, but I feel very weird and awkward wearing something that does not make me comfortable. I want to always look and feel my best,” says Bethany Watson.
In conclusion, clothes are not just for putting on, fashion is a way of expressing oneself. Our sense of style when choosing an outfit can be to make a statement or to help boost your energy or even self-esteem.
