Psychological Impacts
Trying to figure out what you’re going to wear to start your day can be the worst thing you could
do that whole day. It can also be the most satisfying. It’s all in the way at which you go at it. Of
course, the goal here is to not care about the opinion of others. However, we care. To some
degree this very task matters. Whether you’re dressing for an office job that requires you to be
dressed in business professional clothing. Or being a sales person on the show room floor at a
dealership. Maybe you’re an elementary school teacher you still have to put clothes on to do
your job (I don’t make the rules, but I can help you break some). Rules in fashion, that is. You
could be the smartest person in the conference room, but if you show up with wrinkled slack and
a stained button down, you might not be remembered for what you have to say versus the
person that’s showing up in a well-fitted ironed suit. Not because you’re not smart, but because
you’re not taking yourself as seriously as you’re thinking. Let me ask yourself this, if you’re on
the street are you going to ask a shabbily dressed person for directions on the street or
someone well dressed? The well dressed person looks like they know what they’re doing and
there inlays the disconnect. You are valuable because of what you know and what you’ve
learned. Lets also show people you’re that serious person with the first impression of meeting
you.
The age old adage “dress for success” is very much still a thing. If you don’t care what
you look like, great! However, not every person can be that relaxed when it comes to
appearances. No, being superficial isn’t what will come from adding a little flair to your closet
and care into your appearance. Confidence and a boosted sense of positivity might though. So,
if you hate those two things then I don’t know if I should be helping you at this point in your life. I
can, however, help you find a style that is completely your own and speaks for you without you
having to use your mouth. Studies have shown that appearance dictates how long a person will
hold attention and take in the information that you’re saying. Every person loves looking at
something appealing. That is a fact, why not add your wardrobe to that list. Easy on the eyes,
yet another adage that ages so very well. Would you rather look at a dumpster of trash or a
flower bed in full bloom? I’m not saying your outfits are trash, but without thought it could come
off a little messy and unorganized. You might not have never been taught the rules of fashion, a
lot of people haven’t. Just as you would take your car to a mechanic (car expert if you will) , why
wouldn’t you consult someone who is an expert in style and fashion? It’s not about money for
me. Of course, my time is important, the focus for me is to help you feel your best. We all have
things we get hung up on (no pun intended) things to make us feel insecure, sad, you name it.
Why not have a little spark to your day knowing you feel your best in what you have on. You
matter. Let me help you prove that to the world without having to justify it. Finding your own style
could be the first step you take on the self-love journey or it could be the bow on top of your self
identity.
Psychology of Dressing Well
Dressing yourself.. an everyday task that each of us have to do. What do our clothes say about us; do they say anything? According to science, they’re more or less the driving force of our personalities, whether we acknowledge that or not. Just as every individual has their own unique fingerprint, the same goes for style. Each and every one of us has developed our own style over the years. Turns out it’s not just what we say that can define us, what we wear tells a story about us as well.
In psychology there is this term called the Halo Effect. Basically, it says attractive people tend to be more intelligent, better adjusted and more popular. What psychologists have come to find is that we, as humans, will automatically categorize others before having an opportunity to evaluate their personalities. We categorize them based on cultural stereotypes. Attractive people must be intrinsically good and ugly people must be inherently bad. To a large degree what a person wears plays into this assessment. This is done with or without your acknowledgement, without you even speaking, and whether you like it or not. We also tend to pick up some nonverbal cues while doing this as well. Such as: how much power does a person have, their level of intelligence, even how much they might earn. None of us want to think we are so superficial as to make snap judgments of people based on their clothing, but we do.
Cognitive psychologists Hajo Adam & Adam D. Galinsky discovered while doing a three part experiment with white lab coats that whoever wore the white lab coat was associated with a variety of assumption based characteristics by those who viewed the person wearing the coat. The findings showed that clothing holds a symbolic meaning and influences people’s psychological processes with abstract concepts because of the symbolism attached to the item of clothing. Thus, coining the term enclothed cognition: the systematic influence clothes have on the wearer’s psychological processes. Clothing not only reflects personality, it encourages and even develops personality too. What we wear affects not only how others view us, but how we view ourselves. Personal style and clothing choices heavily rely on self-respect, a considerable amount of self-awareness and insight into how our appearance impacts us and those around us.
If we bring fashion down to simply an expression of who we are, why aren’t we all not putting more thought into it? We are always communicating and our appearance dictates how long a person will hold attention and take in the information we’re saying. So, if you want people to listen and remember you: dress the message. By dressing this way you non verbally tell everyone the type of person you are. It might surprise you how much your daily life could shift if you learned how to optimize this seemingly superficial tool of effectively dressing yourself.