links between fashion and confidence




Your style and the clothes you choose reflect and affect your mood, health, and overall confidence. Scientists call this phenomenon “enclothed cognition”, and Adam Hajo and Adam D. Galinsky, both professors at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University, write in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, write that enclothed cognition “involves the co-occurrence of two independent factors — the symbolic meaning of the clothes and the physical experience of wearing them.” The researchers had subjects perform tests while wearing a lab coat like medical doctors wear, a coat like painters wear, and while not wearing either coat. They found that subjects’ sustained attention increased while wearing the doctors’ coats in a way that their attention did not increase while wearing the painters’ coats or no coats. 
Similarly, Professor Karen J. Pine, of the University of Hertfordshire (U.K.) writes in her very short book Mind What You Wear: The Psychology of Fashion “When we put on a piece of clothing we cannot help but adopt some of the characteristics associated with it, even if we are unaware of it.” In the studies Pine conducted, as related in her book, one participant admitted, “If I’m in casual clothes I relax and am tomboyish, but if I dress up for a meeting or a special occasion, it can alter the way I walk and hold myself.” 
That is what Lisa Stariha, The Body Empowerment Coach, tries to instill her in clients. She says it is so important to “Get up, get dressed, and never give up each day.” Stariha, who often works from her home office, knows how comfortable it can be to work in yoga pants and a cozy shirt. But, she says, “to feel more beautiful, confident, and strong, you must change out of the yoga pants and put on clothes that give you power,” just as Wonder Woman went from her Diana Prince uniform to her kick-butt Wonder Woman costume. 
In 2014, car manufacturer Kia took a survey of what makes people feel confident, a few of the things included in the top 10 list for women included: high heels, a little black dress, and designer perfume. For men, the list included: a freshly shaved face, a new suit, and a nice smelling aftershave. 
Understanding the psychological dynamics of why the right-for-us clothing can contribute to our confidence, raise our self esteem, and help propel us in the workplace has become big business. Image, style, and branding consultants are hired by everyone from celebrities to the average Joe, with, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics more than 56,000 people claiming that as their occupation in 2014. Kim Peterson, of Uniquely Savvy, helps people champion themselves through personal brand and style analysis, body and color analysis, wardrobe analysis, personal shopping, and virtual style consulting for individuals, and more progressive businesses bring Kim in to do workshops for their employees on these self-empowerment topics. 
(HuffPost, 2017)


Confidence Dressing:
How Clothing Affects the Mind



Science is one breakthrough closer to understanding the brain chemistry behind our intense interest in clothes, and as it turns out, our outfits may alter how we approach and interact with the world. In preliminary findings from a study published on the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology’s website, subjects who donned white coats that they thought belonged to doctors performed better on tests than those who wore street clothes, or those who thought the coats were associated with artists. Their heightened focus was evident only when subjects actually put on the coat in question (not merely when they were in the same room). It’s no secret that assembling an outfit is like selecting social armor, and that what we wear has power over others (if there weren’t truth to the cliché “lady in red,” designers wouldn’t be making so many scarlet dresses), but this study shows if you have a strong cultural association with a garment, wearing it can affect your cognitive processes. This phenomenon is called enclothed cognition, meaning that if your brain links Calvin Klein's or Levi's clothing collections with smooth, cool and confident men or Prada's new heels with sexy, intelligent women then you’re likely to take on those attributes when you wear that clothing. 
(Vogue, 2017)

References
HuffPost. (2017). How Clothing Choices Affect and Reflect Your Self-Image. [online] Available at: https://www.huffingtonpost.com/jill-l-ferguson/how-clothing-choices-affect-and-reflect-your-self-image_b_9163992.html [Accessed 16 Nov. 2017].
Vogue. (2017). Confidence Dressing:How Clothing Affects the Mind. [online] Available at: https://www.vogue.com/article/intelligent-design-how-clothing-affects-the-mind [Accessed 16 Nov. 2017].


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