Fashion psychology: the language of your clothes

You don’t have to be a fashion enthusiast to realize the importance of how we dress in how others see us. Clothes come from that drawer of elements that we analyze when, for example, we are introduced to someone (fashion psychology). The clothes we wear allow us to project the self-image of ourselves that we want to show.

Even if we don’t mean to, the way we dress can tell others a lot about us.. Furthermore, what we want to convey with our clothes may not be what others interpret. In this article we will talk about fashion psychology.

Miscellaneous Scientific studies and psychological surveys have studied the true impact of wardrobe choices on the way we perceive and judge ourselves. among us. The different experiments have revealed surprising results.

Fashion is not just a thing for women

The belief that women are more fashion conscious than men is widespread. However, studies show that Men are more influenced by fashion than most of us think.. Contrary to common beliefs, Solomon and Schopler (1982) demonstrated that men are often more influenced than women when it comes to their personal dress sense and the way in which they are valued.

Furthermore, regardless of whether you are a man or a womanthe fashion choices you make can affect both your own image and the impression you convey to others. like the way people behave towards you. They can influence everything from the outcome of a sports match to an interviewer’s judgment of your ability to work.

In this sense, one study found that using the color red in sportswear would increase the probability of winning. Another investigation sought to find out to what extent an applicant’s clothing influences the interviewer’s perceptions of management characteristics and decisions to hire women for management positions.

Masculinity of clothing was significant in predicting perceptions of all management characteristics examined. Applicants were perceived as more energetic and aggressive when wearing “more masculine” tops. Applicants also received more favorable hiring recommendations for wearing more masculine clothing.

Fashion psychology: what your clothes say about you

Clothing and the way of dressing has not always been so varied within a culture nor has it had so much influence. The technical advances that have appeared over the centuries are what have made clothing significant.

At first, the main purpose of clothing was to keep us warm and dry, as well as protect us from the sun or dust. It was a matter of survival. Little by little, it was also given practical use to facilitate everyday tasks (for example, we see it in the inclusion of pockets on the legs). As technological means advanced, clothing began to become less important in terms of survival and utility.

Clothes no longer only help us survive and make our tasks easier. Thus, although it is true that clothing It has not ceased to be a practical tool, it has also gained significance in other fields. For example, we see how certain clothing or certain brands can come to represent a certain status.

In many societies, dress sense epitomizes wealth and personal taste. George Taylor demonstrated this with the Hemline Index (1926). Taylor pointed out that When a country enters a recession and adopts frugal spending habits, women often show a preference for longer dresses, while in times of prosperity the trend is the opposite.

A second key influence on our sense of dress is the result of millions of years of development as a species.. As with many animals, the concept of mate selection in evolutionary psychology suggests that our behavior is determined by our efforts to find a mate and reproduce.

The ability to choose an outfit also offers us a possibility: to differentiate ourselves, to make ourselves more attractive to the person we want as a partner. Think, saving the distance, of a peacock showing its fan of covert feathers when it is trying to attract a female to mate.

On the contrary, also we can use clothing to blend into a crowd and hide our individuality; for example, dressing in a uniform or adopting a more or less homogeneous style in a certain environment. How frowned upon is that of wearing a repeated dress, right?

Cultural influences on fashion psychology

Many of the research findings on the psychology of fashion and clothing choices are subject to society’s cultural values. in which a person lives. Cultural differences are important. In fact, not all cultures perceive the same qualities associated, for example, with a specific color.

It is also necessary to highlight that The superficiality of clothing choices is rarely the only factor, in terms of clothing, that conditions the image we have of others. or that others make of us. Thus, not only the clothes matter, but also how we wear them or how we put them together.

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