Getting dressed is a daily routine that we do without even thinking twice, some more consciously than others. It has become a part of our identity. We get dressed with the intention of feeling good in our own skin, to embrace our bodies, and communicate who we are through the style of clothes we choose. Our clothing of choice is our potential armor, especially on days when we do not feel our best.
You know what they say: you are what you wear! Fashion is an escape for some by expressing how they feel through their clothing. There are numerous ways of expressing your identity and how you feel through clothing. The clothes we put on our body reflect the way we would want people to perceive us and, most importantly, how we see ourselves. Also, the clothes and colors you choose to wear can even influence your cognitive abilities.
A good example would be the lab coat study. As we know, a lab coat is associated with being smart, intelligent, and sophisticated. Hence, when a person wears a lab coat, these characteristics symbolize the coat on their body and appear to have positive effects during their task performance.
This indicates that what we wear symbolizes a specific emotion in our identity, hence why we choose to express ourselves using fashion.
Enhancing Your Mood Through Colors
Colors partake a huge impact in our clothing and the way we express ourselves.
Colors can enhance your confidence and improve your mood. However, opting in colors that you do not usually feel comfortable wearing may boost your self-esteem without you realizing. Color is an integral to the identity we desire to convey through our choice of clothing.
Find out what suites you best and interpret it into your style routine. Do not be afraid to go towards bold colors that captivate you and enlighten your energy.
Purple boosts creativity, romance, luxury, and spirituality. Gravitate towards your higher energy.
Blue creates a calming atmosphere, responsibility, relaxation, and strength. Connect with your inner peace.
Green is all about growth, self-worth, a sense of stability, and harmony. Confidence is key.
Orange gives you energy, fires up confidence, movement, vitality, and a sense of welcoming. Orange is the new Black.
Yellow is the happy color of all colors, a sense of hope, caution, positivity, and calmness. There is nothing to be sad about when you are wearing yellow!
Red sparks inspiration, power, energy, importance, dominance, and passion. Who does not ever look good in red?
Black is elegance, sophistication, confidence, assertiveness, and edge. Black is always a statement piece.
Brown makes you feel humbled, wholesome, and friendly. You could never go wrong with brown!
White is minimalistic, virtue and, pureness. White goes with everything!
Should You Dress How You Want to Feel or Dress How You Are Feeling?
Dressing how you desire to feel is a way to express your state of mind and seek to shape others’ perception of you. However, fashion does not necessarily shape our perception of self-expression. Fashion influences the way we can be treated by others, which can impact our mental well-being in return. Although, following the latest trends can introduce people to be more accepting of you because you are following todays fashion of what is socially acceptable in the time frame.
However, clothes symbolize how we want to be looked at or treated and what social group we would be accepted into. This can impact your self-esteem since you are shaping yourself towards what society would like to see and the way they would want to accept you.
Acceptance for what we wear and who we are as individuals brings you peace of mind and can ultimately boost your self-confidence; you begin to feel more comfortable in your own skin, and that can positively affect you in many aspects, mentally and emotionally.
Why You Should Not Compare Yourself to Others
Comparing yourself to others can be harmful to your self-esteem because you try to imitate someone else’s style, and, when it does not look the same on you, you sit there thinking, “it looks so much better on them, why can I not look the same?” This can form a thin line between yourself and expressing your own style and can refrain you from going over that line, which then makes you aware of feeling uncomfortable with whatever style you put on.
The consequence of this situation can demean you from boldly expressing your true identity. This can form a cognitive dissonance with fashion.
The term cognitive dissonance is a psychological phenomenon. This can be an action that does not align with your personal values or beliefs that can lead you to feel discomfort in yourself, which causes mental unease. Changing our actions to align with what our own comfort looks like can reduce this mental blockage as we convince ourselves that this is how we want to feel and how we want to look.
If you realize that a certain style does not fit you, psychologically, you begin to feel uncomfortable and try to diminish those feelings by changing up your fashion sense. Alternatively, we choose to convince ourselves that the outfit we picked out is a way to symbolize a new part of ourselves.
Ways to Express Yourself Through Fashion
Experiment – Experiment with different styles and colors. Do not be afraid to opt in for brighter colors when you are feeling excited! Experiment with different shapes and styles and find out what suites your personality the best.
Find Your Inspiration – Go through Pinterest and find styles that match your energy, get inspiration that you relate to, and find out what you like and dislike.
Be Bold – Wearing a statement piece can enhance your outfit and your mental state, too! Wearing an item that is bold can defiantly give you a confidence boost.
Do Not Be Afraid – Leave your fears behind when expressing yourself through fashion. Use your clothes as armor!
Have Fun with Fashion – Fashion can be extremely fun, if you allow yourself to have fun. Find your freedom of choice with your clothes. Individuality is key to expressing yourself through fashion. Be bold, confident, and own your style!