The Psychology of DRESSING

Deep dive into the link that ties fashion and the state of mind.

- TAN SU FEN

Here is a reason to dress better — it can make you feel better, and perform better even. The premise is all over the sayings we are familiar with. Dress the part. Dress to impress. Look good, feel good. The clothes maketh the (wo)man. The clothes we put on every day tell a story about who we are, and they can also affect our emotions and moods. The big question here is: Why is what we wear so important? Let’s get down to it.

Essentially, fashion and psychology are inextricably linked. To quote Prof Caroline Mair, “Fashion is psychology”. The behavioural psychologist would know — she was the Full Professor of Psychology for Fashion at the London College of Fashion, University of the Arts London, where she developed the world’s first Bachelor’s and Master’s degree programmes to apply psychology in the context of fashion. What we wear is important because it is “a way of showing ourselves to the world, of showing our identity,” Mair shares. “They align us with certain groups and distinguish us from others. They also enable us to change our identity, or to show an identity that we would like to have”.