07 Jul Positive Vibes, Positive Minds: The Power of Clothing

It’s time for #RealTalk.

While we live in a culture that pigeonholes fashion into glamor magazines and in-your-face advertisements to beef up our closets, clothes can also be a lot more nuanced. What we elect to throw on each day can act as a visual representation of ourselves, expressing our culture, values, political views, emotions, and more. When you feel confident in how you’ve pieced together your look, it can liberate your mind and help you focus on things like work, art, and the world around us.

Opening up your closet means unlocking a whirlwind of possibilities. Through clothing, we can infuse our personal identity into what we choose to wear each and every single day. It’s like embarking on a creative excursion into our own self-expression and allowing our spirit and character to manifest into something tangible. Depending on how we feel, we can assume different roles and portray different aspects of ourselves to those around us as we see fit.

In the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, Adam D. Galinsky and Adam Hajo, two professors at Northwestern University, discuss a concept referred to as enclothed cognition. This concept, they write, “involves the co-occurrence of two independent factors — the symbolic meaning of the clothes and the physical experience of wearing them.” In other words, your personal style can both reflect and affect your confidence, mood, and even your overall health.

Clothing is a form of self-empowerment that can raise your self-esteem and help you exude feel-good vibes when you’re hustling at work or grabbing a cocktail with friends. Just like a tattoo, we can decorate our bodies with different types of clothing to showcase our individual style, while making us feel comfortable in our own skin.

There can be a whole conversation or interesting meaning wrapped around what we choose to wear – especially when we can switch it up depending on the circumstances or audience we’ll be around on any given day. As individuals, each of us are complex and fashion can be whatever you want it to be, catering to your needs as a person depending on your mood or state of mind.

In an interview with Thought Economics, Robin Givhan, a Pulitzer Prize-winning fashion writer, said, “In modern fashion, it’s interesting to see how designers are inspired by the visual arts and music. Yves Saint Laurent was inspired by the world of art… Mondrian… ballet and all those things. It was considered a wildly inventive and interesting way of expressing style and design.” Even designers are inspired by the world around them and incorporate artistry, imagination, and expressiveness into the clothing they create.

Just as music or artwork can inspire and move us, fashion has the ability to elicit an emotional connection between ourselves and our clothing., Just as a meme can cause you to erupt into fits of laughter or a #hashtag can cause your blood to boil, how you choose to dress your body can impact your frame of mind and verbalize your thoughts, feelings, and values.

Whether it’s a new pair of kicks or flattering new blouse, clothing is a great pick-me-up, helping us transform how we’re feeling inwardly to how we express ourselves outwardly. When our hearts and minds work together to radiate positivity through our clothing, it can be incredibly powerful and shape our lives for the better.

So, remember everyone, wear it, own it, rock it! #PositiveVibesOnly