Fashion: A Means Of Gaining Confidence

~Manika

Fashion is something that comes from within you

~Ralph Lauren

What is fashion? Have we ever asked ourselves this question? It is a form of self-expression. It is the way of dressing, walking, and behaving in a certain way. But it doesn’t end here. Fashion is evolving. Most importantly it is the way you feel, make yourself look, and project yourself to the world. Fashion has different meanings. It means different things for different people. You can define fashion in a way and I can in a different way.

Image Associated With Styling

We spend our mornings standing in front of the mirror deciding what to wear. We choose a different ensemble each day. We wear a certain piece, which we feel skeptical about when we are feeling confident, happy, or adventurous. Why do we wear different clothes to work, different ones to sleep and different ones when we work out. Even though we wear comfortable clothes, we still prefer to change to bodybuilding clothes while we work out. It is because it gives us a sense of eating right and looking after our fitness goals. According to a study from Northwestern University clothes can influence the way we think. According to the research, enclothed cognition is a phenomenon where clothes influence our thinking and psychological state. Clothes associated with a specific event or purpose affect our thinking. We behave and act in the particular way that the cloth expects us to and the image associated with it.

Psychological Effect

We all dress up the way we feel, When we feel nice and happy we often dress up nice and wear our favourite clothes, as per the New York Times. When at home we are tired and want to relax, we wear our comfortable clothes. But when we are out, suppose in a meeting we wear trim and proper, professional clothes. It is because clothes communicate, they project our personality and the person we are. So we wear our comfortable, stylish, favourite outfits when we are happy, energetic, going out, etc. It is at that time when we feel very confident because we know that we are feeling comfortable, we walk in proper posture, we know we are looking fabulous so we feel happy and confident and as a result, we radiate that confidence and happy energy around.

On the contrary, if we dress up in a way in which we feel uncomfortable or we feel we are not looking nice. We would seem anxious and thus will look that way only. So the way we dress up and the way we see ourselves in that dress decides the way we feel and project ourselves.

Effect on Mood

When we wear clothes that suit our style and when we feel cozy we ooze confidence and believe in ourselves. Our attention is directed towards the situation at hand rather than thinking about how others perceive us. When people compliment us we become more certain of our style and our sense of dressing up and feel confident of our clothing choices. Hence we become firm in our decision-making ability and gain confidence in the process.

People perceive what we express. We reflect confidence when we actually feel it, happy and alive. When we wear vogue outfits or the ones we believe compliment us and bring the best out of us, we become confident.

Fashion indeed makes us confident.