Fashion + Psychology
Fashion has always played a significant role in our psychological and psychosocial development. Not only do the clothes we wear have a profound impact on how we feel inside, they’re often used as a way of reflecting (and sometimes reinforcing) our attitude to the world around us. Fashion can represent our political views, religious beliefs, gender identity, cultural heritage, music preferences and many other of our values and traits. From an industry perspective, psychology plays a huge role in everything from product conceptualisation to supply chain management and marketing.
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Dress for Success: How Fashion Can Empower Women
Dress for Success: What do your clothes say about you? What does it mean to dress for success? Your clothes are a reflection of you. They are a visual statement of how you see yourself. The first impression you can make on a person whether that’s in the workplace or personal life. Clothes tell the world a story. They give strangers an insight into your values, personality traits, beliefs, and mood. We’ve all heard the phrase ‘don’t judge a book by its cover’. Yet in reality several industries profit off our desire for beautiful product packaging, eye-catching colour combinations and appealing book sleeves. Thus, it seems although we are reluctant…
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Habits: Combating Our Collective Habit of ‘One-Time-Wear’
Just another thing to leave behind in 2020. Unloading how social media reinforces the habit of one-time-wear and how to avoid it. What is ‘one-time-wear’? The expression ‘one-time-wear’ refers to our relationship with fashion and the way many of us feel about it. When shopping for new clothes, we often have a habit of thinking of a particular event or occasion in mind. These thoughts encourage the idea that many items of clothing are only suitable for one occasion, which is also known as ‘disposable fashion’. Where did this habit come from? The concept of one-time-wear has been introduced through society. Casual terms such as something to only be worn…
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The Psychology Behind an All-black Wardrobe
Our wardrobe says a lot about us, it expresses a visual story to those around us. It is a form of communicating parts of ourselves, our beliefs, and values. Every outfit you wear is a reflection of our own relationship with fashion, even if you are not a style-conscious person and ‘chuck on anything’. The way we represent ourselves through our relationships with clothing can sometimes speak louder than words. Although we should never judge a book by its cover, the cover certainly suggests a lot about the book! Our self-perception is a huge factor when it comes to the way we dress. When we have a positive self-image our…
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How Pretty Packaging Influences Consumer Behaviour
Packaging of products is the main selling point for many competitive companies. If the product is shiny with a bow on top, we run to it like moths to a flame. Personally, I am definitely more enticed by Kylie Jenner’s lip kits rather than M.U.A sold at your local SuperDrug. But, why? Why does something have to look good for us to be interested? The answer: psychology. How Our Brains Work Psychical beauty is the initial attraction we have to humans and other things. This is typically because one of the first senses we use is sight. We first notice attractiveness and then we start associating this with other positive…
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How Does Fashion Change the Way We Work?
Global affairs and recurring trends have always influenced fashion in a very noticeable way. One very noticeable trend being the movement towards sustainability and away from fast fashion. Yet we often overlook the everyday impact fashion has on our psychological mindset. How do you feel when you put on your favourite pair of jeans? Does wearing office attire feel the same way? The difference may be small, but the impact on our mindset has determined the business casual dress code for decades. Often without realising, the clothes we put on can impact the way we work psychologically and consequently how we work in the office. Yet recently the offices are…
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Fashion and Self Worth: Is It A Money Matter?
The link between fashion and self worth There is a clear link between fashion and psychology, with the clothes that people wear often reflecting them as a person. Many people use clothes to present their personality, beliefs, and feelings to the world and they do this by choosing certain styles and colours that align with these things. Essentially, fashion is much more important than it may seem at first glance as it can provide such a deep insight into each individual. As such, being able to use a medium such as fashion to communicate concepts that are as complex as personality or feelings to others is incredibly useful. This is…
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What the brands we buy our clothes from says about us
The life cycle of clothing is a simple one. We decide to buy a garment, we take it home and then continue to wear it until we decide it’s no longer fit for purpose and then repeat this same cycle over and over. But there are signs of change with certain consumers beginning to understand the impacts on the environment, caused by overwhelming strain from the garment industry. In addition to this, are growing ethical issues some of the worlds largest retailers face. Something has to give As consumers, we are now required to follow a stream of wider consciousness when buying clothing. Whether that be online or in-store. We…
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I Don’t Care for One-Time-Wear: 3 Ways to Kick the Habit
Fashion trends arrive and vanish at an inconceivable rate and the pressure to keep up is mounted on the shoulders of each man and women every day. Let us not pretend men don’t feel this burden too. The social pressure of constantly buying into seasonal clothing is a concern we need to un- learn. It is far too easy to believe that those jeans you bought last year are now “out of style” and that the dress you bought for a wedding will never be worn again. In both examples all it takes is a little change of perspective and bam! You have an outfit you can wear for months,…
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Debunking the ‘Summer Body’ myth
If you’ve been keeping up with anything happening in the world right now, I won’t be the first person to tell you that summer 2020 is no more. Forget your plans, summer is officially canceled. But with summer existing purely inside and at a socially acceptable distance, it has got me wondering. What would various marketing groups be preparing for their advertisement campaigns in a bid to sell you their idealised image of what a woman should look like? The Summer Body So, what exactly is the ‘Summer Body’? Major corporations advertise the ‘Summer Body’, usually a thin woman, with a flat stomach and toned abs. This idealised version of…
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Why have we adapted to the ‘wear it once’ culture when it comes to our wardrobe?
As the world starts to go back to ‘normal’ after the global pandemic, we are able to get dressed up and head to the bars and restaurants. But let’s be honest, alongside celebrating the end of lockdown and finally celebrating the events we have missed such as birthdays and weddings it seems like a perfect excuse for splashing the cash on various new outfits. Wanting something new isn’t a bad thing but do we ever consider how many wears we’ll get out of it? Many of us have an irrational fear of wearing the same thing twice but where does it come from? Surprise surprise, social media plays a huge…
