The clothes we wear everyday are having an impact on our productivity, mood and mental state. With everything that’s going on right now, and so many people working from home, I wanted to share some insight into why it’s so important that we keep showing up for ourselves and keep getting a little bit dressed up as we work from home. There is a huge connection between what we wear and our psychological state so I’ve shared a few theories that I learned while researching this topic for my thesis. I’ve also shared 3 outfits that would be comfortable enough to wear while working at home.
Fashion Psychology has been described by Prof Karen J. Pine, as the application of the scientific rigour of psychology to the understanding of human behaviour, clothing, why we wear what we wear and what affect it has on us and those around us.” (Forbes-Bell, 2017).
What we wear can have a tremendous impact on our psychological processes, from performance levels, emotions, moods and abilities. We’ve all experienced a time where a great outfit made us feel a million dollars, and it’s no coincidence. For my final year thesis in University, I wrote about the affect our clothing has on our mental state, because this topics fascinates me sooo bloody much! We sometimes think about clothing and fashion as this superficial thing that we shouldn’t really care too much about, but actually, if it’s having this much of an impact on our day-to-day, maybe it’s something we should take more seriously.
In my latest video I’ve chatted through a few theories that can explain this a little bit better, such as The White Lab Coat Effect and Enclothed Cognition. Do let me know if this topic is of interest to you, as I would LOVE to chat more about it here.
Further Reading:
- Theory: The White lab Coat Effect, more info here https://bit.ly/2x8UZ2w
- Colour Psychology, further reading https://bit.ly/393beLC
- Book: You are What you Wear, Dr Jennifer Baumgardner https://bit.ly/2WsXJSI