I love this article about a recent study on how your mood affects what you wear, kind of obvious in once sense but makes me thing. I wear jeans a lot but I used to find very unusual colour/patterns when I was younger. I wonder why I have become more conventional as I have got older? I wonder if that is an indication of my emotional state?
Here’s the article on the study by Hertfordshire University.
You may throw on an outfit without much thought in the morning, but your choice is strongly affected by your mood. And the item of casual wear in almost everyone’s wardrobe — denim jeans — is what most people wear when depressed, new research from psychologists at the University of Hertfordshire reveals.
The psychologists conclude that the strong link between clothing and mood state suggests we should put on clothes that we associate with happiness, even when feeling low.
Professor Pine said: “This finding shows that clothing doesn’t just influence others, it reflects and influences the wearer’s mood too. Many of the women in this study felt they could alter their mood by changing what they wore. This demonstrates the psychological power of clothing and how the right choices could influence a person’s happiness.”
Accessories can make a difference too. The study found that:
- Twice as many women said they would wear a hat when happy than when depressed.
- Five times as many women said they would wear their favorite shoes when happy (31%) than when depressed (6%).
The study found that ‘happy’ clothes — ones that made women feel good — were well-cut, figure enhancing, and made from bright and beautiful fabrics. Professor Pine pointed out that these are exactly the features that jeans lack: “Jeans don’t look great on everyone. They are often poorly cut and badly fitting. Jeans can signal that the wearer hasn’t bothered with their appearance. People who are depressed often lose interest in how they look and don’t wish to stand out, so the correlation between depression and wearing jeans is understandable. Most importantly, this research suggests that we can dress for happiness, but that might mean ditching the jeans.”
