Q: Can clothing affect my mood? One time, I noticed when I was trying to decide what to wear that I got a bit more depressed when I put on some shirts than I did with other shirts. The same was not true for any of my pants, jackets or socks; just my shirts.
I followed up on that little observation, tried on a bunch of shirts and donated those that made me feel depressed. But I have often wondered if this made any sense.
Read Also
Agri-business and farms front and centre for Alberta’s Open Farm Days
Open Farm Days continues to enjoy success in its 14th year running, as Alberta farms and agri-businesses were showcased to increase awareness on how food gets to the dinner plate.
Do you know of any scientific evidence to support my observations about my clothes?
A: I am not sure that I am going to necessarily answer your question, but I have done some interesting research on the relationships between how a person dresses and what he or she feels, and I would like to share some of what I discovered with you.
The first little item that I found of interest was that clothing tends to follow gender guidelines. Women dress for different reasons than do men.
Women’s dress is very often an expression of their emotions. They dress happy when they feel happy and wear sloppy old pullovers when they are feeling a bit down.
Men dress for what they do, not necessarily for how they feel. My neighbour always wears his blue polo shirt when he is off to the golf course. That is the same shirt that he wore the one time he carded three birdies in a row on the back nine.
His wife has three or four different outfits that she wears when she is golfing with him. Each outfit reflects a different feeling. He looks like a golfer; she feels like a woman.
What is interesting is that men tend to become more efficient when their dress is appropriate to their profession: suits and ties for bankers, coveralls for mechanics.
One of the studies I read talked about doctors wearing white coats. Those who were wearing their white coats in the hospital tended to be a little more efficient than were those who were making ward rounds while wearing street clothes.
The gender factor goes right into our various shopping excursions. Women tend to like shopping more than do men. They like to check out different outfits, compare prices, feel different fabrics and so on.
Men tend not to enjoy shopping that much. They go into clothing stores for a reason and once they have either purchased what they want or decided that what they wanted was not going to happen, they try to leave the store. I always tell my wife that my favourite part of any clothing store is its exit sign.
Just about all of the studies that I reviewed acknowledged a definite relationship for women between what they wear and how they feel.
The favourite example is the baggy sweatshirt. When women are feeling a bit down they tend to favour baggy and sloppy T-shirts or sweat shirts. That does not mean that all women who happen to be wearing baggy shirts are feeling down. It just simply means that they could be feeling that. What is important to note here is that the feelings came first, before they put on their baggy sweaters.
The opposite is also true — positive feelings, overwhelming joy and enthusiasm, lead to brightly coloured and energetic dresses for the day. First the feeling, then the choice for how to dress.
The point is that the dress did not cause the feeling. How you dress might magnify your feelings, nurture them, cultivate them, but it is not what makes the feeling.
Here is what likely happens. Somewhere along the way when you are feeling down, you spark a thought that you would love to feel a bit better.
At that point in time you have rounded the corner. You are now open to a more pleasant disposition.
So you dress accordingly. You chuck the baggy sweatshirt, put on a light and lovely blouse, and you are feeling great. How you dress may not make you feel differently but it can take that break in the action and nurture those slivers of joy, strengthening them until they become the dominating emotion.
The same is true for depression. You feel sad, maybe a bit depressed, so you wear that baggy sweatshirt and imbed that down feeling into your overall disposition. If you were initially sad you are now sadder. The baggy shirt did not make you sad but it helped you become sadder. Dress does not cause feelings. It dwells on them.
As I said earlier, I am not sure that I am answering your question, but what I can tell you is that I had some great talks with my wife while I was researching the whole thing between how you dress and how you feel, and that was good.
I highly recommend similar talks for you. They lead to some fascinating moments of self-awareness.
Jacklin Andrews is a family counsellor from Saskatchewan. Contact: jandrews@producer.com.
