Enclothed Cognition: where science meets fashion, developing a personal style and dressing from the inside out
Every day we’re bombarded with ‘blink and you miss it’ micro-trends, endless ‘cores’ and mountains of fast fashion hauls passing in and out of our feeds before dissolving as quickly as our attention spans. We’re consuming fashion faster than we ever have - and we’re about to fold in on ourselves. Just a few months into 2024 and the trend machine already spat out the ‘eclectic grandpa’, the ‘mob wife’, ‘office siren’ and even ‘commuter core’. More trends are popping up in the last month than there used to be in 20 years. Items I wore less than a decade ago have whizzed back onto Pinterest boards (American Apparel, I’m looking at you!) and soon enough, what we wore last week will be considered vintage. It’s a serious case of fashion whiplash.
Diagnosis: fashion burnout
Many of us are sleepwalking from trend to trend, answering to an algorithm you can never truly catch up to and hurtling towards fashion burnout as a result. It’s both unsustainable and harmful to the planet and our wallets, but science suggests it could also be having a detrimental impact on our minds. The power of clothing has long been dismissed as something two-dimensional and frivolous. After all, those in the industry have had to fight for fashion to be considered a legitimate art form, having never been held in the same esteem as paintings, sculptures or music. It’s no wonder many would think the worlds of science and fashion could never collide, as it shatters the notion that what we wear runs deeper than just a hollow aesthetic. Fashion and science are unlikely neighbours but the concept of ‘enclothed cognition’ says otherwise. It could be the medicine our wardrobes desperately need to be prescribed.
Just what the doctor ordered
Enclothed cognition is a term coined by researchers Hajo Adam and Adam D Galinsky in 2012 which explores the systematic influence that our clothes have on how we feel, behave and see the world. As part of their experiment, Adam and Galinsky used a lab coat to examine how the wearer was impacted by a clothing choice synonymous with intelligence and attentiveness by having them complete an attention-based task while sporting it. The results were staggering - in the first test, physically wearing a lab coat increased selective attention compared to not wearing one. Meanwhile, in the second and third tests, wearing a lab coat described as a doctor's coat increased sustained attention compared to wearing a lab coat described as a painter's coat.
What does this mean?
The phenomenon injects a new layer of importance into the ‘trivial’ act of getting dressed. We know that mindful dressing can boost our self-esteem, but enclothed cognition tells us the symbolic meaning and physical experience of wearing garments have the power to alter our perception and behaviour.
While I imagine many of us aren’t likely to go out rocking a lab coat and goggles (I can already hear the TikToks Gods whispering, “Bunsen burner core!!!”), we can still use Adam and Galinsky’s theory as a springboard to truly dressing from the inside out, making better choices for our wardrobe and the planet and emerging from the other side with a more concrete sense of personal style.
Speaking to Studio V., therapist Sophie Cress LMFT explained that enclothed cognition ‘highlights the significant impact that fashion may have on our psychological experiences as well as the significance of dressing according to our own tastes and moral principles’, adding that this ‘emphasises the complex interplay between our interior states and outward appearance’.
Stepping off the hamster wheel
That’s not to say everything in the fashion social media space is bleak. The rise of TikTok fashion amid the pandemic has also proven to be a catalyst for people reevaluating their relationship to consumerism. Indeed, people are stepping off the fast fashion hamster wheel in their troves and adopting a more ethical and sustainable approach to consuming fashion and curating a capsule wardrobe. ‘Dopamine dressing’, for instance, is just one buzzword swirling around our TikTok feeds, a seemingly natural branch of enclothed cognition in the real world emphasising the importance of choosing garments that spark joy as opposed to mindlessly following trends that may not resonate with us.
It’s understandable why so many of us have been caught in the net of microtrends - it’s natural to yearn for a sense of belonging, something further accelerated during those hazy lockdown days - but there are ways we can claw our way out by stepping back and harnessing the power of our wardrobe.
After all, even science agrees.
Shopping from your own wardrobe and finding new ways to restyle your clothes, avoiding forcing trends into your collection for the sake of being ‘in’, upcycling existing pieces and curating key, reliable staples for your other pieces to orbit are just a few ways experts recommend building your personal style. And of course, shopping intentionally and ethically, too. That’s not to say we can’t cherry-pick things we see online that resonate with us, but ultimately, racing to keep up with trends does nothing good for the planet or our mental well-being.
Cress explains: “People can purchase clothing more thoughtfully if they are aware of the ways that it affects their mood and conduct. Choosing clothes that not only make us feel good but also support ethical and sustainable methods can enhance our shopping experiences and encourage greater social and environmental responsibility.”
What we wear is far from trivial. Our wardrobes are treasure troves of unused potential to harness the mood our clothing evokes and develop a signature style that truly expresses who we are - not just a mirror image of fast fashion ‘new in’ pages and yo-yo-ingyo-yoing TikTok algorithms.
Now, that’s certainly one way to look at retail therapy.
WRITTEN BY CHLOE ROWLAND.