Clothing plays a significant role in our lives, as we wear different forms of it everyday. Whether it is a shirt and some pants of any length, some shoes, socks that can go from our ankle or to our knees, we all have seen or worn these articles of clothing.
We all go out in public and cross paths with each other everyday. We all have our own preferences of fabric, or would prefer to wear short-sleeved shirts rather than longer-sleeves, or even no-sleeves! We make decisions on whether we’d like a tight-fitting outfit compared to a loose-fitting one or whether we want to wear sandals over sneakers. Some people dress quickly and are ready in ten to fifteen minutes, while others take much longer and require forty minutes to an hour. No matter one’s style, we all have our own distinct preferences in what we wear. Take a look around in a room full of people, and you’ll see the various styles and choices people make, which shows just how diverse we can get. This is a great part of who we are; the fact that we make our own unique choices of style and find different ways to dress ourselves allows us to be just who we are.
Stylization can bring many possibilities to a basic outfit – anybody can wear a shirt and pants, but adding belts, jewelry and anything we’d like can add such a fun difference to our shirt and pants! Through our clothing, we’re showing off a part of our personalities to the world. Fashion is what we’re comfortable with and what makes us feel like ourselves.
According to researchers at Cornell University, as humans we’re unknowingly forced to make 35,000 conscious decisions a day. We get older and gain more responsibility over ourselves. When we’re younger, we relied on our parents or guardians to pick out what we wore and made very few choices on our own. Nevertheless, a daily decision we all have made from a young age is the clothes we wear. Regardless of where we’re going or what we’re about to get ourselves into for the day, a conscious choice every one of us makes everyday is what clothes we want to wear for the day.
Dressing up isn’t only about being presentable, but it’s also about being secure in what we’re wearing. Fashion lets us gain self-confidence, and it allows us to get creative with ourselves and appreciate our bodies. The way we see our inner selves can be shown in our looks, which includes the way we customize our hair, our bodies, and even our faces with makeup. When we go out and meet new people, their first impression of us is based on our appearance; they make a conscious “Is this a person I could be around?” decision that is gauged by how we present ourselves.
Enclothed Cognition is a study developed by Adam D. Galinsky and Hajo Adam in 2012. In the study, they experimented to see if people’s attentiveness to certain tasks increased based on what they were wearing. For the experiment, they provided white lab coats to a percentage of the subjects, informing them that these were doctor’s lab coats. They then placed the subjects in three different scenarios. What they found overall was that the subjects exhibited an increase in investment in their tasks while wearing the doctor lab coats. Galinsky and Adam surmised that what people wear does impact their performance in daily activities and even plays a significant factor in their emotions.
Ultimately, what this study shows is how what we wear affects our mindsets and our performance in daily tasks or activities.
The clothing we wear influences not just our own minds, but others who view us. It reflects our self-identity and can signal to other people who we are. Clothing can reflect our beliefs, cultures and symbolizes our identities. Presenting ourselves in leggings and sporty clothing can cause us to feel like an athlete, or wearing heels and a dress can make us feel empowered and confident. Fashion comes in different forms, regardless of how we decide to wear an article of clothing. 
Fashion itself plays an important role in our lives, and it’s more than just a way to cover our bodies. It’s a form of art and self-expression where we all just want to be comfortable, presentable and show our inner selves to the outside world.
