Three different people. Three completely different days. One thing in common…

Sasha has just moved to a new city. Feeling lost without her friends, challenged by looking for a new job, she needs a boost of confidence more than ever. The solution comes to her while looking into a bathroom mirror. With hair falling to the floor and the hair clippers going over her fresh soon-to-be-buzzcut, she has never felt more like herself.

Theo didn’t get into his dream art school. After seeing the admission results, he doesn’t want to leave his bed. Still, he pulls on his softest yellow hoodie – the one that feels like a hug – and slowly starts the day. The sadness hasn’t disappeared, but it feels a little less sharp.

Marta is going on a date for the first time in a while. She’s stressed, but fortunately, she knows the remedy – it’s time for her favourite red lipstick. One last look in the mirror and she’s ready. Let’s see if this is the day to meet the love of her life…

All of these people will never meet. Their stories may seem unrelated, but in reality, they’re connected by the same thing – their days were shaped by the way they dressed or looked. Let it be a starting point to talk about how our appearance can shape the way we feel and how the world responds to us. And, most importantly, how it allows us to express ourselves.

Outfits, haircuts, piercings, tattoos… all these things are a way to communicate people’s identities, emotions and values. Think of your body as an avatar. Why leave it on default settings, when you can customize it? Obviously, for some people it’ll mean bold body modifications, for others – styling hair in a specific way. For me, to feel myself, I need to look myself. Over the past ten years, wearing only black and white clothes and mismatched shoelaces has become a part of my identity. It doesn’t have any specific meaning, it’s just something I started doing on a random day in middle school, and kind of… forgot to grow out of it. It grew into me instead.

Though I don’t always wear makeup, especially on lazy weekends, I think I wouldn’t feel fully like myself if I were forbidden to wear it. – Chloe, 22

Sometimes the way we dress is just a way to feel more like ourselves, but other times it can influence our emotions, or even behaviour. This concept is called enclothed cognition. Remember when during the pandemic people said you should get fully dressed up even while working from home? The reason behind this advice is that it helped bring the structure to the day and increased motivation. Your brain associates work clothes with, well, working, so it goes into the ‘working’ mode more easily when you’re wearing them. An elegant outfit can make you more confident, a lab coat can make you more attentive. It’s not some kind of dark magic that always works, but definitely a trick worth trying when you want to make yourself feel a certain way.

I love to match my earrings to my current mood or to the way I want to feel in a particular moment. For some reason, this is the final bit to feeling like myself. – Sophia, 19 

What we wear can also be a way to express something deeper. In fact, entire fashion subcultures have formed around this idea. From punks rejecting the system, to hippies embracing peace, to queer communities claiming visibility by wearing carabiners or stacks of rings. Through clothes, hair and accessories, people have found ways to say what words couldn’t.

I feel like I had almost every possible phase. Passing through chav, alternative, metal and emo. Now, for a long time, it stopped, and I feel like I’m in a good place. I think that I needed this journey to find myself in the world of colorful birds. My subculture is like family. I’m punk, so expressing myself through style is really important, and it connects me with other people. – Karolina, 19

Nowadays, fashion is more and… less personal than ever. The past few years were all about DIYing, thrifting, upcycling and customizing your clothes. It’s great to see people get creative, and more environmentally friendly on top of that. Not that it’s something new, now it’s just more trendy. Well, if we’re talking about trends… this is where things start to go wrong. It feels like something new gets popular every month, or even every week. We stripped everything of its personality, and put the word ‘aesthetic’ or ‘core’ after. When does the self-expression end, and blindly following the current trend start? If this tattoo style really speaks to me, but everyone is getting it now… am I listening to my heart or the trend? Maybe it feels like it’s perfect for me, but it’s just my mind influenced by social media tricking me? Well, the line is thinner than your new fine line tattoo, that’s for sure.

Social media and trends have definitely had an influence on my style, but also age. Even between 18 and 23 my style completely shifted to something more mature, but maybe even more experimental. With age, I feel less concerned about other people’s opinions, and I’m mostly focused on what makes me comfortable and happy. – Dawid, 23

The link between the style and society is inevitable. Unfortunately, often it’s a weird mix of stereotypes, judgement and made up rules. Don’t wear it, it’s too feminine for a guy. Don’t get tattoos, you’ll never find a job. Don’t wear so much makeup, men like natural beauty more. Sometimes it comes in a less harsh form, like dress codes or uniforms. One way or another, the world we live in affects our fashion choices almost every day – and I don’t mean it just temperature-wise.

I would say my style changed due to social expectations – as a little child I only wore skirts and dresses, and I loved it. At some point I stopped doing it, maybe because I thought I had to do it to grow up… Now I try to get back to asking myself what I like, not what society likes. – Maike, 18

The top I’m wearing right now was thrifted two years ago. Too revealing for some, perfect for Macedonian sun and my self-confidence. The handmade bracelet saying ‘R U Mine’ on my hand reminds me of my Arctic Monkeys phase, the sneakers – with one black shoelace and one white one, of course – are the same pair I’ve been buying for years. They are all the choices I made, whether consciously or unconsciously.

My body is my avatar – and I choose to press ‘customize’.

Anna Wojdziak

Sources:

Adam, H., & Galinsky, A. D. (2012). Enclothed cognition. Journal of experimental social psychology, 48(4), 918-925.