Psychology of Fashion

Fashion Terminology

How do I look today?  Does it matter?  It is all in the MIND.

Psychology is the study of behavior and mind, embracing all aspects of human experience.   General psychology is an important discipline because it focuses on understanding, explaining and predicting human behavior, emotions and mental processes. There are so many different areas in psychology to learn about.

The psychology of fashion relates to all matters concerning human behavior and decision making in the context of fashion.

The psychology of fashion can be relevant to the apparel industry and also to consumers.

For consumers, style is a little excursion into self-expression through clothes.  Your style and your confidence go hand in hand. What is the true meaning of style?  Changing your look can literally change your life.  Or is that nonsense?  What do your clothes truly say about you?  Maybe they don't say anything.  Isn't it all in our heads?

Fashion as consumption Consumers in the marketplace Consumers as decision makers Fashion and the environment Consumers, culture and subcultures Understanding and predicting.

In regard to the business of fashion, Fashion Psychology is the integration and utilization of the science of psychology and the industry of fashion to create manageable therapeutic tools that ultimately assist in the development of desired results.

Marketing is relevant to the fashion industry and our buying decisions:

Although both seek to influence behavior and often overlap, their is a difference between "Marketing Psychology" and "Fashion Psychology".

Marketing psychology has psychological principles that are used by marketing strategists to predict, determine and influence consumer groups.

 With fashion psychology fashion abstractions are integrated and used by psychologists to solve problems and effectuate the desired growth and development of a specified client or business.

When did the study of fashion psychology begin?

The field has solid academic roots that date back to at least the 19th century when American psychologist, Harvard University lecturer, and author Dr. Henry James focused much of his work on studies that placed great importance on clothing. In at least one of his works, James cited Microcosmus: An Essay Concerning Man and His Relation to the World, the 1885 essay by century German philosopher Hermann Lotze, who made specific mention of the “philosophy of clothing.”  James believed clothing to be an essential part of the material self; in this article it is argued that it is important to the spiritual and social selves as well.

Do you want to study to become a fashion psychologist?  Some fashion schools offer courses in the study of the Psychology of Fashion.

Below are a few fashion school degree programs and courses that are relevant:

Straightjackets

Alien Clothing

Psychology is, in this sense, interconnected with fashion; psychology is in the clothing we choose to wear to present ourselves to the world, psychology has to do with the mind.

How do we apply psychology principles to fashion?  Fashion marketing may have a role.

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