As a creative, I am always trying to find ways to express myself through everything I do. One way I feel that I can accomplish this is through fashion. My clothes give me a sense of identity and individuality that I can’t seem to find anywhere else. It can transform my confidence and mood which can dictate the whole outcome of my day. Suffice to say, my clothes are extremely important to me and my life.
phase I: observe
Because my fashion and outfit selection is so crucial to my day-to-day life and the fact that I have seen this same phenomenon in many others around me, I find it a very interesting subject for this experiment. Between the sensation of the process to the decision making, there are many variables that could have drastic effects on this critical process. I hope to discover through this experiment what steps are working and what could have a pivotal impact on how I go about this daily activity.
the plan:
Go about the daily process as normal, but document the thought process and current emotions through a voice recording. Note the sensory feelings of the clothes, how I am feeling upon waking up, what I have to do for the day, and how all of those things affect my choice of clothing.
the process:
after getting ready,
In the morning, after I get ready in the bathroom — brushing my teeth, washing my face, taking my meds — I enter my closet. However, there is more to the morning than just that, much can happen in this time. Between looking at my phone when I wake up to the dreams that are still lingering from the night before to whether I have eaten yet can all contribute to the next step.
evaluate feelings,
Before picking out an outfit, I like to evaluate how I am feeling. As I mentioned, there can be a lot that happens between the time I wake up and when I greet my clothes, so reflecting is very necessary. You might be wondering, why does this even matter? Well, I have some sensory issues that include tactile sensitivities that can increase my stimulation and anxiety levels, so evaluating how I am feeling can be a key factor when heading into OOTD decisions.
This day, I was already feeling frustrated and had a higher than normal blood pressure due to my fight with my bed, a story for a later time. This would mean that I would be less willing to wear something scratchy or uncomfortable and instead sacrifice some of my style.
debate,
Based on how I am feeling and what has already occurred in the short 20 minutes I have been awake, what I choose to wear can change. The main battle is between fashion and comfort, which might be a given for most, but both are very important to me in their own unique ways. Having a sense of individuality and identity is just as important as the caution I take to maintain and balance my well-being for the day.
test,
With all great decisions, there comes a time to test out whether or not your choice is the choice. Same with outfits, sometimes it looks better or feels less tacitly impactful.
re-debate,
If you do decide to go in a different direction you would start back at evaluating your feelings and complete the process again.
Here, the feeling of this particular pair of denim shorts was irritating me and they didn’t look right with the bodysuit, so I opted for a softer and more high-waisted pair that felt and looked better.
get dressed,
And now for the fun part, finally putting on your outfit. If you did your job you feel comfortable. Not just physically, but mentally and spiritually. You feel like you belong in your skin, you feel that sense of identity, you feel yourself.
I know this all might sound silly to you, but for some, maybe even most, there is always that one thing, that one aspect of your day-to-day life that makes you feel like you, that completes you. This is mine. When I am in an outfit that is tacitly aligned with my mental state and makes me feel at peace with my individuality, I am able to conquer the world confidently and comfortably.
phase II: the nudge
The main issue that I feel could be altered for a more fulfilling experience is finding a balance between comfort and confidence. Right now, I feel that I am sacrificing my style for comfort more than I would like. I feel that if I addressed and cared for each of the comfort and confidence separately, I would be able to balance them better.
ideation:
When deciding on a nudge, I brain-dumped all of the ideas I had and added suggestions from my presentation crit first then categorized them by type of nudge and color-coded them. Once I had all of them laid out I organized them on a graph based on my willingness to pursue it, or the level of anticipated improvement to the process experience, and impact, or level of the anticipated change. Once they were separated this way, it was clear the direction I wanted to take.
the plan:
As a part of the nudge, I have added the following: meditating in order to reset the emotions from the day before, dreams, and the morning and to take care of my well being, prioritizing style over comfort in order to prioritize my confidence and self-assurance, and lastly, to set a timer just to make sure I’m not thinking too much.
I plan to document the process using voice recordings and written notes on how I am feeling with the addition of time stamps.
the steps:
after getting ready,
This step has stayed relatively the same. I get up, make my bed, wash my face, brush my teeth, and fight the unnerving urge to jump back into bed.
meditate,
I chose to add meditating to my outfit picking routine to reset any negative feelings and emotions from the previous day, the night’s dreams, or the morning’s struggles. I found that just a short 3-minute meditation was able to slow down life for a short bit and gave me the chance to let go of all of the negative or tense feelings I was carrying. This gave me a clean slate to go into my outfit selection with so that there would be nothing to work around when it came to my clothes; if I was in a neutral state then all I would need to focus on would be my style and how that would positively impact my day.
Below is an animation I made that visualizes my favorite technique or phrase used in the morning meditation I listen to.
pick out the outfit,
Now that there is no discomfort that would need to be tailored to, I can simply focus on how I would like to look and how much confidence potential my outfit choice holds. Am I in need of a confidence boost? Are there people I would like to impress today? Do I need to dress to feel how I identify? Or do i just not care? These are the much more simple questions I have to answer now.
Below is my previous chart, but altered so that there is no comfy axis.
look good, feel good,
Then I can get dressed knowing that I look the best I can, which makes me feel the best that I can. There is no disappointment factor or uncertainty surrounding whether I sacrificed too much of my style, or any self-conscious mindsets going into the day.
conclusion:
Through this experiment and nudge process, I was able to learn a lot more about myself and what actions I can take to feel my best every day. I also learned just how integral the confidence and self-identification I gain from my outfits are for the overall improvement of my day.
While the meditation did work for my more neutral days where I might just be carrying some negative or frustrated feelings, there are days that just can not be fixed by meditating, so in that case, I would have my original routine to fall back on.
I am interested in how this phenomenon affects others like me. Do other’s have issues balancing their comfort and confidence and do other’s share the level of impactfulness their clothes have on their day?
phase III: transform
When I set out on my research task, I wanted to discover how fashion can affect a person’s confidence and comfort from a psychological, analytical, and historical standpoint since I already know the experiential, personal standpoint. I went about uncovering these truths by doing some research online for some stone-cold facts and studies.
clothes and confidence
According to Mary Lynn Damhorst, our clothes serve as the unspoken indicator to those around us about who we are and how they should see us. This is a very heavy weight to put onto what most of us barely think about as we stumble out the door in the morning but becomes a conscious thought as we begin the judge those around us. From the color to the fit to the brand, every part of our outfit is giving off secret signals to those around us. Mary tells us that we can control this image by dressing the part we want to play, or at least that we want others to believe we are playing.
Another interesting aspect of this psychology is how our clothes make us feel. According to a study done about how people performed while in lab coats versus street clothes, we intrinsically take on the attributes or persona of the type of person we associate with wearing that outfit. This means that if we wear an outfit that we associate with a productive person, chances are we will be more productive, or if we wear an outfit that we perceive as high fashion or super cute, we will have more confidence. This truly is transformative knowledge and a very hopeful idea full of opportunities for who or what we want to become.
clothes and comfort
While dressing for success can be key for many in their pursuits of individuality and confidence, many others find clothes to be a roadblock to simply functioning in their day-to-day lives. Something as simple as a tag, seam, or even the weight of a piece of clothing can give those with tactile sensitivities anywhere from a headache to a panic attack. The fixation on the feeling can be overwhelming and sometimes completely debilitating. Because of this, people who struggle with this are only looking at clothes, not as an outlet for self-expression or a hack to unlock new abilities or attitudes as spoken to above, but as something to be scared of and a source of major stress and discomfort. To put this struggle in perspective, 5–16% of the population suffers from sensory issues or is diagnosed with a sensory processing or deficit disorder.
For those that discover a disordered level of struggle early in life they can attend occupational therapy to combat the root of these issues, but for adults that have a pretty set in stone mental structure, this might not be an option. Along with a lack of treatment, many adults feel an increased need to mask, or conceal the effects of these struggles to those around them, because of an increased societal pressure to conform and seem “ok” or “normal”.
Some helpful tips for children and adults that have these issues are as follows: find the textures and fabrics that don’t make your skin crawl, as much as covid permits, try on clothes before buying them and try to move around in them as you would during the day, cut the tags out of clothing, find specially made seamless socks, wear loose-fitting clothing or compression clothing (whichever provides more comfort), using fabric softener, buying clothing from second-hand shops because they have been washed many times, and buying clothing made with natural fibers as they tend to be softer.
what i found
As I was researching my activity and the history of it as it pertains to people with tactile sensitivities there was little to no advice or evidence of how these people go about finding a balance between comfort and confidence. All of the sensory websites I visited did not even mention the idea of people with these issues pursuing fashion and style, they only addressed how to manage and cope with the sensitivities. Along the same lines, the fashion websites only discussed how different styles have and continue to reflect upon you and your identity and how that can affect our confidence. Again I am forced to separate the two and address each individually as i did with my nudge.
It was disappointing to see that there wasn’t much conversation around the idea that people with tactile sensitivities also love exploring fashion because this happens very often, people with disorders or disabilities are confined to just their disabilities, not their abilities or interests, that they are nothing past their diagnosis. This makes people with these struggles even more alone when they can’t even find any evidence anywhere that people like them with their interests even exist.
speculative design
ideation
As I brainstormed ideas for my speculative design, I tried to think about things that could improve the lives of people with sensory issues, but that could also improve those without those struggles. Many people, on a different level of course, struggle with this comfort v confidence duality, so coming up with an innovation that could appease the masses would be important.
I organized my brain dump into categories which helped me prioritize the innovations. My random, scorn, and surprise categories contained fun but not super impactful ideas and my natural and justice sections did not necessarily attack the main issue I was finding with my activity that I was hoping to solve. Thus, I decided on choosing my best idea from the efficiency column and I ended up throwing in an aspect of one of my surprise ideas to add complexity and support to my speculative design.
my speculative design
I chose to combine my ideas of a closet scanner that can create profiles for pieces of clothing and ultimately select outfits for you with my idea to have a digital mental health check-in that would light up the hangers with the clothes that align with your current state in green. The result: an app that you quickly scan all of your clothing and then every morning you fill out a mental check-in and the app will use its algorithm to provide you with outfit options that will satisfy that amount of comfort and style you need that day. This takes the guesswork out of how the comfort of the outfit will impact your day and you can simply pick with the outfit you like the best. Of course, like all automated products, it’s not going to get it right 100% of the time, so there could be some disappointment with this design’s end result. However, if it works, you have just solved the problems of many silent, sensory impacted individuals.
closing thoughts
While picking out an outfit is, to many, a mindless activity, for those with sensory issues it can seem like a mountain to climb and this is only emphasized for those who find their clothes to be a form of expression, but with the right routine, nudges, and innovations it can be cut down to a small hill. Recognizing the struggle and identity of these individuals is also instrumental in alleviating the isolation and frustration they feel surrounding their fight.