How Clothes Can Truly Elevate Our Sense of Worth

As a journalist who has specialised in fashion and culture for the past 15 years and the host of a podcast that is all about the stories we tell through what we wear, I am, perhaps, biased. Evidently, I love clothes more than the average person, but with years embedded in the industry and the business of fashion itself, I have seen endlessly how clothes can make one feel: emboldened, empowered, liberated. Clothes can help us find our community and a sense of belonging; they can help us affirm how we want to show up in the world. Clothes can be political, can identify us as part of a movement or, on a more everyday level, simply improve our mood. The right pair of shoes can lift your height and your spirits in the same way that a great pair of jeans – that fit just right – can make you feel unstoppable.

Of course fashion can be exclusionary and elitist, not to mention expensive. The fashion and textile sector is, of course, one of the world’s leading industrial polluters. And the industry has played a part in eroding women’s worth by perpetuating and enforcing unattainable ideals of what beauty and “taste” look like. Yet, clothes can do everything to elevate your sense of worth. What you wear has a direct impact on your mindset, behaviour, and consequently your performance. Have you noticed that in your favourite item(s), you stand taller and feel more confident or ready to take on whatever might come your way?

“I wear a suit nearly every day, even during lockdown when I wasn’t seeing anybody!” British designer Sir Paul Smith tells G Ode. “It just makes me feel good and ready for the day. When I design clothes, I always think about the person wearing them and how they’ll fit into their life. Clothes should make you feel comfortable, confident and, most importantly, yourself. And hopefully bring a little bit of joy along the way!”

Indeed, the pandemic and lockdown instigated the rise of ‘dopamine dressing’, with many of us rediscovering the joy of dressing up despite having nowhere to go. Research shows that what you wear alters how you perceive yourself, how others perceive you, and how you engage with the world. An influential study from 2012 in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology (Vol. 48, pp. 918–925) by Hajo Adam and Adam Galinsky formally introduced 'enclothed cognition,' connecting clothing to psychological processes. Adam and Galinsky’s research established that enclothed cognition is dependent on two factors: the actual experience of wearing the clothes and the symbolic meaning attributed to them. For a garment to change a person's cognitive state, one must put it on, and it must have a powerful symbolic resonance. The clothing, effectively, becomes a physical extension of a mental concept, priming the brain for specific ways of thinking and behaviour.

A universal example of this is what we choose to wear to work, a place we want to impress and affirm our authority and/or expertise. Jane Shepherdson CBE, a stalwart of the fashion industry and patron of Smart Works, a company founded to help unemployed women get the coaching, clothing and confidence they need to secure employment and change the trajectory of their lives states:

“Thirteen years ago, Juliet Hughes Hallet founded Smart Works with a simple but powerful conviction: when women have the right clothing and coaching, they can unlock the confidence they need to secure a job and transform their future. Every day, we witness the extraordinary power of clothes. During a Smart Works dressing appointment, a client will often look in the mirror and begin to see new possibilities for herself. A thoughtfully chosen outfit doesn't just change how she looks; it can reshape how she sees herself and what she believes she is capable of achieving. When they rediscover their confidence, they are able to step into an interview as the very best version of themselves. It is as remarkable today as it was when we first started.”

Stylist Francesca Burns agrees. “Through our clothes we get to assert ourselves in the world without saying a single word. For me, fashion has been completely transformative, not only dressing my own many evolving personalities, but in the career it’s given me, how it’s connected me to other people and given me a platform to communicate with others, and how I see women in our ever-changing world. After over 20 years working as a stylist and editor and now in my work as a Human Potential Coach, I encourage women to embrace the power of fashion not only as a way of discovering themselves but as an endless source of play and joy through self-expression.”

In addition to the joy and confidence that clothing imbues, there is also the comfort of the familiar or perhaps the story behind a beloved, well-worn piece that can be fortifying. “I think that we don't think enough about the sensory,” fashion consultant, app founder, and Financial Times columnist, Anna Berkeley explains. “You know, when you get back and you've had a bad day and you put on a beautiful, big cashmere hoodie, top, jumper or cardigan, you actually cocoon yourself in [it]. The fabric is supporting you… The power suit is the same thing but just flipped on its head. The power suit is the armour. It's the barrier.”

Suffice to say, caring about how you choose to present and fortify yourself outwardly is not a trivial and shallow pursuit. “I’m drawn to platforms that treat a woman’s interest in her appearance in a legitimate and intelligent way,” Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie asserted when I interviewed her last year for the Incredible Women podcast. “I’ve just felt very strongly that there are many women, like me, in the world who are deeply devoted to their intellectual, interior lives but also care about their appearance and shouldn’t be made to feel apologetic about it.”

We are worth investing in. And that doesn’t mean spending lots of money on trends or new, expensive products. It does mean taking the time to lean into your style, finding the things that work for you and your body and that make you look and feel good. Anna Berkeley who also founded the platform Think Shape in 2023 to better equip women for dressing for themselves adds: “One of the reasons that I built the app was that I wanted women to be able to understand both their shape and proportion in order to give them the confidence to dress smarter, happier, more mindfully. You can't be mindful if you don't have the knowledge. Knowledge is the tool, it is the power.”

Prioritise comfort and fit, declutter items that make you feel bad, care for and repair the trusted and treasured pieces that make you feel great, and most importantly have fun. With the boom of preloved clothes and resale sites, it is an exciting and easy time to explore, experiment and be playful, especially if you’re still finding your style signatures. As a famous adage says, “because you’re worth it”.