Why does clothing matter

Streamlining your closet, creating a strategic wardrobe, and developing outfit formulas or uniforms can save you precious mental energy that will allow you to save the brain power for more important decisions. What we wear really affects our mindset and our confidence. Your clothes not only affect your productivity and overall confidence, but scientists at Northwestern University found that the clothes you wear can change the way you think.

In one study, subjects had to perform tests while wearing a lab coat like medical doctors wear, a coat like painters wear, or neither coat. They found that subjects' sustained attention increased while wearing the doctors' coats in a way that their attention did not increase while wearing the painters' coats or neither coat. The lab coat itself made the subjects feel more like a doctor and therefore behave more like a doctor would behave.

A series of studies shows that the formality of your clothing influences your decision making. In a series of experiments, students wearing their normal clothes performed a series of standardized tests. Students wearing more formal clothing showed stronger inclinations towards abstract processing. And in another experiment, participants were randomly assigned to change into either their formal or their casual clothes and then given a test on strategic thinking. Participants wearing more formal clothing focused on the big picture, whereas students wearing their street clothes got stuck more in the details.

So you can use your executive-level clothing to prime your brain for executive-level thinking. Of course, dressing smart is also important for your confidence and sense of self-empowerment. But your style does more than just send messages, to your mind or to others. New research shows it actually impacts how you think.

Professional dress, one study found, increases abstract thinking and gives people a broader perspective. So that tie might actually be switching on your creativity button. Professional attire creates social distance. When we are more socially distant, we tend to think in more distant, abstract terms.

In socially distant settings we address people by their title, for instance, rather than the more intimate first name. Usually we process visual details instantaneously through a process called thin-slicing.

That's when the brain makes millisecond judgements based on new stimulus. It often happens without us even knowing. We might just get a feeling that we don't trust someone, or that someone else is steady and reliable. We might not even know why. That gut feeling, commonly called intuition or a first impression, is really part of the very fast-paced mental process of thin-slicing.

It's how we continually judge books by their covers, all day, every day. So choose your personal presentation with care. Presentation includes not only your clothes, but your accessories, hairstyle, fragrance, posture, body language, tone of voice, and the level of energy with which you move and speak. Think of the person that you need to be in any particular situation. Then dress, groom, and accessorize in a way that helps you mentally step into that personality. By: Jeff Gau. Choose a fit that matches your body shape.

Mind your style. I think this is the most important part of your image and the first impression people have of you. Watch for the sustainable trends. For men, that means no pleats or cuffs on pants. While there are shirts design to be untucked, I still recommend that men tuck in their shirts in the workplace. There are a variety of services that can help with clothes selection, from retail professionals to clothiers who come on-site to online services like Stitch Fix where they ship outfits to your doorstep based on a profile you provide.

Recognize generational differences. My dress needs to be age appropriate, but never old school. Styles will vary by generation a bit. Likewise, millennials often benefit from dressing about 10 years older—or for the job they hope to have in the future. Maintain modesty.