Fashion Therapy
Fun fact about me: I love choir and musical theatre! I was a music minor in undergrad where I met my friend Amy, pictured above, who’s an incredible opera singer (seriously, check out her videos on Instagram). This intro is relevant to fashion therapy, I promise. Amy and I confided in each other throughout college about similar mental health obstacles we faced. I know she worked really hard to get to the mental space that she’s in now, so I asked if I could use one of her personal experiences to explain fashion therapy and what it’s all about. Thank you, Amy.
I remember about two years ago, Amy went through a depression, which stemmed a lot from struggling with expressing her true identity. In order to really be “in” with the opera music industry and viewed highly she was expected to look a certain way. Past boyfriends, older, male judges, professors, and other singers all involved in opera were critical of her appearance.
She was told things like her boobs were not big enough, but not to show any cleavage, her knees needed to be covered, but not to wear pants because calves needed to show (very bizarre), and that she shouldn’t wear too much makeup. She had to look what was considered “classy” but would be teased by friends for dressing too “conservatively” for her real personality. Amy said it was really difficult to endure this for so many years, and she held back a large part of her personality expression, which caused unhappiness and depression.
Completely different from retail therapy, fashion therapy involves dressing to express your personality and most authentic self. The purpose of fashion therapy is to increase self-esteem and express identity through clothes, colors, makeup, and accessories beginning by evaluating yourself and searching for what makes you, you. Research shows that this newer type of therapy improves positive moods and decreases depressive feelings by facilitating positive emotions, self-efficacy, and body satisfaction.
About two years ago Amy realized that her outward fashion expression was greatly hurting her self-esteem. After working though therapy and seeking help from close friends, she began dressing totally different than before. She started expressing her true style through her own sense of fashion- edgy clothes and accessories like chokers, fishnets, dark makeup, and winged eyeliner. By the way, she totally rocks her look! Once she started dressing authentically she became much happier with her self-image and decreased her depression a lot. This took a ton of self-evaluating, hard work, and deep thought, but it was well worth it.
Our society continues to face an ongoing mental health crisis with not enough therapists or mental health practitioners for the amount of psychological help that is needed. If we thought it was difficult before 2020, the pandemic has made access to these services so much worse. Studying psychology and talking to friends, I often think about ways we can better help people through creatively using what have access to every day. While my personal journey on this topic is not nearly as impactful or interesting as Amy’s, I went through a similar experience and definitely wish I had known what fashion therapy was at the time. Many women struggle with self-identity crises, and fashion plays a huge role in this. If we can recognize that expressing our true identities stem partially from what we wear, we can possibly prevent negative emotions from developing and promote change in a healthy way.
How to engage in fashion therapy:
-Take some time to figure out who you are and what you want to express about yourself
-Look at things you wear most often and ask yourself “Is this something I WANT to wear or is it something I feel like I have to wear?”
-Get rid of clothing that you don’t like on yourself or are not comfortable wearing
-Choose colors that make you feel good
-Pick accessories that compliment your personality
-Think about the utility of your clothing and what is functional for your lifestyle
-Begin wearing garments that you currently have that fit your identity
-Continue building a wardrobe that best feels like YOU
-Be patient with yourself, this is a process that takes time and change
@hellomissamystone in the white floral dress on the left, pictured 2 years ago