As someone whose fashion aesthetic has been as fluid as my ever-changing sense of self, I’ve realized that one of the best records of who we are—and who we were—lies within the clothing we’ve lived inside of. I see my personal style existing in four distinct, cyclical stages: freedom, impression, experimentation, and, ultimately, near-freedom again. I started, as I theorize most of us do, wearing what made me feel good (admittedly, this included a too-long fedora phase). Then, as I found myself in the clutch of middle school insecurity, my style became a product of social observance. High school gave way to trials of style—punk, chic, boho, cottage-core, athletic wear—each reflecting my pursuit of self-discovery. Finally, in higher education, I urged myself to return to a state of careless expression, continually moving between various appearances.
The stakes feel higher as an adult in relation to professionalism, relationships, and even physical safety. Especially as a woman, the bombardment of mixed messaging surrounding fashion can easily drown out one’s authentic preferences. That’s too much skin! versus Embrace your sexuality! Dress for the position you want! versus Wardrobe does not determine capability! Wear what makes you feel like you! versus You must be dressing for attention! The awareness of social constructs aimed at informing wardrobe choice is often a deterrent for women who wish to fully engage with clothes that validate their authentic style. On the flip side, rejecting conformity—and the clothing that presents us in a more palatable, patriarchally-influenced manner—is a growing movement. What is often overlooked is how these conscious wardrobe decisions not only reflect our inner mechanisms but influence our self-view at its core. In the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, the article “Enclothed Cognition” contains a concept that feels especially valuable to understanding this phenomenon. Adam and Galinsky (2012) explain “enclothed cognition” as the idea that what we wear subtly tunes how we think and feel. In their study, participants who put on a lab coat demonstrated sharper attention, while those dressed in formal outfits thought more abstractly—more “big-picture” or strategy-oriented than detail-focused (Adam & Galinsky, 2012; Slepian et al., 2015). As recognizable through my earlier reflection on shifting styles correlated with personal development, the formation and execution of our wardrobe choices can reveal how ready we are to assume the roles that our garments invite us into. I wrote this to encourage introspection about why we wear what we do and, hopefully, to inspire the liberation to dress in ways that align with our inner selves rather than strictly for the public eye.
Of course, our style is not the epitome of who we are—wear those sweatpants, girl!—but our wardrobe may be a more accurate record of who we’ve been and how we’ve grown than we give it credit for. With that in mind, perhaps we are not simply wearing a garment but, in a deeper sense, we are wearing ourselves. The next time you select an outfit, you might just be choosing the version of yourself that will live through that day. Your evolution, it seems, is not only in your hands—it’s in your closet.