I don’t care what critics say; costume designers are geniuses. They have to think through every small detail of someone’s clothing when most of us just put things on without thinking. They have to make characters seem like that. That is an enormous challenge. Euphoria costume designer Heidi Bivens says that she is the “‘filter’ each character that everything has to sift through. It’s like asking when you’re picking out clothes for yourself, ‘Would I wear that? Why would I wear that? Where would I wear that? What if I wear that? What is it going to say about myself? How’s it going to look on my body? Can I afford it?’ I’m responsible to do that for each of the characters.” This is all that we do subconsciously on a daily basis.
It’s not uncommon for people to approach picking out an outfit like a costume designer on a hit fashion-forward show. Heck, that’s why we feel the need to go on a shopping spree before a vacation or new season.
There is a lot of psychology that goes into fashion. Heck, the YouTube channel Clever & Chic made its entire channel about the connections between psychology and fashion. How you feel and your current mentality affects what you wear. For example, when I was in a very dark and chaotic place, I found myself doing three things when it comes to fashion: wearing dark colors, mixing prints and dressing down.
Now, I usually wear dark colors. My whole closet is basically all black. However, I try to always have a pop of color, usually maroon. However, during this time, I didn’t even have enough energy to put on a necklace. While I have gotten better at mixing prints, during this time I was just lazy. Luckily, like I aforementioned, I was wearing dark colors, so at least both prints were black, but I still wore striped pants and an argyle sweater. Lastly, I was dressed down, when I prefer to always being dressed up. I wore sweatpants more often and wore the same argyle cardigan multiple times a week. The point isn’t that I didn’t have enough energy to do laundry. The point is that I didn’t have enough energy to pick out an outfit. I was depressed, overwhelmed and hopeless, and my outfits showed that without even realizing it.
However, colors and patterns aren’t the only way fashion can show your mental state. When you are wearing something sparkly, it causes the lights to bounce off of you, even in a dark room. It can even be blinding. This can make you the center of attention without even realizing it.
Visual dominance is something Blair Waldorf and Serena van der Woodsen did a lot through their clothing on Gossip Girl. It’s when you wear clothes that take up a lot of space to make you visually appear larger and therefore more powerful. This reflects people’s need for superiority, not that it is always a bad thing.
So, next time you pick out an outfit, look and the mirror and really ask yourself “what does this say about where I am right now?” It’s a great day to read your subconscious and check in with yourself, both in a good way and a bad way. And what’s better than fashion?
