Fashion Psychology
I decided my first piece here to be about Fashion, as I believe that fashion is the ''skin'' that we choose to wear day-in and day-out. Many ''coachees'' ask me why I pay attention and talk about fashion (while working towards their inner goals) and the answer is simple '' What we wear, is in a way a reflection of our inner world/state, and it has to do all with how we are being perceived by others''. It may be superficial to some, but fashion was, is and always will be extremely important in our daily lives. For example, Fashion was extremely important in Ancient Greece. This is apparent in the writings of the majority of the writers of the Classical period, such as Herodotus, Xenophon, Aristophanes and in many others. Also, there are many archaeological evidence to support that clothes, accessories, even cosmetic products were extremely important to the everyday life of the Ancient Greeks, as beauty was essential, and fashion was one of the vehicles that could reveal the social class of individuals. People had to dress in a certain way to be accepted and ''reflect'' their place in the society. Thus, the subconscious impact that clothes had, and till to this day have, was/is astounding.
Even though fashion in Greece has changed drastically since the ancient years, clothes are still being utilized as a non-verbal device that reflects our social and career status. And that is apparent in the evolution of style in Greece. Trying to change its status from a developing country to a developed one, almost immediately people started adopting the western lifestyle, such as wearing modern clothes, Nike sneakers, buying/wearing big brands etc. Even people that could not afford to buy an expensive item, they would use plastic money to elevate their ''image''/status. From a psychological point of view, this sudden change was the need that people had to create a society with a more elevated image, able to ''hangout with the cool kids''. The ''fashion situation code switching'' was impressive and still to this day, despite the crisis, fashion and image are crucial. Besides, as people say ''you need to dress the part, in order to get the part''. Especially because of the crisis, people utilize fashion (even more so) as ''mood enhancement''. Living in an environment that everything is challenging and gloomy, people need to find ways to cope with difficult situations and fashion is a ''quick fix'' that can elevate our emotional state.
