I've always thought that “communication” should be taught at school, that teenagers should know the different forms of communication and learn how to handle a job interview or simply how to behave at the bank. Because even though they say “clothes don't make the man”, our mind is built to quickly decode the visual signals we send, and if our image doesn't match who we are or what we want to represent, it takes us away from our goals.
During my studies with ESR I was lucky enough to attend several courses on the psychology of image and colour and, besides broadening my knowledge, I came to understand why the apparently simple act of putting on make-up could really help me feel better, or why the choice of one's image is so important in relation to others.
Numerous studies have shown that by taking care of our image we increase our well-being, and it has also been shown that when we feel good about our appearance our performance is better.
The study by Hajo Adam and Adam D. Galinsky on enclothed cognition shows that self-perception is influenced by our clothing and that this perception changes our behaviour: wearing a doctor's coat, we don't feel or behave the same way as when wearing a tracksuit.
The lipstick effect is another phenomenon studied by various psychologists, highlighting the relationship between purchases of ornamental items and buyers' psychology. The rise in sales of lipstick or other cosmetics during or just after a period of severe economic crisis would be linked to a primal instinct of self-preservation.
Many other social psychology studies have shown that clothes and ornaments influence the psyche of those who wear them and those who look at them, and therefore that: “Appearance is much more than surface”.
My work as a Consultant in communication through image enhancement consists of finding for each of my clients their own “doctor's coat”, making sure they are represented by what they wear and that getting dressed becomes an act of awareness, like an important speech or an attentive stance, because as Oscar Wilde wrote, “It is only shallow people who do not judge by appearances.”
Caroline G.
