In 1991, country singer Reba McEntire lamented the tragedy of being “all dressed up with nowhere to go.” But if we’ve learned anything this year, it’s that people with nowhere to go actually just don’t dress up. Retail data shows that the loungewear category, alongside activewear, athleisure, streetwear and sleepwear, are faring better than most fashion subsections as we’re universally confined to our homes and comfort dressing reigns supreme. For all its designer runway whimsy, fashion is ultimately a response to our lived reality, translating to coordinated changes in taste and habit at a social scale. And fashion never grapples more furiously for its expression than it does in dark times.
Take, for example, the cottagecore movement. This aspirational aesthetic sub-culture was born anywhere from two to four years ago, but found its apex at the height of a global pandemic, as those of us unable to accept our baggy-legged, drawstring-waisted fate desperately sought to self-sooth through escapism in rural, nostalgic associations. In came the calm, muted colors, the vintage-style prints, the milkmaid necklines, the folklore motifs and the tiered ruffle skirts in organic textures. In came the apple orchard daydreams and the sweet eyelet distractions.
Not only does fashion find itself in lockstep with current events, but it’s also the source we turn to for comfort and escapism. In our attempts to transform the alarming reality of mass quarantine into something romantic, we invoked the pastoral landscapes of Prince Edward Island and the warm embrace of chunky knits in a mundane shade like eggshell, our protective armor against the inexorable doom-and-gloom. Perhaps, as we sat day in and day out in front of our Zoom screens in neutral-toned coordinated loungewear sets, we slowly melted into the whitewashed wall behind us. What was there to stop us when we’d already admitted vestiary defeat?
There are many studies from the past twenty years suggesting that what we wear has the power to influence how we think, act, and feel. In 2012, scholars Hajo Adam and Adam D. Galinsky published the fascinating results of their study in the Journal of Experimental Social Psychology, which concluded that clothes have a measurable impact on our judgment, analytical skills, behavior and confidence.
In their experiment, participants were presented with a lab coat – generally associated with attentiveness and precision – and then required to complete attention-related tasks. Participants who were told it was a doctor’s coat and who proceeded to put on the coat performed higher on the test, whereas those who did not put on the coat performed lower. In another group, participants who were told it was a painter’s coat did not experience the same attention boost as those who put on the lab coat described as a “doctor’s coat,” regardless of whether they wore it or not.
The phenomenon, something Adam and Galinsky described as “enclothed cognition,” demonstrates the combined effect of clothing’s symbolic meaning along with the physical act of donning it. As much as wearers exert agency over the clothing they choose to put on, so too do clothes hold power over their wearers.
As 2020 draws to a close and the prospect of a new year lies before us, it might be time to set aside the symbols of seclusion, the backward-gazing tropes that keep us yearning for the past instead of fleeing into a brighter, more exuberant sartorial future. We’ve spent the last months using our wardrobe to sooth our souls; now let’s use it to stir our minds and cheer our spirits.
While we long for reassurance that we’ll soon be able to gather again with family and friends, let’s dress like that day is today. The hardship of this pandemic taught many of us to look for joy in the minutiae, like our houseplants and sourdough loafs. We reclassified our cozy, colorless desk-to-daybed ensembles as a necessity, and the necessities did indeed sustain us. But the extras – the fripperies, the pretty pieces, the fashion indulgences – make life more beautiful.
It’s time to escape somewhere new, and getting “all dressed up” just might be the best way to get there, even when we have nowhere to go.
Hero image by Alexi Romano via Unsplash.
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