Have you ever thought about how your clothes make you feel? Not just are they comfortable, itchy or have a scratchy tag, or you like the feel of velvet, or buttery soft leather, but inside your head and heart?
Mental Comfort
Personality is the key to finding and developing your style. Personality comes into play when we talk about the mental comfort of clothing.
If you have a need to be appropriate and like to check the dress code to confirm that what you are wearing is correct for the occasion, then you obtain mental comfort when you fit into the environment.
For some women, mental comfort may need them to be different to everyone else. One of my image consulting students gained mental comfort being different to everybody else. When she was younger, she would adapt her school uniform to be different from everybody else's and as soon as other girls copied her she'd feel the need to change it again.
Leggings are very physically comfortable but for me, they're only mentally comfortable if I'm exercising or I'm doing something that requires that movement and flexibility. Leggings are not mentally comfortable for me if I'm going to the shops.
Emotional Comfort
Emotional comfort may also include garments that fit your personal values as if there is discord with your values, you will feel emotionally uncomfortable.
Physical comfort
This is one of the obvious but often ignored issues with clothing selection is how clothing feels. How the fabric feels on the skin; how the garment sits on our body and the ease of the garment's construction.
We often buy clothes that are a bit uncomfortable in some way or other. This discomfort affects us all day - tugging; pulling and adjusting the garment or being annoyed by that scratchy tag or loose thread. This discomfort is a distraction and takes our minds away from the tasks we should be focused on. Being irritated by your clothes will spill into your day and your interactions with other people and not in a good way.
When a garment isn't comfortable in a physical way, we are also more likely to dislike wearing it. We may even actively avoid wearing it and it languishes in our wardrobe. Conversely, if you are very sensory types, you may keep your clothes longer than they should "because they're comfortable". Remember that clothes go out of fashion and also get worn out , which doesn't communicate a positive message. Identifying your need for kinesthetic clothing choices is one of my 6 Brilliant Strategies for Creating Your Perfect Wardrobe.
Moving out of your comfort zone
It's a lie that to be stylish you have to be born with an innate talent for it. Sure some people are naturally more stylish, but I know plenty of people who have learned how to become more stylish using much of the information I share on this blog.
Style is both a science and an art. Fortunately, both aspects can be learned.Download a PDF free of my 6 Brilliant Strategies series here.
