Yes! Dressing well can actually make you successful. What we mean by this is that the way you dress affects you physiologically. Putting on formal attire will immediately make you feel more powerful and change your view of surroundings drastically. If you want to be successful, dress for success.
“Dress like you want to be addressed”
According to multiple studies, your dressing can affect your performance mentally and physically. There is an old advice that says, you should dress for the job you want instead of the one you have. Many studies say that when you change your dressing style, a biological reaction happens and makes you feel like a new person. If you want to have that boss like personality and want to be ahead of others, then dress for success and suit up.
A Social Psychological and Personality Science paper of August 2015 told their test subjects to change into a formal or casual dress before the test. Those who were wearing formal clothes showed an increase in abstract thinking and felt more powerful. Similarly, a study done by Journal of Experimental Psychology a year before involved two groups of people in a negotiation project. One group wore suits while other wore casual sweatpants. Those who wore suits made more profitable deals and had higher testosterone level than those in sweats.
How this works is that we associate a specific type of dress with a specific form of work. Like a suit always associates with business tycoons so you feel empowered wearing a suit. Similarly, if someone’s just a student on some research project, if he wears the lab coat, he immediately starts feeling like a scientist or doctor and work more effectively. Just like that wearing a specific sports uniform will increase your efficiency in playing that sport as it makes the experience more real.
You might have heard the saying ‘ When in doubt, wear red’. Each color has specific significance too. Like if you take two teams, dress one in red, other in blue. The one in red will perform better as red is the color of energy and power while blue calms you. Adding a small amount of red in your dressing will boost up your confidence level.
We all judge each other based on dressing, so definitely the phrase “dress for success” works on all of us. Everyone wishes to stand out and create a statement and for that, the first thing that comes to mind is the dress. What dress will make you unique and impressive? Like wearing a red bow tie on a black suit? Will it make you stand out in the crowed, make you feel unique, give you a lot of attention and would immediately make you feel confident and a sense of power too?
So when we say dress for success, dress for the job you wish to have and be confident in your abilities. Your dressing and skills combined together will take you to your success.