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The Psychology of Everything
The Psychology of Fashion
What do our clothes say about us?
How do the clothes we wear affect our moods and emotions?
How does the fashion industry encourage us to aspire to look in a certain way?
The Psychology of Fashion offers an insightful introduction to the exciting and dynamic world of fashion in relation to human behaviour, from how clothing can affect our cognitive processes to the way retail environments manipulate consumer behaviour. The book explores how fashion design can impact healthy body image, how psychology can inform a more sustainable perspective on the production and disposal of clothing, and why we develop certain shopping behaviours.
With fashion imagery ever present in the streets, press and media, The Psychology of Fashion shows how fashion and psychology can make a positive difference to our lives.
206 pages, Paperback
Published December 30, 2024
90 people are currently reading
813 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 30 reviews
December 11, 2020
This book suffers from a common problem, the title misleads those who approach it. In fact, the book deals with the Psychology of Fashion Culture. In other words, there is a lot of discussion about the influence of fashion on people, how they allegedly suffer the effects of fashion, how they live with and deal with it, from issues of self-esteem to obesity, and the industry's responsibilities towards all these social problems. However, nothing is said about how fashion seduces, how fashion induces, how fashion works the imaginary, from colours to cuts, what is the real importance of fashion for the human being, in psychological terms? Nothing.
On the other hand, it is an introductory short book, albeit academic, but of a master's thesis level. It's all surface because each topic would need its own book.
On the other hand, it is an introductory short book, albeit academic, but of a master's thesis level. It's all surface because each topic would need its own book.
June 21, 2018
Nothing but an incoherent mess of basic psychology and statistics, failing to break any ground and significantly lacking in cohesive to the point where even the conclusion at the end of the book is a mess. The only redeeming factor is the short "what's next" section in the conclusion which looks at directions for the future developments of technology and consumerism.
At least the book is short.
At least the book is short.
February 23, 2021
1 – Introduction
p.2 – Interpretations of the psychological meaning of clothing are influenced not only by the wearer but also by the observer, as well as by the social and cultural context. Nevertheless, our clothing, like other objects, becomes part of our identity and enables us to align with particular groups while separating us from others.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines psychology as “the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behaviour in a given context.”
p.3 – “Psychology is concerned with all aspects of behaviour and the thoughts, feelings, and motivations underlying it. It’s about understanding what makes people tick and how this understanding can help us address and solve many of the problems in society.” (British Psychological Society)
Valerie Steele, an American fashion historian, curator and director of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, as well as editor of the journal, Fashion Theory, defines fashion for the purposes of the journal as the cultural construction of the embodied identity.
p. 4 – As such, fashion encompasses all forms of “self-fashioning,” including street styles and high fashion. Fashion is commonly understood to refer to the prevailing style of dress or behaviour, with the result that it is characterised by change.
Fashion by definition is related to change and is typically associated with younger groups, whereas clothing is used as an umbrella term encompassing functional as well as decorative items. In as this book we use the terms interchangeably for ease of reading.
p.5 – As a cultural phenomenon, fashion is concerned with meanings and symbols which provide instant visual communication to be interpreted and responded to by those we interact with. Although researchers have found that clothing style can convey qualities such as character, sociability, competence and intelligence, often what is conveyed is different from what was intended because communication in any medium is complex.
Because communication involves many brain processes, it is considered psychological. Interpreting the meaning of any message is complex as there are so many opportunities for distortion of the meaning.
Because fashion is inherently concerned with human behaviour, it can be considered a form of psychology.
A Brief History of Fashion
p.6 – Anthropologists argue that humans began wearing clothes in the Neanderthal period (approximately 200,000-30,000 BCE) when they started using tools made of bone rather than stone. Bone tools enabled Neanderthals to soften skins without tearing them, making them more pliable and more able to be made into clothing. Prior to this, humans had decorated their bodies for rituals and as sign of status. As body decorations were hidden once humans started wearing clothing, they began to decorate the clothing, which assumed a decorative as well as a functional purpose. Spun, dyed and knotted wild flax fibres found in caves in Georgia, dating back hundreds of thousands of years, are considered to be remnants of clothing made in response to decreasing amounts of body hair and the resulting need to keep warm.
p.7 – Other accounts claim that the need for clothing as arose as humans moved from Africa to colder climates and settled in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). The Mesopotamians spun and wove wool and made felt and other fibres to produce clothing and footwear such as loin cloths for men and shawls and skirts for women. Even then, wealthy people wore large, elaborate jewellery made of gold and silver and used perfume and cosmetics. According to these accounts, later, as the diaspora spread, the first Egyptian cultures formed along the banks of the Nile. At this time, men and women dressed in light, loose, flowing woollen or linen clothing draped around the body. They cared for and decorated their skin with cosmetics and wore headdresses as status symbols. Similarly, as humans moved to Greece, clothing and jewellery were worn an indicator of status. Evidence suggests that around 2500 to 1600 BCE, the societies who lived in the Indus Valley, in modern-day Pakistan, created jewellery and wore fine woven, dyed and decorated fabrics draped around their body.
p.8 – Elizabethan times (1558-1603), Baroque period (1604-1682), Industrial Revolution (1760-1840), Georgian period (1714-1830), Regency period (1811-1837), Great Depression of 1929-1939,
p.9 – The tragic death of 146 workers trapped by fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City in 1911 prompted the introduction of legislation requiring regular hours, paid leave, sick benefits and better working conditions. Sadly, more than century later, we are still witnessing disasters at fashion's sweatshops.
p.12 – This fast fashion has changed the way fashion is designed, produced and consumed, to the detriment of all three aspects. Designers are pressured to work much faster and produce more collections, which affects the design process and the mental health of designers. In addition, although many consumers are becoming educated about the environmental problems resulting from the fashion supply chain and manufacturing process, they still tend to buy more than they need. Furthermore, many consumers dispose of unwanted items carelessly, sometimes without ever wearing them.
Humans are involved in every aspect of fashion: design, production, manufacture, advertising and marketing, visual merchandising, retail, consumption and disposal.
How Evidence in Psychology is Derived and Interpreted
p.14 – Applied research tests models theories in situ (as opposed to in the lab) derived from pure research and is used to improve pure research by making it more ecologically valid (applicable beyond the lab situation).
p.15 – Psychology allows us to understand why we do the things we do. This enables us to predict and, ultimately, change behaviour.
Psychologists apply critical thinking to scrutinise methods, results and theories in order to derive a better understanding and eventually establish new theories through iterative hypothesis testing.
2 – Well-Being un the Fashion Industry
Mental Health of Workers in the Fashion Industry
p.25 – The 2008 study investigated the relationship between the creative process and psychopathological and personality characteristics in a sample of 100 artists from a range of disciplines, but not fashion. Results showed that the artists scored higher on deep absorption, focus on present experience, and sense of pleasure and were more open, overly trusting and easily intimate with others compared with the norm. They scored higher on the personality traits to of Openness to Experience and Neuroticism. The former involves six dimensions - active imagination, aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness to feelings, preference for variety, willingness to experiment and intellectual curiosity and has positive relationships with creativity, intelligence, knowledge and absorption. This could explain why creative Individuals often find themselves in the psychological state of “flow” during their practice. In addition, people high in openness are motivated to seek new experiences and to engage in self-examination.
p.26 – The fashion industry does not have a particularly good track record for caring about their workers. Many employees are subject to unique pressures that can leave them vulnerable to developing mental health issues or that can exacerbate mental health issues.
p.27 – By definition, fashion is about change. When something becomes fashionable, it is out of fashion. Fashion emphasises novelty and continuous reinvention. Increasingly, designers are required to produce more collections each year. This means there is no respite between collections, and little time to reflect and recover. Therefore, in order to meet industry demands, employees work very long hours, often without breaks, which creates 4 challenging and stressful environment. Ultimately, this impacts the workers' mental health. The fast pace, long hours, competitive nature and high standards demanded in the fashion industries mean that its workers may be more vulnerable to poor mental health than others.
Sadly, many high-profile fashion professionals have reported mental health issues, and others have taken their own lives. In 2010, the British designer Alexander McQueen took his own life at the age of 40.
Yves Saint Laurent's drug use has been well-documented, as has Gialliano’s mental health breakdown. Yet, at the same time as Galliano was suffering, Dior launched a perfume called Addict. This does nothing other than glamorise mental health problems and shows a complete disregard for the potentially devastating professional and psychological outcomes of poor mental health.
p.28 – Marc Jacobs claims he needed rehab after continued drinking and partying with other fashion professionals. Alber Elbaz left Lanvin after 14 years because of the fashion industry's relentless pace, which he claimed crushed creativity and exposed designers to the necessity of finding other ways of keeping up.
p.29 – The fashion industry's unrealistic ideal of physical perfection is at odds with good mental and physical health. Striving for this unrealistic ideal can exacerbate pressures for those working in the industry AS well as for its consumers. As a result, models fare particularly badly in terms of mental health despite the glamorous lifestyle associated with this profession. The requirement for “perfection,” coupled with the demanding social agenda that accompanies working as a model in fashion, makes it easy to understand why to poor mental health and burnout occur.
3 – The Influence of Fashion on Body Image and “Beauty”
p.39 – One problem is that, in reality, highly attractive people are rare, but they are over-represented in fashion, the media and entertainment, where they are portrayed as more desirable, credible and inspirational. This misrepresentation perpetuates the notion that 'what is beautiful is good' because it reinforces the values, norms and ideals of fashion and beauty via fashion and other imagery. The notion that what is beautiful is good combined with the normalised perfect ideal can lead individuals to seek ways to dramatically change their appearance, for example, through cosmetic interventions.
p.43 – Clearly, the cultural ambivalence towards beauty is echoed by that towards ageing. While the male gaze objectifies women, its withdrawal renders them invisible. For women, the loss of beauty and youthfulness, which in contemporary culture are considered synonymous, can lead to a loss of self-definition.
Women, and increasingly men, are targeted by advertisers and marketers to purchase products that promise youthful perfection. The global cosmetics industry continues to grow; its value in 2015 was US$210 billion, and the largest sector is anti-ageing products. Young consumers are persuaded by ageist propaganda against the natural signs of ageing that generates biased perceptions of the impossible horror of getting older and inherent ageism. The rate of growth of the anti-ageing market is evidence of its successful influence. The anti-ageing market is projected to be worth US$191.7 billion by 2019.
p.44 – the concept of 'beauty' in the modern world is problematic for many reasons. Fast fixes from cosmetic interventions tempt individuals to change their appearance so that they conform the stereotype of what is currently considered beautiful. As a result, natural faces and bodies are seen as flawed with abnormalities that can be corrected by cosmetic procedures. “The beautiful woman of the twenty-first century is sculpted surgically from top to bottom, generically neutral, all irregularities regularized, all particularities expunged. She is thus nondisabled, deracialized, and de-ethnicized.”
p.50 – However, research has found that complaining to friends and family about one's appearance, body size, weight and fear of becoming fat can negatively impact feelings about the self. Nevertheless, women of all ages and body sizes feel pressure to be self-critical about their bodies.“
Positive body talk was related to fewer cognitive distortions of the body, high body satisfaction, high self-esteem and friendship quality.
The current ubiquity of visual imagery has contributed to an appearance-oriented culture, which supports a 'pervasive objectification of women’.
p.51 – Objectification is a pervasive of form of sexual oppression in which the individual is viewed as : body for use or consumption by others.
In current culture, the female body is frequently construed at as an object to be looked at and sexually gazed upon. The most subtle way that objectification is enacted is through the gaze, visual inspec- tion of the body. This occurs when a woman's body is perceived as separated from her as a person and regarded as representative of her. In this sense, objectified women are treated as bodies that exist for the use and pleasure of others, which results in persistent body surveillance or monitoring.
In visual media, notwithstanding the obviously problematic issues of the pornography industry, the sexually objectifying gaze also occurs in mainstream films, advertisements,
visual arts, television, music videos, magazines, sports photography and fashion. The most profound psychological effect of objectifying, according to objectification theory's creators, Fredrickson and Roberts, is that it can lead females to treat themselves as objects to be looked at and evaluated.
p.52 – Generally, women report higher levels of appearance anxiety than men, which is evidenced by the millions of dollars they spend each year on cosmetics, surgery and weight reduction programs in an attempt to achieve the ideal. Women with higher appearance anxiety have low self-esteem, high public self-consciousness and high audience and test anxiety. This sort of anxiety is considered to be consequence of self-objectification in a culture which emphasises the importance of appearance for women far more than for men.
4 – Fashion, Self, and Identity
p.56 – Women tend to develop more interdependent selves and relate their self-esteem to the quality of their relationships, whereas men tend to develop more independent selves associated with their self-esteem. The self is socially constructed, and the socialisation process is never complete. Although we develop our self-concept through socialisation, we continually assess it by measuring it against societal and cultural norms and the feedback we receive from others.
Clothing is part of our identity, and fashion provides an obvious means for presenting the self in the most favourable way.
p.58 – Clothing and appearance play an important role in the development, maintenance and modification of the self and are part of the way we view and think about ourselves.
Self-esteem is the evaluative component of self-concept or self-image
p.2 – Interpretations of the psychological meaning of clothing are influenced not only by the wearer but also by the observer, as well as by the social and cultural context. Nevertheless, our clothing, like other objects, becomes part of our identity and enables us to align with particular groups while separating us from others.
The Oxford English Dictionary defines psychology as “the scientific study of the human mind and its functions, especially those affecting behaviour in a given context.”
p.3 – “Psychology is concerned with all aspects of behaviour and the thoughts, feelings, and motivations underlying it. It’s about understanding what makes people tick and how this understanding can help us address and solve many of the problems in society.” (British Psychological Society)
Valerie Steele, an American fashion historian, curator and director of the Museum at the Fashion Institute of Technology, as well as editor of the journal, Fashion Theory, defines fashion for the purposes of the journal as the cultural construction of the embodied identity.
p. 4 – As such, fashion encompasses all forms of “self-fashioning,” including street styles and high fashion. Fashion is commonly understood to refer to the prevailing style of dress or behaviour, with the result that it is characterised by change.
Fashion by definition is related to change and is typically associated with younger groups, whereas clothing is used as an umbrella term encompassing functional as well as decorative items. In as this book we use the terms interchangeably for ease of reading.
p.5 – As a cultural phenomenon, fashion is concerned with meanings and symbols which provide instant visual communication to be interpreted and responded to by those we interact with. Although researchers have found that clothing style can convey qualities such as character, sociability, competence and intelligence, often what is conveyed is different from what was intended because communication in any medium is complex.
Because communication involves many brain processes, it is considered psychological. Interpreting the meaning of any message is complex as there are so many opportunities for distortion of the meaning.
Because fashion is inherently concerned with human behaviour, it can be considered a form of psychology.
A Brief History of Fashion
p.6 – Anthropologists argue that humans began wearing clothes in the Neanderthal period (approximately 200,000-30,000 BCE) when they started using tools made of bone rather than stone. Bone tools enabled Neanderthals to soften skins without tearing them, making them more pliable and more able to be made into clothing. Prior to this, humans had decorated their bodies for rituals and as sign of status. As body decorations were hidden once humans started wearing clothing, they began to decorate the clothing, which assumed a decorative as well as a functional purpose. Spun, dyed and knotted wild flax fibres found in caves in Georgia, dating back hundreds of thousands of years, are considered to be remnants of clothing made in response to decreasing amounts of body hair and the resulting need to keep warm.
p.7 – Other accounts claim that the need for clothing as arose as humans moved from Africa to colder climates and settled in Mesopotamia (present-day Iraq). The Mesopotamians spun and wove wool and made felt and other fibres to produce clothing and footwear such as loin cloths for men and shawls and skirts for women. Even then, wealthy people wore large, elaborate jewellery made of gold and silver and used perfume and cosmetics. According to these accounts, later, as the diaspora spread, the first Egyptian cultures formed along the banks of the Nile. At this time, men and women dressed in light, loose, flowing woollen or linen clothing draped around the body. They cared for and decorated their skin with cosmetics and wore headdresses as status symbols. Similarly, as humans moved to Greece, clothing and jewellery were worn an indicator of status. Evidence suggests that around 2500 to 1600 BCE, the societies who lived in the Indus Valley, in modern-day Pakistan, created jewellery and wore fine woven, dyed and decorated fabrics draped around their body.
p.8 – Elizabethan times (1558-1603), Baroque period (1604-1682), Industrial Revolution (1760-1840), Georgian period (1714-1830), Regency period (1811-1837), Great Depression of 1929-1939,
p.9 – The tragic death of 146 workers trapped by fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company in New York City in 1911 prompted the introduction of legislation requiring regular hours, paid leave, sick benefits and better working conditions. Sadly, more than century later, we are still witnessing disasters at fashion's sweatshops.
p.12 – This fast fashion has changed the way fashion is designed, produced and consumed, to the detriment of all three aspects. Designers are pressured to work much faster and produce more collections, which affects the design process and the mental health of designers. In addition, although many consumers are becoming educated about the environmental problems resulting from the fashion supply chain and manufacturing process, they still tend to buy more than they need. Furthermore, many consumers dispose of unwanted items carelessly, sometimes without ever wearing them.
Humans are involved in every aspect of fashion: design, production, manufacture, advertising and marketing, visual merchandising, retail, consumption and disposal.
How Evidence in Psychology is Derived and Interpreted
p.14 – Applied research tests models theories in situ (as opposed to in the lab) derived from pure research and is used to improve pure research by making it more ecologically valid (applicable beyond the lab situation).
p.15 – Psychology allows us to understand why we do the things we do. This enables us to predict and, ultimately, change behaviour.
Psychologists apply critical thinking to scrutinise methods, results and theories in order to derive a better understanding and eventually establish new theories through iterative hypothesis testing.
2 – Well-Being un the Fashion Industry
Mental Health of Workers in the Fashion Industry
p.25 – The 2008 study investigated the relationship between the creative process and psychopathological and personality characteristics in a sample of 100 artists from a range of disciplines, but not fashion. Results showed that the artists scored higher on deep absorption, focus on present experience, and sense of pleasure and were more open, overly trusting and easily intimate with others compared with the norm. They scored higher on the personality traits to of Openness to Experience and Neuroticism. The former involves six dimensions - active imagination, aesthetic sensitivity, attentiveness to feelings, preference for variety, willingness to experiment and intellectual curiosity and has positive relationships with creativity, intelligence, knowledge and absorption. This could explain why creative Individuals often find themselves in the psychological state of “flow” during their practice. In addition, people high in openness are motivated to seek new experiences and to engage in self-examination.
p.26 – The fashion industry does not have a particularly good track record for caring about their workers. Many employees are subject to unique pressures that can leave them vulnerable to developing mental health issues or that can exacerbate mental health issues.
p.27 – By definition, fashion is about change. When something becomes fashionable, it is out of fashion. Fashion emphasises novelty and continuous reinvention. Increasingly, designers are required to produce more collections each year. This means there is no respite between collections, and little time to reflect and recover. Therefore, in order to meet industry demands, employees work very long hours, often without breaks, which creates 4 challenging and stressful environment. Ultimately, this impacts the workers' mental health. The fast pace, long hours, competitive nature and high standards demanded in the fashion industries mean that its workers may be more vulnerable to poor mental health than others.
Sadly, many high-profile fashion professionals have reported mental health issues, and others have taken their own lives. In 2010, the British designer Alexander McQueen took his own life at the age of 40.
Yves Saint Laurent's drug use has been well-documented, as has Gialliano’s mental health breakdown. Yet, at the same time as Galliano was suffering, Dior launched a perfume called Addict. This does nothing other than glamorise mental health problems and shows a complete disregard for the potentially devastating professional and psychological outcomes of poor mental health.
p.28 – Marc Jacobs claims he needed rehab after continued drinking and partying with other fashion professionals. Alber Elbaz left Lanvin after 14 years because of the fashion industry's relentless pace, which he claimed crushed creativity and exposed designers to the necessity of finding other ways of keeping up.
p.29 – The fashion industry's unrealistic ideal of physical perfection is at odds with good mental and physical health. Striving for this unrealistic ideal can exacerbate pressures for those working in the industry AS well as for its consumers. As a result, models fare particularly badly in terms of mental health despite the glamorous lifestyle associated with this profession. The requirement for “perfection,” coupled with the demanding social agenda that accompanies working as a model in fashion, makes it easy to understand why to poor mental health and burnout occur.
3 – The Influence of Fashion on Body Image and “Beauty”
p.39 – One problem is that, in reality, highly attractive people are rare, but they are over-represented in fashion, the media and entertainment, where they are portrayed as more desirable, credible and inspirational. This misrepresentation perpetuates the notion that 'what is beautiful is good' because it reinforces the values, norms and ideals of fashion and beauty via fashion and other imagery. The notion that what is beautiful is good combined with the normalised perfect ideal can lead individuals to seek ways to dramatically change their appearance, for example, through cosmetic interventions.
p.43 – Clearly, the cultural ambivalence towards beauty is echoed by that towards ageing. While the male gaze objectifies women, its withdrawal renders them invisible. For women, the loss of beauty and youthfulness, which in contemporary culture are considered synonymous, can lead to a loss of self-definition.
Women, and increasingly men, are targeted by advertisers and marketers to purchase products that promise youthful perfection. The global cosmetics industry continues to grow; its value in 2015 was US$210 billion, and the largest sector is anti-ageing products. Young consumers are persuaded by ageist propaganda against the natural signs of ageing that generates biased perceptions of the impossible horror of getting older and inherent ageism. The rate of growth of the anti-ageing market is evidence of its successful influence. The anti-ageing market is projected to be worth US$191.7 billion by 2019.
p.44 – the concept of 'beauty' in the modern world is problematic for many reasons. Fast fixes from cosmetic interventions tempt individuals to change their appearance so that they conform the stereotype of what is currently considered beautiful. As a result, natural faces and bodies are seen as flawed with abnormalities that can be corrected by cosmetic procedures. “The beautiful woman of the twenty-first century is sculpted surgically from top to bottom, generically neutral, all irregularities regularized, all particularities expunged. She is thus nondisabled, deracialized, and de-ethnicized.”
p.50 – However, research has found that complaining to friends and family about one's appearance, body size, weight and fear of becoming fat can negatively impact feelings about the self. Nevertheless, women of all ages and body sizes feel pressure to be self-critical about their bodies.“
Positive body talk was related to fewer cognitive distortions of the body, high body satisfaction, high self-esteem and friendship quality.
The current ubiquity of visual imagery has contributed to an appearance-oriented culture, which supports a 'pervasive objectification of women’.
p.51 – Objectification is a pervasive of form of sexual oppression in which the individual is viewed as : body for use or consumption by others.
In current culture, the female body is frequently construed at as an object to be looked at and sexually gazed upon. The most subtle way that objectification is enacted is through the gaze, visual inspec- tion of the body. This occurs when a woman's body is perceived as separated from her as a person and regarded as representative of her. In this sense, objectified women are treated as bodies that exist for the use and pleasure of others, which results in persistent body surveillance or monitoring.
In visual media, notwithstanding the obviously problematic issues of the pornography industry, the sexually objectifying gaze also occurs in mainstream films, advertisements,
visual arts, television, music videos, magazines, sports photography and fashion. The most profound psychological effect of objectifying, according to objectification theory's creators, Fredrickson and Roberts, is that it can lead females to treat themselves as objects to be looked at and evaluated.
p.52 – Generally, women report higher levels of appearance anxiety than men, which is evidenced by the millions of dollars they spend each year on cosmetics, surgery and weight reduction programs in an attempt to achieve the ideal. Women with higher appearance anxiety have low self-esteem, high public self-consciousness and high audience and test anxiety. This sort of anxiety is considered to be consequence of self-objectification in a culture which emphasises the importance of appearance for women far more than for men.
4 – Fashion, Self, and Identity
p.56 – Women tend to develop more interdependent selves and relate their self-esteem to the quality of their relationships, whereas men tend to develop more independent selves associated with their self-esteem. The self is socially constructed, and the socialisation process is never complete. Although we develop our self-concept through socialisation, we continually assess it by measuring it against societal and cultural norms and the feedback we receive from others.
Clothing is part of our identity, and fashion provides an obvious means for presenting the self in the most favourable way.
p.58 – Clothing and appearance play an important role in the development, maintenance and modification of the self and are part of the way we view and think about ourselves.
Self-esteem is the evaluative component of self-concept or self-image
March 7, 2023
A very interesting book which discusses themes including fashion consumption, the influence that fashion have on body image and what we consider "beautiful, and fast vs. sustainable fashion.
With fashion being one of the world's largest industries, I think this book is important reading material for anyone who wear clothes.
With fashion being one of the world's largest industries, I think this book is important reading material for anyone who wear clothes.
February 7, 2023
This book is good for anyone new to sustainable fashion as it breaks down the terms and logistics of the idea. Otherwise a little bit boring of a book which is why I couldn’t give it the full 5 stars.
April 29, 2022
عادي
معظمه إحصائيات وكلام معروف
معظمه إحصائيات وكلام معروف
December 8, 2022
Honestly it’s more of a Cliff notes intro than anything in depth. Also cites problematic writers 😭😭😭
December 26, 2025
Borderline unreadable.
For such a short volume, you would think the author would've included only the most pertinent and interesting details. However, well over half of the book was background information to support the scant, scattered crumbs that were actually about the psychology of fashion, allowing too little space to give any depth. A better title would've been "The Social and Ethical Concerns of Fashion Culture."
In addition to being both shallow and unexciting, the individual sentences had absolutely no flow. Almost no transition sentences, poor paragraph organization, and no regard for readability. (There's a maddening example that reads "he reasons that the reason...") This is a common problem in academic writing, and it does this book no favors. I also wondered if some chapters had been originally published separately in an academic journal because there was a lot of repetition between chapters.
Overall: the only reasons I was able to finish at all were because 1) the book was very short and 2) I'm trying to hit a reading goal. No substance to be had, but at least it made another tally mark on my ledger.
For such a short volume, you would think the author would've included only the most pertinent and interesting details. However, well over half of the book was background information to support the scant, scattered crumbs that were actually about the psychology of fashion, allowing too little space to give any depth. A better title would've been "The Social and Ethical Concerns of Fashion Culture."
In addition to being both shallow and unexciting, the individual sentences had absolutely no flow. Almost no transition sentences, poor paragraph organization, and no regard for readability. (There's a maddening example that reads "he reasons that the reason...") This is a common problem in academic writing, and it does this book no favors. I also wondered if some chapters had been originally published separately in an academic journal because there was a lot of repetition between chapters.
Overall: the only reasons I was able to finish at all were because 1) the book was very short and 2) I'm trying to hit a reading goal. No substance to be had, but at least it made another tally mark on my ledger.
October 21, 2024
I debated between a 1 star and 2 and honestly I’m not sure that 2 is the right call. This book was soooooo dull! And also so surface level- makes you want to scream out thank you captain obvious- if you care about fashion and watch any kind of online video content about it, like some slow fashion channels- don’t buy this and waste your time- you already know more than it’s going to tell you. It also has this annoying habit of bringing things up just to not explore them but instead say that will be explored in a later chapter or at the end of chapters they are all summing up what the chapter is about and it got to a point in the audiobook where it felt like I wasn’t listening to an actual book with detailed exploration but summaries of what supposedly would be coming up or just did come up (although the summary had about as much depth as the supposed detailed covering of the topic in the chapter) I literally had to make myself keep going, largely just bc I was commuted enough and needed the number for my good reads challenge
November 13, 2021
I've really wanted to read something about the psychology of fashion or a while, and so this book title and blurb seemed it was exactly what I was looking for. I feel I got some of what I wanted to know more about or listen to out of it but I felt it didn't hit the spot a lot of times, it seemed it was saying quite simple things but just repeating them in a slightly different complicated way throughout. I wanted it to be more questioning and emotional and deep but it was more just really obvious brick wall facts said in confusing ways.
Academic writing is kinda lame cus the writer isn't expressing anything themselves or being vulnerable they are just worried about not being wrong about anything and writing correctly. Boring AF.
Academic writing is kinda lame cus the writer isn't expressing anything themselves or being vulnerable they are just worried about not being wrong about anything and writing correctly. Boring AF.
December 24, 2024
It was a great intro book to the psychology of fashion. In this case the term ‘fashion’ is used more broadly overarching the beauty industry.
I found myself taking a lot of notes and being super interested by findings that were shown on how fashion & clothes is so intertwined with our decisions, thought processes, etc. however, I would have liked more depth. (She did mention throughout the book that this book would not not have the extreme depth needed on topics and referred you to other recommended reads).
This is a book anyone could read (not just a fashions student) and truly shows how much more compelled fashion is.. not just an industry of where people “dress up”
I found myself taking a lot of notes and being super interested by findings that were shown on how fashion & clothes is so intertwined with our decisions, thought processes, etc. however, I would have liked more depth. (She did mention throughout the book that this book would not not have the extreme depth needed on topics and referred you to other recommended reads).
This is a book anyone could read (not just a fashions student) and truly shows how much more compelled fashion is.. not just an industry of where people “dress up”
August 6, 2023
I picked up this book because I had a course in college that I enjoyed about this topic. Unfortunately the book wasn’t quite what I expected. Although it was interesting to dive into mental health of designers and other topics, it felt very separated in topics. It either discussed psychology or fashion. It never covered why you pick an outfit, what that outfit means to others, and the deep down judgement we all have towards “prettier” people that my course covered. It’s a quick read but I felt that it missed a few areas that would have been extremely interesting.
July 4, 2025
So dull and disappointing. I got through the first quarter and I can't bring myself to keep going. It doesn't teach me anything new. It's just a summary of a lot of facts, most of them obvious to a person who pays attention to dressing and fashion for a long time. Reading it reminds me of when I was writing final thesis of my postgrad: gluing together paragraphs about different studies and then writing a unifying conclusion. Basically, nothing you want to read in a published educative book. And as other noted, the title promises something different than what you actually get.
October 27, 2022
I found this to be a really useful and insightful overview of how psychological theory and research can be, and has been, used to better understand and support issues related to fashion. Professor Mair makes many interesting and poignant points which - to name a few- address representation within the fashion industry and it’s ties with body image and well-being, and the changing habits of consumers and how this affects sustainability. Well worth a read.
September 1, 2025
Surface level knowledge of fashion and its history “analyzed” with surface level psychology—all paired with horrible editing and writing style that distracted me so much from the purpose of the book that I had to stop to annotate the mistakes myself.
Felt like I was reading an undergraduate’s research paper.
Felt like I was reading an undergraduate’s research paper.
December 16, 2021
Although some parts were interesting it reads, and it is read in the audio version, as a long thesis research therefore quite pedantic at times. Not bad but not exciting as it could have been in my opinion.
January 7, 2023
2.5 stars
Not really what I wanted to read.
Interesting, that's true, but the focus I was expecting on how personality and psychology con tell about our choices in fashion and clothing is non existent in this texts.
Not really what I wanted to read.
Interesting, that's true, but the focus I was expecting on how personality and psychology con tell about our choices in fashion and clothing is non existent in this texts.
May 16, 2023
I genuinely learned so much from this book. At times it was a little fact heavy and hard to get through but I loved the analyses, so interesting! If you have the slightest interest in fashion, I recommend you read this book
November 20, 2019
A decent introductory survey of what academic studies exist on the subject but was hoping for it to expand some of the ideas.
June 4, 2020
A compilation of facts, statistics, and resources about the fashion industry. A starter book on learning more about the industry.
December 5, 2020
Good introduction.
March 4, 2021
Bit boring but I got through it. Took me a bit to read. Was an interesting read at times but also dragged a bit. 4/10 If i saw it in the street I'd say hello.
April 15, 2022
Poor title for content of book
This is more the psychology of body image than the psychology of fashion. Really nothing new is included. It was neither interesting nor helpful.
This is more the psychology of body image than the psychology of fashion. Really nothing new is included. It was neither interesting nor helpful.
March 1, 2023
I'm unsure how to rate this book, it was interesting but not the entire time? There was a few parts that I found to be informative but the rest seemed obvious? Idk. Maybe good but not great?
March 20, 2023
Interesting survey of the what we know about fashion and the human mind. Worth reading.
January 29, 2024
A useful book for everyone, especially for those who are interested in fashion industry, consumers behavior and applied psychology.
November 5, 2024
Interessant, maar ik had wel het gevoel alsof ik heel veel al wist.
Ik heb wel wat nieuwe dingen geleerd hoor🤗🎀
Ik heb wel wat nieuwe dingen geleerd hoor🤗🎀
March 5, 2025
2.5 / 5 - not exactly what I was looking for but some bits found interesting
December 22, 2025
cool wee book
July 7, 2024
I agree with the review that was like "this should be called 'psychology and the fashion industry.'" It has little to nothing to do with style, which is fine, but again... bad marketing perhaps
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