Wearing black when feeling blue: An exploration of the relationship between clothing and mood

The relationship between an individual’s outfit and their mood is complex and varies from person to person. Yet, every garment possesses characteristics that can influence, intensify, or conceal the wearer’s mood. This paper explores this relationship between outfits and the wearer’s mood, examining how clothing choices can affect mood and they can be used to alter it. Through a combination of a literature study and an exploratory questionnaire study that asked people to take photographs of their outfits, key garment characteristics have been determined for four distinct moods: tense, cheerful, gloomy, and relaxed. These characteristics were used to create a set of inspirational and layered outfits that make the wearer’s moods more tangible and understandable. The paper reports a summary of the literature review, the explorative questionnaire study, and the tangible outfits.