Mental health is integral to every aspect of our lives, shaping how we think, feel, and carry out our day-to-day activities. Sadly, it's estimated that around 1 in 4 people in the UK suffer from some form of mental health condition — highlighting how common these issues are.
Unfortunately, men's mental health awareness continues to be a relatively stigmatised subject. For many men, discussing their mental wellbeing remains a challenge, with 40% admitting they've never opened up about the topic. While there are countless ways to improve your mental health, fashion might not be the first thing that comes to mind — but it can actually be a surprisingly powerful tool.
To mark World Mental Health Day on October 10th, the team at Slater Menswear has teamed up with two licensed psychologists, Dr. Ravi Gill and Eloise Allexia. In this guide, we speak to them about how fashion can make men feel good and how men can use fashion to boost their mental health.
Five Ways in Which Fashion Can Make You Feel Good
Fashion is about more than just looking good; it can also be a powerful tool to help you feel good about yourself. What you wear can shape your mood, boost your confidence, and even reinforce your sense of identity. While your personal style may not seem like an obvious choice for improving mental health, the right clothing choices can have a significant impact on your self-perception and confidence.
Below, we'll explore five key ways in which fashion can enhance your sense of wellbeing.
-
Increased Confidence
The way you dress can have a deep impact on your self-esteem. When you take the time to choose clothes that fit well, complement your physique, and suit your style, this can transform how you feel about yourself. Wearing a flattering outfit allows you to step into your day confidently, knowing you are showing the best version of yourself.
For example, wearing well-tailored clothes can help you feel more polished and capable, whether you're heading into a work presentation or a social event. Even making subtle adjustments to your outfit, like pairing a well-fitting jacket with a freshly ironed shirt, can make a considerable difference in how you perceive yourself and how you're perceived by others.
Finding a style that suits your frame is also important for building confidence. See our comprehensive guide to learn more about finding your perfect shirt fit.
Psychologist Eloise Allexia highlights this connection, "Fashion can make a man feel confident with his appearance, which can translate to increased confidence in personal, social and professional settings."
2. Deepened Sense of Self
Clothes are a powerful tool for self-expression, helping you communicate who you are without saying a word. You can choose styles that represent your personal identity, creating a visual representation of your values and personality. This can help strengthen your sense of self, making you feel more secure in your everyday activities.
As Eloise notes, "Fashion can make a man feel more connected to his personal sense of style, which helps to strengthen a connection to identity, values and image. This can result in a stronger sense of self, which can enable a man to feel more integrated, secure and intentional in life."
3. Stronger Sense of Belonging and Community
Loneliness is a huge epidemic that generally seems to impact men more than women. Around 25% of men in the UK report feeling lonely, and if you're one of them, fashion can be a great way to help you feel connected to others. Whether it's bonding over specific trends or dressing in a way that reflects your shared values, your clothes can act as a bridge to feeling part of a group or community.
Your fashion choices can reflect more than personal style — they can also demonstrate membership in a broader social circle or subculture, whether that's shown through the type of streetwear you wear, exclusively dressing in professional attire, or dressing up in cultural garments.
For example, wearing the colours of your favourite sports team can make it easy to find others who share the same interests. This can reinforce your identity within that community, enhancing your mental wellbeing by providing a sense of social connection.
As Eloise explains: "Fashion can help a man feel part of a group or community, especially where the fashion choices represent a particular preference, group or trend."
4. Clearer Personal Values
Fashion can provide you with a way to demonstrate your values. For many men, the clothes they wear reflect important beliefs, such as a commitment to sustainability, ethical fashion consumption, or even religion. When your fashion style aligns with your personal values, this can create a deeper sense of identity, resulting in higher self-esteem and greater day-to-day confidence.
An example of this could be wearing eco-friendly materials, such as 100% cotton, or clothing made from sustainable brands. This can signal your commitment to environmentalism. Similarly, supporting inclusive fashion brands that promote diversity can help you demonstrate your beliefs while looking good.
Eloise states, "Fashion can help a man identify his own personal values, especially if the fashion choices represent values such as sustainability, inclusion, diversity, or similar values-based themes."
5. Sense of Pride
Having high or normal self-esteem is crucial for improving your mental health and gaining confidence. Thankfully, the types of clothing you wear can help you with this. When you put thought into the clothes that you plan to wear each day, you're also taking pride in how you present yourself to the world, which naturally boosts self-esteem and helps you feel more in control of your appearance.
This sense of pride doesn't necessarily come from following trends and wearing what conventionally 'looks good' — it comes from making choices that reflect your personality and what matters to you. This doesn't mean that you always have to dress to impress. It could be as simple as choosing to change into a fresh sweatshirt to go shopping or having several go-to smart casual outfits that you can mix and match to stay comfortable while looking put together.
As Eloise puts it, "Where a fashion choice is made with intention and integrity, men can feel a sense of pride in the way they dress, allowing them to deepen their sense of self-esteem, connect with a personal sense of meaning and purpose, and feel as though their choices reflect an important aspect of their character."
The Correlation Between Style and Confidence
The relationship between style and confidence is all too often underestimated. However, research has shown that what you wear can directly impact your psychological state. This concept, known as 'enclothed cognition', suggests that certain outfits can actually change how you feel and behave. For example, wearing a well-tailored suit can make you feel more capable and confident, which can have a knock-on effect on other areas of life.
Dr Ravi explains, "While confidence is ultimately rooted in self-perception, fashion plays a key role by enhancing or reinforcing that self-image. Research suggests that the clothes we wear can affect our psychological state. This is called 'enclothed cognition,' meaning that people feel and behave differently depending on the symbolism attached to their attire."
He elaborates, "For example, wearing a uniform or formal attire might make one feel more capable or confident. The correlation between fashion and confidence is strong and can have a profound influence on social, professional, and personal interactions, which all impact our emotional wellbeing."
Your clothing style doesn't just affect how you feel about yourself — it also influences how others perceive you, which can impact your confidence. When you receive positive feedback or compliments on your outfit, it can boost your confidence and make you feel more self-assured. On the other hand, feeling underdressed or wearing clothes that don't fit with how you see yourself can undermine your confidence and make you feel less comfortable.
Dr Ravi goes on to say, "Fashion can affect how others perceive us and, in turn, how we feel about ourselves. When individuals receive positive feedback or admiration for their style, it can boost their confidence. Conversely, feeling underdressed or wearing clothes that don't reflect one's self-image may decrease self-assurance."
"Certain types of clothing are linked with authority, success, or professionalism. For example, 'power dressing' — wearing tailored suits or statement pieces — can create a sense of authority and boost one's self-confidence in professional and social situations," he adds.
Certain clothing styles can reinforce a sense of authority and success, which can be especially important in professional settings. For example, wearing tailored pieces or statement clothing can make you feel more in control and capable, allowing you to tackle challenges with a stronger sense of self-belief. In recent years, 'power dressing' has regained popularity — known as 'dressing for the life you want' or 'dressing for success' — but this concept applies to far more than just dressing up for business purposes. It can also be used to enhance your everyday happiness and improve your self-esteem.
Whether it's about how your clothes reflect your values or how they make you feel, style and confidence are deeply linked. Eloise explains, "Whether there is a correlation between style and confidence depends on the person, but intentional fashion choices can have a significant impact on confidence."
"We build our sense of identity through a variety of means and methods, but fashion can often be a central aspect, allowing us to express certain ideals or preferences about ourselves in an obvious way," she says.
How Can You Utilise Fashion to Better Your Mental Health?
More than 39% of people in the UK report suffering from low self-esteem, which can affect multiple aspects of your everyday life. Fashion is a fun way to improve your self-esteem while bonding with others and experimenting with your appearance. The way you dress can help you express yourself more clearly and boost your confidence.
In this section, we'll walk you through some practical ways to use fashion to enhance your mental health.
-
Self-Expression
Your clothes are an extension of your personality, and dressing in a way that reflects your true self can positively impact how you feel. You should choose outfits that make you feel good about your appearance, which can help reduce feelings of self-consciousness and keep you focused on being comfortable in your own skin.
As Dr Ravi Gill explains, "Fashion is a powerful tool for self-expression, and men can use it to communicate their personality, values, and interests. Men who wear outfits that make them feel good about how they look can shift their perception of their body and reduce self-consciousness, leading to improved mental health. It's also important to focus on comfort, as uncomfortable clothing can contribute to stress and anxiety."
2. Experiment with New Styles
Introducing new pieces of clothing into your wardrobe can be a simple but effective way to break out of your day-to-day routines and embrace a fresh look. Trying out new styles or outfits you wouldn't normally wear can be empowering and fun — and may even help you feel more open to change in other areas of your life.
"Sometimes, changing up one's wardrobe can act as a form of reinvention or refreshment. Exploring new styles can boost a man's mental health by breaking monotony and introducing novelty into his life. This can be empowering and make him feel more adventurous and open-minded," Dr Ravi notes.
3. Power-Dressing
Power dressing first became a phenomenon in the 1980s, when many young professionals opted for brightly coloured, sharp suits to improve their confidence at work. However, power dressing isn't just for special occasions. Dr Ravi explains, "Power dressing isn't just for special occasions; incorporating well-chosen, polished outfits into everyday life can boost confidence, especially in social or work settings, helping men feel more in control and capable."
This way of dressing can also include wearing more high-end materials, such as velvet, lambswool, and silk, which automatically give the appearance of a more put-together outfit. Wearing clothes that make you feel confident significantly impacts your mental state, helping to improve your mood and give you more pep in your step.
4. Focus on Grooming
It's not just about the clothes — grooming also plays a big role in how you feel. Brushing your hair in the morning and keeping your facial hair neatly trimmed and styled can create a sense of routine and self-care. Dr Ravi notes, "Taking time out for grooming helps instil a sense of routine and stability, which is beneficial for mental health. This process can become a daily act of self-respect, improving self-image and mental clarity."
Whether it's getting a fresh haircut once per month or taking up a daily skincare regime, grooming can boost your self-image and provide some relaxing downtime.
And with that, we’ve covered some simple yet effective ways to improve your mental wellbeing while also enhancing your wardrobe. Eloise notes, "Taking care of the way we dress can have meaningful benefits to our mental health, and to the way we feel about ourselves."
"Taking intentional steps to look after ourselves — including making personal choices around fashion and styling — can signal to ourselves that we matter, we are a priority for ourselves, and that we care to protect our own image. All of these factors can strengthen our mental health, especially where we feel like we might have previously been overlooking our self-care," she concludes.
Find Styles to Boost Your Confidence with Slater Menswear
From raising your self-confidence to helping you express your values, fashion can play a surprisingly powerful role in supporting men's mental wellbeing. By finding clothes that make you feel and look good and being willing to experiment with new styles, you can use fashion to enhance your self-image and mental health.
If you're ready to refresh your wardrobe and discover outfits that help you feel more confident, explore our everyday essentials and sharp occasion wear at Slaters. With a wide range of high-quality suits, casualwear, and accessories, you're sure to find something that fits your style and gives you that extra boost of confidence.
Struggling with your Mental Health?
Andy’s Man Club are a men’s suicide prevention charity offering free-to-attend peer-to-peer support groups across the UK and online. Their aim is to end the stigma surrounding men’s mental health and help men through the power of conversation. Find your nearest group here. It’s okay to talk.
