Do your clothes inspire leadership?

We’re now halfway through the second month of 2022. How many of you feel like you’ve upheld your ‘new year new me’ resolutions? Maybe 2022 for you was the year of the promotion. Or perhaps it was the year you were dedicating to becoming the best version of you. Your wardrobe is a great place to start making changes, ensuring you always feel and look the part.

In 2019 Forbes suggested dressing well can lead to a greater feeling of power and proactiveness. Dressing well doesn’t have to mean dressing up, rather, it can be a means of dressing to induce confidence in yourself which, in turn, can significantly impact the way you feel about yourself.

Almost any research conducted which explores the relationship between clothing and leadership draws parallels between perceived power and action. A study released in 2019 found that high-confidence leaders had more energy, were more willing to make bold changes and were rated as being more inspiring than low-confidence leaders.

If you think of your clothes as an extension of yourself - a mirror reflecting how you wish to be perceived by others - it becomes easier to understand how what you wear can alter people’s judgement of you and consequently how they engage with you.

The impacts clothing can have on mental health, perception and leadership has become widely acknowledged in recent years, so much so that the London College of Fashion now actually offers courses in the psychology of fashion.

Shakaila Forbes-Bell, founder and editor-in-chief of the website Fashion is Psychology claimed that, particularly in work environments, dark and black clothing is a great way to evoke a sense of power and authority. One study found that managers evaluate job applicants wearing black clothing as possessing more integrity and greater moral reputation.

Mark Zuckerberg famously posted pictures of the row of grey t-shirts and hoodies he has hanging in his wardrobe on his Facebook page. His success has arguably made those grey t-shirts and hoodies as aspirational to some as a suit from Savile Row. A Forbes article exploring relationships between leaders and their styles suggested it is more important than ever, within our image driven culture, that leaders and entrepreneurs be recognisable by their style.

Zuckerberg resides alongside the few whose status and power doesn’t have to be represented in his wardrobe. Yet when he had to sit before the senate after Facebook’s data sharing scandal emerged, he wore a navy suit - what the New York Times dubbed ‘the costume of a grown-up’ - showing he was taking the situation seriously. Or maybe he just understands the role of image communication.

Either way, the relationship between what you wear and how you feel and look to others is an all important one. I’m sure you’ve heard of the term dress to impress? Start dressing to impress yourself.