The Mental Effects of Fashion (Episode 26)

🎧 Think fashion is just about looking good? Get ready to have your mind blown! Wardrobe Utilization Specialist Jasenya McCauley takes us beyond trends and aesthetics into a fascinating exploration of how fashion shapes our daily lives, influences our behavior, and impacts our world.

In this thought-provoking episode, Jasenya reveals eye-opening insights about the clothes we wear and the hidden ways they affect everything from our confidence to our planet. Prepare to question everything you thought you knew about fashion.

Discover unexpected truths about:

• The hidden psychology behind current teen fashion trends
• Ways your wardrobe might be secretly stressing you out
• Sustainable fashion hacks that save money and the planet
• The surprising connection between clothes and confidence
• Fashion's impact on social dynamics and personal identity

Perfect for: Style-conscious teens, sustainability advocates, anyone interested in psychology, and those wanting to understand fashion's deeper influence on society.

Features expert analysis that will transform how you think about getting dressed every morning and make you question the real power of your closet.

To learn more about Jasenya, click the link below. 

https://www.styldnemrgd.com/

Transcript

Welcome to Mindshift Power podcast, a show for teenagers and the adults who work with them, where we have raw and honest conversations. I'm your host, Fatima Bey, the mind shifter. And welcome, everyone. Today, we have with us Jasenia Macaulay, and she is from Schenectady, New York. She is an entrepreneur.

She is a wardrobe utilization specialist, and the name of her business is Styled and Emerged. How are you today, Jesenia? I'm very well. Thank you, Fatima. How are you?

I'm awesome. I'm looking forward to this conversation because I think it's gonna be a little different than what people are used to hearing. Now with me, I like to dive right in. So we're gonna talk about the the, effects of fashion on our mental health. So let's just start off with asking you, what are the effects of fashion on our mental health?

So the effects of fashion on our mental health actually vibrate deeper than we, perceive. Mhmm. It can change how we interact with others. It could change how we interact with our actual goals, and it really can change how we we are motivated to show up in the world. If we do not feel certain feelings that we expect to from our wardrobe, then sometimes it it actually does affect how we show up in the world.

I totally agree. Now let's take a dive deeper dive into what you've just said. What are some examples of the way fashion affects our our mental health? So, like, some examples include, the age old models not matching the realistic user. Right?

So Mhmm. We have a situation to where we have a subject that that is manipulated to fit a brand or an advertiser's or the marketer's messaging. Then you have the consumers who are actually kind of removed from the cons the awareness of how much advertising and marketers strive for their ideal image. And, therefore, we're left in a space to where it's we're actually running after ideals that humans cannot achieve. Right?

So we have the Photoshop. We have the the lifestyle. We have the, the social acceptance. However, again, because these are advertise advertisements and marketing tactics, we don't realize that, again, it's not something that's, achievable because it's not a reality that anyone lives in. Very true.

And this is not something that is a recent phenomenon, and this is not any really, it's nothing new. But I think what's newer or, what's newer about it is the intensity, at which it affects us. I think that people don't realize, you know, as you said earlier, it's it got it goes deep right into your psyche and describes who we are, tells us who we are and who we're not, and has us comparing ourselves against fantasies. You know, as as a person, never you know, my listeners know I make and design wedding gowns and, and and deal with prom girls a lot. And that's something that I see a lot, and I'm gonna keep talking about it on the episodes because it to me, it's it's a big deal.

I have all these people that come in and, you know, it's my job to fit them and make them look beautiful in their dress. They're often unsatisfied, not with what I'm doing, but with themselves because they don't fit into an image that just isn't freaking real. You know? I use this example before. For example, I get prom girls who are so upset that their stomach's not perfectly flat.

Guess what? You have a uterus. It's not supposed to be. You know? And, I mean, that's just a small example.

But, you know, oh my god. My butt's not big enough. My butt's too big. My hips aren't wide enough. My legs are too long.

Whatever whatever it is. And I think I think there's such a big deal to talk about. So let's talk about we know that fashion can affect our mental health. What is the evidence that a person can take a look at themselves and say, wait a minute. Fashion is negatively affecting my self image?

So I call this the eighty twenty rule. Since the company opened in 2018, I've been trying to figure out how can I normalize some of the talking points, right, that I have? So with my clients, I call it the eighty twenty rule. You should be looking at your wardrobe, the total of your wardrobe, and evaluating in a three hundred and sixty five day calendar if you're using 80% of said wardrobe. Right?

So you look at your wardrobe and you see that you have work clothes, you have going out clothes, you have golf clothes, you have garden clothes. Right? Mhmm. And you go ahead and you take a inventory of, do you need actually need this is the utilization part of what I do. Do you need and are going to utilize in a healthy manner 10 pair of jeans?

Right? And if you only use jeans for gardening, then the other categories that you live your life in do not have any use for them. Therefore, on the one, two weekends a month during the nice weather that you choose to garden, is it worth having 10 pair of jeans that are just gonna be in the closet taking up space for the rest of the year? Right? So, that eighty twenty rule really helps us not only give us ourselves grace for some of those nostalgic and sentimental pieces that we have in our wardrobe, but also for those seasonal pieces that aren't used all the time, all the while keeping us focused on if this is a sustainable wardrobe, not only for the environment, but for our mental health.

The management of wardrobe actually takes a toll on us as well because of mental clutter. You know, that whole feng shui, mental physical clutter is mental clutter. I took that as well and put it into my practice because it's true. People will say they have nothing to wear, and people will have negative remarks about their wardrobe because their wardrobe isn't displayed in a way that is easily accessible to them. So they feel as though they do not have the wardrobe, but in actuality, they have an overabundance.

Okay. So one of the negative what I'm hearing is one of the negative effects is that we are not looking at our wardrobe correctly. And that's that's one of go ahead. We're not evaluating them. We're not.

It's just something that once, you know, we're grown adults, it's our job to dress ourselves or we'll go to jail. Right? So In some places. Right. But, yes.

So we we are tasked with this somewhat of a burden for those of us who do not enjoy wardrobe. We do some people do not enjoy fashion and wardrobe and dressing in a manner that speaks to how they feel. So in that case, a lot of times, we either let someone else who is enthusiastic about it handle it, like a spouse or a child or a family member Mhmm. Or, of course, professionals like myself, but again or it turns into this ever compiling burden that we don't realize is stuffed full of decades worth of, you know, memories, but not very useful to us. Yes.

I think one of the other negative effects that I have personally seen, with friends, but also in working in the bridal industry for as long as I've had, I've seen in different capacities. But I see women that will just not go to a party because they don't have an outfit that they feel is good enough to be accepted. I think that's one of the I think that's one of the negative effects too. That is definitely a negative effect, and that is something that is based off of what is called enclose cognition. Mhmm.

That term was coined in 2012, and it is used to describe how the clothing that we wear affects, the person wearing them. Right? So if someone wanted to go and be the belle of the ball, but they don't find the items to make them feel that way, or we don't find the item that that would make others perceive us to be that way, that's a lot of the times when you have those those mental breakdowns of, like, I just can't even do it off of an inanimate object that doesn't really affect the performance. But, again, mentally, it has everything to do with the performance. So the socialite cannot be social without the right tools.

And Right. Right. For them, that right that perfect outfit is the tool to to set everything, about their personality, into a a comfortable setting, you know, mentally. Again, mentally, like, I can't go if I don't look like this. Okay.

But what if you don't? That's not a thought because mentally, they've already the cognition already, decided for them that they're not going to be successful. Now let me ask you a a a an unusual question that I'm just making up right now to for perspective. On a scale of zero to a hundred, how important should we consider our wardrobe in our overall life? So I would go back to my eighty twenty rule and go with 80, you know, 80 on that scale of a hundred.

Okay. It's go ahead. So we in in terms of the importance, zero being not important, a hundred being important, so 80 is where we should be, not a hundred. Absolutely. Again, we have to give ourselves some grace for those times in which wardrobe is not as meaningful to us as it is the person perceiving us.

Right? And those are the days where we're not feeling well, where we are putting our goals over our parents, and that other 80% really is a mixture of keeping yourself just general good hygiene and self care, and thus consideration of how your wardrobe options will help you project propel rather towards your goals. And that's that's a key thing you just said. It's not just the clothes alone. Your hygiene, your general self care and your clothing, they're all wrapped up into the same, you know, into the same bun, I would say, when it comes to self esteem, you can correct me if I'm wrong.

I I do see the importance of people check for the listeners right now. Check check your your mindset. Do you not go to events because of your clothing? Because I would say that's negative and unhealthy. If you're gonna miss out on something that you could be shining at, because you don't have the right outfit or because your hair you didn't go to the hair salon this week because hair comes into this too.

You know, that it I think it's part of the same again, part all part of the same animal. Well, I didn't get my hair done this week, and so I can't go because my hair doesn't look right. You can slap that thing back with some gel and a bun and still make it look good. There are always ways around it. And if you give it to if you give it the importance higher than it should be, it's it's it's a mistake, but it also tells us, it also displays to you how mentally imbalanced you are when it comes to self image because your fashion is a piece of your self image.

Right. And see the the part about, having the hygiene is so key to any great wardrobe because it takes apart, it takes away any insecurities that we don't, we think others perceive. So that part is just like, honestly, maybe 30% of that hundred is just general hygiene, just basic. Maybe some people say my routines aren't basic, but if you talk to professional dentists and dermatologists, they might suggest some of the things I suggest to people and my clients. But with that said, right, brushing, flossing, scrubbing your tongue, that right there can make give someone the confidence just to go out and talk to people if they have a social anxiety.

So why wouldn't that plus a cool outfit that expresses how you feel inside, how could that how could that not be a formula to success? Right? Because on the opposite spectrum, you have people saying they can't even function without the correct outfit. So it's like, 30 that 30% is, to me, super important, and I never overlook checking in at least on how those things are being handled before focusing on a great look. I completely agree, and I'm so glad you brought that point out because we think of fashion as, oh, only the clothes matter.

But I can tell you, after a nice fresh shower, I'm all lotioned up. It doesn't even matter what I'm wearing. I feel good. You know what I mean? And and I don't know.

It's not not unique to me, you know, and those things matter too. That self care piece is just as important because, like, it it just it really matters if you're like even if you did your nails yourself because you couldn't go to the salon because you got bills to pay this week. Hey, that's really for people, right? So you, you, you, you did your nails yourself or had your friend do your nails or whatever. It still makes you feel better.

You know, it still makes you feel better. And when we how we feel about ourselves is how we perform. I don't care if you're talking about at a party, at a job interview, at anything, at a family reunion, whatever it is, how you feel about yourself is how you will behave. It is how you will carry yourself. So that is why we're having this conversation because if we put too much we put too much we give we put too much into our whole look, and we give it the value of a % when it should have the value of 80% or less, that's unhealthy for us.

And we're defining ourself by something that is very fallible, and and it's not good for us. So and, you know, this show is for teens. So, I really wanted to have to to have this conversation in the ear of teens. It applies to all of us, but especially with teens because of the fact that we have social media today. And it rules and reigns in a way that it didn't, for my generation or yours.

And, you know, we we had social media, but not like they do today. It didn't rule and reign the way it does today. So when when we're looking at all this stuff, you know, as I'm talking to the audience now, as Jacenia said earlier, some of the images that are that are are put before us are not real. They're filtered to hell. They're filtered to death.

And they're like, this is me after 25 filters and, you know, and and it's not really them at all, or they only show you a piece of them. So I wanna ask you, we talked about what the negative effects are of the fashion of fashion. What are some of the what is evidence? So what is examples of a healthy mindset when it comes to fashion? When you look at this person and say, okay, they might have a healthy mindset.

What does that look like? Well, the first thing, of course, is the wardrobe maintenance. Right? So how is the wardrobe that is currently owned? How much of a burden is that putting in the person's life?

And I'm not saying that just not wanting to do laundry, right, because, I mean, most of us probably don't like doing laundry, but it's so it's not that part. It's the part of once the laundry is actually getting done, does that turn into an issue because you're having to put things away and that becomes haphazard? Or do you just wash clothes and not put them away? Do they just stay in the basket until you use it? Right?

So those are the times in which I would say, of course, there's life sometimes gets busy. There's other parameters. Right? But I'm just saying if your general normal, like, interaction with your wardrobe is stressful, I would say that's an indication of, okay, I'm just putting these away and and taking them out to use them. Why is there stress involved?

Right? Because advertisers and marketers are not going to they're not gonna help you with that part. They're going to help you buy the things, and they're also not going to help you buy the things in a manner that really is for you. So it's our job to cut down that stress by evaluating how are these items actually showing up in my actual life. So I would say that that's the first thing.

The second thing is is if you're actually stressed when you're getting dressed. So the first part was about putting putting it away, laundering it. The second part of is about getting dressed. Do you look forward to getting dressed, or are you finding yourself frustrated because you can't find that one handbag? That kind of can take away from an exciting moment.

Why is it Because I know there was 35,000 people that just looked at it, looked at the phone or looked at their TV or wherever they're listening to and go, yeah, that was me. Right. I have the right handbag. At a certain point, it's all of us, and that's, you know, even myself. Right?

So it's just one of those things where if you're finding that that's happening too much, to give you guys, like, a a little note about my closet, right, I'm a shoe girl. When I start to notice that I have too many shoe boxes in places that they don't belong, and I have too many shoes by my door, that's usually about the time that I start to evaluate my wardrobe as a whole for those those maintenance types of issues. So some people may I mean, their thing might be scarves or jackets. Right? Just what you utilize the most, see how that's showing up, and if it's showing up organized and you're not stressed about your wardrobe and that's put away, then you're probably in a good space.

The next the next and possibly last part is, use. Are your clothes being used to actually get the attention you seek, meet, achieve the goals you set out to cheat to the goal to a goal towards. Those things are important as well. So for me myself, I think that working with the clients that I work with, I work with a lot of professionals. So therefore, a lot of times they're looking for looks that'll get them positive attention, as well as open up conversations to network.

And it's easier sometimes to be inspired by what those people do, which is what the listeners can take from this is you can be inspired by what you do to start those conversations and not have to work so hard to get your foot in the door. So if you're an artist out there and you paint a lot and you walk around with paint on your clothes, consider wearing in a white outfit or getting strategic white pieces in your wardrobe so that the paint actually looks stylish and you can open up those conversations that could lead to getting new clients. There you go. And this is the reason y'all need to hire her, because how she thinks. Now but and and thank you for for for, explaining explaining that, in the way you did because I'm at first, I'm like, I asked you what the positive ones are.

But you you got you got you got around to it, but you did have to explain that first. And so that makes sense to me. And I will say that I've been guilty of that in the past, especially when you talked about the purse thing. Yeah. I was just like, that was me in the past.

You know? Now no. But but I'm not gonna hem and haw that much over it. But working in the working in the, bridal industry for as long as I have, if I have a special occasion to go to, I hem and haw a little bit more than most people because I make and design dresses. So everybody's freaking staring at me.

So it's different for me than the average person in that respect. And I do get that. But even before I worked in the bridal industry, I used to do that. So I really related to that, that that piece about, oh my God, I don't have the right shoes. And And I know there's people listening out there right now, and I know I know I know y'all are listening, and you're like, I do.

Stop stressing yourself out, please. You don't need to do that. You need to have some balance because that's the key thing. If I'm gonna have one keyword out of everything that Justine is saying, I would say the keyword is balance. You know, that obviously, you don't wanna run around looking like a bum.

None of us do. But we we really shouldn't assign, our wardrobe as much power as we as we sometimes do when we're imbalanced and we go a little crazy over it. Now in the beginning, I asked you you I mentioned that you are a war wardrobe can't talk. Wardrobe wardrobe utilization specialist. Yay.

I said it. So tell us what that means. What what is what is that? So I have went ahead and fused the psychology of fashion with the use of fashion, which is, you know, fashion styling. Right?

I started my business as a stylist, and I focus at first just on trying to help my clients get unique and expressive looks. But in doing that work, I started, I would start, I would start off with my clients doing a detox. Those conversations led me into being a wardrobe utilization specialist, right? Oh, okay. Because I have clients who will be looking at their closet, and I'll be asking questions like, Okay, how do you feel about this?

Well, I don't wear it, but I had it since high school, and I got an award in it. So I just think it's, I think it's nice to keep around, right? I know you're not lying. I know you're not, but it happens so often. And then for me, because I am optimistic and I am a, you know, glass half full type of person, if you will, I didn't mind pushing into those conversations to say, well, why do you have it?

Like, why not take a picture? Oh, I can't fit it. Oh, so you can't use it? No. No.

I can't use it. I just wanna keep it. Well, right, that's where the psychology piece came in for me. I came in to just style them. I came in to just help them have a fabulous wardrobe and feel good and have organization, But I used to walk away oftentimes realizing that this felt just a little bit like I was coaching them right through being okay with their incognition, being okay with not having the dress but still feeling accomplished because they still were standing in that dress, accepting their award, or standing in those penny loafers, accepting their award.

So for me, it wasn't really a conversation of, oh, well, let's figure out a way for you to keep it. It became a conversation of, How can this be useful to you now? Good point. And that's where I started to embark and to, you know, learn impressing upon my time in school, I do have degree in fashion, so that consumer behavior, that marketing, and all of those things came up. And I realized that no one is really advocating for the consumer in these conversations when it comes to the fashion industry.

The fashion industry has Say it again. Yeah. No one is speaking for and to the consumer as in the fashion industry. It's very little. And when people do, it's not it's not from the psychology standpoint.

It's usually either, let's be sustainable, or let's be fashionable, or right? I'm like, well, you can be both because I've seen it, and I've lived it. You can be stylish and get great compliments and feel confident and have great conversations based off your wardrobe items, as well as source them sustainably and without that internal conflict that maybe when something comes out in the news, you partook in that, right? Like Rana Plaza. Yeah.

You know, one of the biggest clients for Rana Plaza, was JCPenney. And for those who don't know, Rana Plaza was a factory out in Bangladesh that actually collapsed because the building wasn't zoned correctly for manufacturing. It was an office building, and they put all these heavy machinery in it, and then the vibrating caused a collapse. So when Americans like us, who advertisers have basically abused, mentally abused into consumerism and compulsive purchasing, it gets to a point to where it's overwhelming. So for someone like myself, like I said, I didn't see it appropriate to see this pattern with my clients and not figure out a way for my business to kind of meet that need.

Right? It's important for all entrepreneurs to meet a need. That was the need I saw for the fashion industry with somebody that's openly and honestly able to speak on dispel some of these tricks that advertisers and marketers use because I know about them and put them in the hands of the consumer so that we're making very well and informed decisions. Yes. Social media, as you said, sorry to cut you off, this one piece.

There's the part about social media that you said is this is the advertisers and marketers taking away our information gathering part of our consumer buying process. So we see someone has it online. That's good enough for us. We don't need to know anything else about how to purchase. That's a big issue.

Yeah. You're right. You're definitely right. Fashion goes a little deeper than we tend to think. So what other services do you offer?

So I offer workshops, consultations, actual wardrobe utilization services in the commercial and personal sector. And that is about it. The company has been through so many changes, and I'm excited to say that we are strictly focused on wardrobe utilization now. I think that I think that, you would be a good person for talking to high schools. Have you gotten into that at all yet?

Oh, thank you. I recently started conversations with Schenectady High School on joining their assemblies. So I'm excited to finish that conversation this month and see where that leads us. And also, I will be reaching out to a few other local high schools to see what programs or what opportunities they have for me to get in front of teenagers because that's the demographic that the advertisers and marketers have very deeply, they're very much impressed by all of the branding and marketing. So it will be great to talk to them and get them a little more empowered and in control of their buying power.

They have the most discretionary income of the demographics because they have a lot a lot of times people, taking care of them, but they have the money because they're teenagers, so that will be exciting. Well, I hope that that works out for you, and I hope that other I hope other people can hear this and invite you in because I think that it's a very, very worthy conversation. And, again, one of those conversations that people don't think about having, but it's right in our face. Right. So how can people find you?

You guys can find me at, www.styledandemerged and at styled and emerged on all platforms. On Instagram, there's an underscore between the n and the e in styledandemerged. And can you spell style that emerged for them? Because it's spelled differently. Absolutely.

It's s t y l d space n space e m r g d. Alright. Uniquely. And her, her links will also be in the show notes. Well, thank you, Giacenie.

I'm glad we had this conversation, and I hope that we have planted some seeds, in the minds of our listeners today. I do too. Thank you so much Fatima for having me, and thank you everybody for listening. I hope it's something helpful in there for you. And now for a mind shifting moment.

I wanna leave you with this today. I want you to think about how much does your wardrobe and your overall appearance affect your activities and how you see yourself. Just take a deep dive and do some self examination. And the other thing I want to note is especially to young women, you do not have to live up to the images you see on TikTok, Instagram, or whatever platform you're looking at. 90% of that is fake.

Do you not realize that there's industries out there, there's whole industries whose entire purpose is to make you feel bad and stupid about yourself? Because that is the only way they'll get you to buy their products. That is the only way they'll get you to get the surgery you think you need. That is the only way they'll get you to buy the tummy tuckers that you probably don't need. I want you to think about that.

I want you to kind of think about yourself as more than just a consumer puppet. Just think about that. Thank you for listening to mind shift power podcast. Please like and subscribe to my YouTube channel at the mind shifter. If you have any comments, topic suggestions, or would like to be a guest on the show, please visit FatimaBay.com/podcast.

Remember, there's power in shifting your thinking. Tune in for next week.