Fashion is a potent means of expressing one’s identity and enhancing self-esteem. However, the industry needs to be more mindful of how its products can promote a healthy body image and encourage meaningful conversation.
Clothing with supportive messages, symbols, and designs can help banish stigma and encourage individuals to seek professional help when needed.
Self-Expression
Self-expression plays a vital role in maintaining good mental health. It fosters a positive mindset, helps consumers understand their passions, and can even help them reach personal goals. Additionally, it’s been shown that people’s impressions of one another are heavily influenced by their clothing type.
A brand that makes a big difference by showcasing mental health aesthetically pleasingly. The company uses role models who have overcome their mental health struggles and use their experiences to empower others. They also donate some of their shirts and other merch proceeds to TWLOHA. This charity provides hope, treatment, and scholarships to those struggling with depression, addiction, self-injury, and suicide.
Then, there’s a streetwear apparel brand that promotes self-acceptance and encourages everyone to stay kind.
Body Image
Clothing can be a powerful tool for self-expression and confidence. However, it can also negatively affect your body image and lead to low self-esteem. It is especially true if you wear clothes that reinforce negative messages about your body type.
In addition to providing a platform for activism, mental health apparel can serve as a conversation starter and support individuals with mental illness. Many of these brands employ role models impacted by mental illness to model their clothing. It helps break the stigma around mental health struggles and encourages others to speak openly about their experiences.
The exhibition also has an accompanying book titled Power Mode: The Force of Fashion, which explores the cultural meanings of different garments and their use to convey power. The book combines theory, history, and object analysis to offer a unique interdisciplinary approach to studying fashion’s relationship to power in culture.
Self-Esteem
Clothing and fashion are more than just an expression of oneself; they can also positively impact self-esteem. It is because garments and style inherently showcase personality, culture, lifestyle, creativity, and more. This variety of ways to express oneself can help boost confidence and self-worth, especially for those who are often hesitant to communicate with others or lean toward introversion.
Moreover, apparel that features mental health themes encourages discussion and can act as a conversation starter, furthering awareness about various disorders. It can also support charitable initiatives and nonprofit organizations that provide mental health resources.
Some organization provides individuals with community support, treatment and recovery scholarships, and nationwide events. It also promotes self-love and empathy through its t-shirts and other merch.
Individuality
A unique style is a form of self-expression and helps boost mood and confidence. Fashion, like art and music, is a powerful outlet for creativity that allows people to express themselves. It is a way of showing others how unique and special they are.
A variety of brands have created clothing lines that promote mental health. All these brands are helping to change the unrealistic societal standards surrounding mental illness, one garment at a time.
