By Leah Gu
We live in a world where emotions move faster than we can name them anxiety, joy, loneliness, love.
But art, and especially fashion, gives these feelings form. Every color, texture, and silhouette becomes a silent language for what we can’t always say aloud.
This week, I collected six stories that trace how fashion transforms from an external expression into an internal act of healing from self-awareness to creation, from beauty to belonging.
🌿 1. The Power of Dress — Reclaiming Identity through Clothing
From Psychology Today
This piece explores how clothing affects mood, confidence, and self-perception. It reminds us that the act of choosing an outfit can be a form of grounding — a mindful ritual that reconnects us with who we are each morning.
“Dressing is not vanity — it’s embodiment.”
🔗 Link: https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/the-gravity-of-weight/202309/the-power-of-dress
🪡 2. Create Healing: A Fashion Therapy System
From The Fashion Studies Journal
This article presents the concept of fashion therapy — using the process of making clothes as a way to process emotions. Sewing, mending, and draping are seen as acts of repair — not just of garments, but of the self.
“Every stitch becomes a quiet conversation with your own feelings.”
🎨 3. Can Wearing Bright Colors Improve Your Mood?
From Vogue
Vogue examines how certain hues — from tangerine orange to lavender blue — can stimulate dopamine and serotonin. Through the psychology of color, fashion becomes a mirror of the emotions we wish to amplify: hope, calm, courage.
💡 Color therapy is not on a canvas; it’s in your closet.
🔗 Link: https://www.vogue.com/article/can-wearing-bright-colors-improve-mood
🧶 4. Expressive Textile Arts and Fashion-Based Intervention for Youth
From Global Journals of Human Social Science (PDF)
This academic paper studies how textile-based art programs support youth experiencing emotional distress. Through group sewing and collaborative fabric projects, participants rediscover trust and community — proving that fashion can stitch people together, literally and emotionally.
🔗 Link: https://globaljournals.org/GJHSS_Volume23/2-Expressive-Textile.pdf
💭 5. Fashion Design and Mental Health: The Therapeutic Potential of Creativity
From IIFT Bangalore Blog
This article connects fashion education to mindfulness. It argues that sketching, pattern-making, and tactile engagement allow students to transform anxiety into imagination. When creativity becomes meditation, design turns into self-therapy.
“To design is to breathe differently.”
🔗 Link: https://www.iiftbangalore.com/blog/fashion-design-and-mental-health/
🌸 6. Does Your Clothing Have the Power to Heal You?
From Vogue Australia
Vogue Australia explores sensory fashion — the textures, sounds, and colors that soothe the nervous system. It highlights designers who use natural dyes, slow-made fabrics, and intentional craftsmanship to restore harmony between body and earth.
💬 “Clothing is not just what we wear; it’s how we remember ourselves.”
✨ Final Reflection
Fashion doesn’t heal because it’s beautiful.
It heals because it helps us feel to slow down, to notice, to express, to connect.
When I think of art therapy in fashion, I think of the body as a moving canvas，constantly shifting, growing, remembering.
So next time you choose what to wear, pause and listen.
Maybe your outfit isn’t just for the world to see — maybe it’s your heart’s way of saying, I’m still here, and I’m healing beautifully.
Mood & Mode 
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