Table of Contents
My Outfit Online
Introduction: My Outfit Online Some social scientists in the 19th century studied dress in relation to culture, individuals, and social groups, but it was not until the mid-20th century that domestic economists began to take an academic interest in the social science aspects of dress. (Roach-Higgins 1993). Clothing is defined as “a set of body modifications and/or body accessories” (Roach-Higgins & Eicher 1992, p. 1).
Body modifications include the use of cosmetics, tanning, piercings, tattoos, diets, exercise, and cosmetic surgery, among others. Body supplies include, but are not limited to, accessories, clothing, hearing aids, and eyeglasses. In the 1950s, social science theories from economics, psychology, social psychology, and sociology were used to study clothing and human behavior (Rudd 1991, p. 24).
Parties are usually preceded by fun questions, such as what to give? Who to take (if you have one more, that is)? When to arrive? And, above all, what to wear? Most of us don’t have a floor-length silk gown or tails hanging around in our closet, waiting for the day our Met Gala invitation finally arrives. But would that be the right kind of clothing to wear to such an event? We have answers and options for every possible occasion on your social calendar.
Why Do We Dress Up?
Social obligations are not prerequisites for feeling good about your appearance. You can dress simply because looking good makes you happy. But more often than not, the situations where we put a lot of care into our outfits are big events with explicit dress codes. At best, we dress for both reasons: because it boosts our self-esteem and because we want to look appropriate for the situation.
Still, knowing what’s appropriate can be a headache. The dress code can be implied, and even when it’s made explicit, the jargon can be hard to decipher. That is why we explain it to you here.
If the invitation says…
- Casual: No need to dress up. Sneakers, jeans, and t-shirts are acceptable and even recommended.
- Smart Casual: You should dress smart, but only a little. Often, it’s just a matter of nicer shoes, a dressier top, or pants other than jeans (although denim is fine with the right kind of shirt, more on that later).
- Business Attire – You should dress as someone would for a customer service job. Of course, there is a lot of variation within this category. It can be a suit, a knee-length skirt, or a blazer and khaki pants. But it definitely means no jeans and no sneakers.
- Cocktail: You should dress much better than you do every day. Try separate satin, silk or velvet garments. Suits. When in doubt, wear black.
- Black tie: You must wear a very elegant dress, for example, a long dress or a cocktail dress that is more elegant, or a tuxedo.
- White tie: You must look very elegant. Tailcoats, floor-length dresses, and potentially white gloves are all on the table.
Body supplements as stimulus variables
In studying the social psychology of clothing, researchers have often focused on clothing as a stimulus variable; for example, the effects of clothing on impression formation, attributions, and social perception (see Lennon & Davis 1989) or the effects of clothing on behaviors (see Johnson et al. 2008). The context within which clothing is perceived (Damhorst 1984-85), as well as the characteristics of the perceivers of clothed individuals (Burns and Lennon 1993), also have a profound effect on what is perceived of others. In the remainder of this section we focus on three streams of research that focus on clothing (ie, body supplements) as a stimulus.
Provocative Dress As Stimuli
In the 1980s, researchers were interested in women’s provocative (revealing, sexy) clothing and the extent to which men and women attached the same meaning to it. For example, both Edmonds and Cahoon (1986) and Cahoon and Edmonds (1987) found that the ratings of women who wore provocative clothing were more negative than the ratings of women who wore non-provocative clothing.
These authors did not identify any specific theory to guide their research. In general, when wearing provocative clothing, a model was rated as more sexually attractive, more attractive, less faithful in marriage, more likely to engage in sexual teasing, more likely to use sex for personal gain, more likely to be sexually experienced and more likely to be raped than when wearing conservative clothing.
Cahoon and Edmonds found that men and women made similar judgments, although men were more extreme than women. Abbey et al. (1987) studied whether men misunderstood women’s sexual interest and intent, as expressed in revealing clothing.
The authors developed two clothing conditions: revealing (skirt with a slit, low-cut blouse, high-heeled shoes) and non-revealing (skirt without a slit, blouse buttoned to the neck, boots). Participants rated the stimulus person on a number of adjective traits. Compared to when wearing non-revealing clothing, when wearing revealing clothing, the stimulus person was rated significantly more flirtatious, sexy, seductive, promiscuous, sophisticated, assertive, and less sincere and considerate. This research was not guided by theory.
Red Dress Investigation
Researchers studying the social psychology of dress have rarely focused on the color of the dress. However, in the 1980s and 1990s, some researchers investigated color in the context of retail color analysis systems that focused on personal coloration (Abramov 1985; Francis & Evans 1987; Hilliker & Rogers 1988; Radeloff 1991). ).
For example, Francis and Evans found that stimulus people actually perceived themselves positively when they did not wear the recommended personal colors. Hilliker and Rogers surveyed clothing store managers about their use of color analysis systems and found some market impact, but disagreement among managers about the value of the systems. Abramov criticized the color analysis for being unclear, ambiguous, and failing to substantiate claims. Most of these studies were not guide by a psychological theory of color.
Since the 1990s, researchers have developed a theory of color psychology (Elliot & Maier 2007) called color-in-context theory. Like other variables that affect social perception, the theory explains that color also conveys meaning that varies depending on the context in which the color is perceived. Consequently, color meanings are learned over time through repeated pairings with a particular experience or message (eg, red light and danger) or with biological tendencies to respond to color in certain contexts.
Effects Of Dress On Wearer Behavior
Several researchers studying the social psychology of dress have reviewed the research literature (Davis 1984; Lennon and Davis 1989), and some have reviewed that research (see Damhorst 1990; Hutton 1984; Johnson et al. 2008 for reviews). In these reviews, Damhorst and Hutton focused on the effect of clothing on person perception or impression formation. Johnson et al., however, focused their analysis on clothing-evoked behaviors. An emerging line of research focuses on the effects of clothing on wearer behavior (Adam and Galinsky 2012; Frank and Galinsky 1988; Fredrickson et al. 1998; Gino et al. 2010; Hebl et al. 2004; Kouchaki et al. 2014; Martins et al. 2007).
The Dress And Me
An area of ongoing research within the social psychology of dress is the relationships between dress and self. Although some researchers use the terms identity and self interchangeably, our position is that they are not the same concepts but are related. We begin our discussion of the self with an investigation of the body.
The Physical Body And The Self
While the first section of our review focused on body supplements (ie the clothed body), this section focuses on body modifications or how the body is alter. Within this discussion, the two research directions we include are (1) body modifications that carry some risk, as opposed to routine modifications that typically do not, and (2) the influence of body talk and social comparison as variables that influence body image.
Body Modifications That Carry Some Risk
Social standards of attractiveness in the Western world often focus on a slim appearance for women and a mesomorphic but muscular appearance for men (Karazia et al. 2013). Internalization of social standards present through various media widely recognized as a leading predictor of body dissatisfaction and risky appearance management behaviors, including eating pathology among women (Cafri et al. 2005a, [b]), muscle enhancement and disordered eating behaviors in men (Tylka 2011), tattoos among young adults (Mun et al. 2012), and tanning among adolescents (Prior et al. 2014; Yoo & Kim, 2014). While there are other risky appearance management behaviors in the early stages of research (eg, extreme body makeovers, cosmetic procedures on male and female private parts, multiple cosmetic procedures), we isolated just a few behaviors to illustrate the impact of changing standards of attractiveness on widespread appearance management practices on self-presentation.
FAQ My Outfit Online
1. Where are you located? How long have you been in the business?
My Outfit Online is an online-only store based out of Miami, FL. We have been fulfilling your style demandssince 2018!
2. How can I get in contact with customer service?
You can contact us via email info@myoutfitonline.com, text message (305) 781-3999 and Instagram DM.
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3. What payment methods do you accept?
We accept all major credit/debit cards as well as Apple Pay, Paypal, and Amazon Pay. We offer Afterpay too!
Checks, money orders and cash on delivery (COD) are not accept.