Have you ever noticed how you feel affects how you dress for the day? And the opposite is also true: Does the clothes you wear affect your mood? So clothing and attitude are both cause and effect, constantly trading off which side of the equation they’re on.

There are times when I wake up feeling exhausted and disheveled, and then I choose disheveled sweatshirts to wear and pull my hair back into a ponytail, which perfectly matches my emotions. Or in another scenario, I wake up still feeling scruffy, but this time I do my hair, put on a little makeup, and pick out a cute outfit. The day improves and I feel better about myself. Or in another scenario, we wake up feeling wonderful and then throw on an old, stained T-shirt and ripped jeans, not feeling so hot. Best case scenario: We wake up excited about life and our clothes match that attitude.

These may seem like superficial statements, but they are very true. However, the essential difference I want to make is that clothing should not define who we are, but can still represent a state of emotion at a particular moment, and clothing can simply enhance or even alter our attitude for the better.

The bottom line is that fashion changes all the time. Think of the flared jeans of the seventies. Would you have dared to wear those in the nineties? You could put them back on today and look like you’re on top of the fashion world. Remember the leg warmers? Most people don’t even know what they are today. Our attitude should not change as drastically as fashion changes. We want to stay in touch with who we are while playing with fashion along the way.

We don’t have to be a fashion guru, I know I certainly am not, but there are some basics that I think we can all handle, and they can only enhance our feeling of well-being with ourselves.

• Confidence: Choose clothes that you can wear with attitude, that help you feel attractive and good about yourself. Have fun with it!
• Clothes that fit well: The worst thing you can do for yourself is buy clothes that don’t fit well. If you wear clothes that are too small, you will only feel huge and you will see it too. Buy the size you are now, not the size you want to be, or you’ll just be frustrated. In the same way, don’t wear clothes that choke you. Improve some of your best features while minimizing perhaps the not-great ones.
• Cleaning: So what do I mean by that? Simple: wear clean clothes. Dirty clothes can send a message that our hygiene is not the best either. And that won’t help our confidence!
• Complement, but don’t go overboard: maybe if you’re wearing a simple outfit, big, statement jewelry will work, or vice versa. We all remember those girls in high school, the ones with long hair, heavy makeup, huge earrings and fancy clothes, who had to exaggerate due to lack of confidence, but unbeknownst to them, it usually backfired. .

If we’re confident in ourselves, we’ll be confident in whatever we wear, whether it’s a pair of jeans and a T-shirt, or a little black dress. There are real fashion resources out there, and there are also plenty of programs and books to help us feel better about ourselves. Good luck on your fashion journey!