Fashion psychology is the study of the impact of clothing choices on the way in which we perceive and judge each other. However, the term fashion psychology is a bit misleading, as the field actually looks well beyond clothing’s impact on the individual. And, its focus transcends clothing to also consider the impact of many other products that express self identity and are influenced by the same forces that drive change in the apparel industry, such as home furnishing, cosmetics, and even automobiles.

Fashion psychology is very important to marketers who need to understand the factors that make it likely a product will be adopted by a group of consumers, and who need to predict how long a product will stay in fashion. So, part of fashion psychology focuses on changes in acceptance over time. For example, a classic is a fashion with an extremely long acceptance cycle that is adopted by a fairly large group. In contrast, fad fashion is a short-lived fashion. Relatively few people adopt fad fashion, but it can spread quickly. Adopters may all belong to a common subculture, and the fad “trickles across” members but rarely breaks out of that specific group.

Fashion psychology also reveals important linkages between a fashion style and underlying social values as well as tribal divisions. Distinctive styles and colours denote gang membership, for example, and these markings extend to other domains like sports apparel. The ongoing controversy about the banning of clothing associated with Islamic terrorism, such as the burking on French beaches, illustrates how fashion psychology penetrates to crucial issues in society.

Fashion psychology therefore holds an important part in the cognitive processes of a human. As fashion is something that touches all human beings due to their everyday activity of wearing clothes, fashion psychology is something that everyone processes due to the thinking capability associated with this process. JD Institute of Fashion Technology’s M.B.A. in Fashion Business and Event Management covers the study of fashion psychology in order to understand the practices of fashion and how it can improve the services of the fashion event management and business industry.