The central question for this thesis project was how you can design outfits and garments that deliberately influence or induce moods. The focus of this project was on both a cheerful mood, as well as on a relaxed mood. It became apparent that the relation between moods and fashion is constructed of many facets. There are materialistic properties of garments that are specific to a mood, such as the use of materials or fit of an outfit. Next to that, moods have an influence on how one feels the need to interact with the people around them, in which clothes can support that need: using an outfit as a shield to hide a mood from the people around them. Lastly, personal meaning towards an outfit has an influence on how it affects one’s mood. When, for example, one wore an outfit in a period in which they felt most cheerful, that outfit carries these memories and meaning with it, transferring it to one’s current affective state.

Intertwined, all of these facets play a role in the way clothes can influence and induce moods. As a designer, it was the task to unravel these aspects and find a way to translate them into design principles for the Fashion Design process. To do so, meaning and experiences that are associated with either a relaxed or cheerful mood were gathered and translated into design principles

What was found is that clothes provide hints of impact on the wearer’s moods. Small changes in their perception, energy level or focus hint towards an indication that a change in their mood had occurred. These changes can include a more productive attitude due to an active sitting posture triggered by an outfit, an optimistic feeling when seeing yellow patches the moment the wearer let his head hang, or a relaxed feeling when you feel hugged by the touch of fabric on your skin. Whilst moods are often longer lasting drivers of behaviour and perceptions, these hints of impact relate to relatively short periods of time in which the outfit is actually worn.

When designing outfits that induce a cheerful mood, it is important to pay attention to increasing the level of confidence of the wearer, making them feel confident and empowered. This results in the implementation of high quality fabrics and finishing of the garments, as well as an outfit that flatters and highlights areas of the body the wearer wants. When inducing a relaxed mood, it is important that the wearer is not conscious about their outfit. Resulting in simple, and neutral outfits that do not give much stimulus to the wearer. What connects these moods with consciousness and confidence is the personal style of the wearer, which is crucial in the process to achieve the wanted effect. When the outfit is not in-line with the personal style of the wearer, they feel conscious about this difference, and feel less confident whilst wearing it since it does not reflect their personality.