PUTEREA DE PERSUASIUNE A VESTIMENTAȚIEI
THE PERSUASIVE POWER OF CLOTHING

Summary/Abstract: The last period was, for most people, dominated by multimedia and led to a change in human social behavior. The transition from real, multisensory social interactions to virtual, predominantly visual ones, forced people to analyze and catalog the interlocutors according to snapshots of their external appearance. Social networks, dating sites and online profiles contain photos of people sending visual messages to viewers. If the appearance of the physiognomy is generally documented, the rest of the compositional details, such as the attire and the background of the photographs, although they play a very important role in nonverbal communication, are neglected. Through its symbolic load, the clothing communicates to the spectators information about the wearers, sometimes without them realizing, other times, in a controlled way. When the messages transmitted through the language of clothing are controlled we can talk about heavy nonverbal communication. Persuasive communication can be defined as a process that aims to change the attitude of viewers by inducing emotional states so that they consider that their choices were made freely of their own free will. The tendency of persuaders is to change the attitude of viewers in order to acquire certain benefits of a social, material, emotional, sexual or other nature, by highlighting certain elements of their own image that, through involuntary associations, induce various emotional states to viewers. Clothing habits have been perpetuated over time by imitation, so that today few individuals can consciously use plastic language in designing the messages they communicate through the clothing they wear, most do so unconsciously by imitating the most obvious individuals from a social point of view or in their immediate vicinity. The images also provoke emotions through the impressions produced by the colors, lines, shapes of the displayed clothing. Emotions always generate feelings, attitudes towards something exposed or hidden. The rules of plastic composition applicable in clothing are involuntarily interpreted by the viewer by association with the information previously stored. The discrepancy between the verbal and nonverbal message, between attitude and dress is perceived as a false behavior. In order for the verbal messages to correspond to the nonverbal ones transmitted through clothing, the wearer's body must be accustomed to the clothing, it must match in size, texture, shape and color with the rest of the body and allow relaxed movement. Any disarticulated or tense movement is perceived by the viewer as an attempt to defraud the messages transmitted. The chromatic and compositional attractiveness of clothing increases its persuasive power and can be used successfully in all relationships of interpersonal communication.

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