The Fabric of Identity | Udita Jaiswal | TEDxMIT Gurukul Youth

[00:00:02]I want to start with a small game. I'm going to ask you a few questions about myself, and I want you to be honest.

[00:00:11]Just raise your hand.

[00:00:13]Look at my striped shirt. Raise your hand if, based only on the shirt, I look like a creative person. Maybe someone who spends their weekends at a gallery or lost in a sketchbook.

[00:00:30]Okay, quite a few of you. Next one.

[00:00:34]Raise your hand if, based on my trousers and heels, I look like the boss of every group project. The one who meets every deadline and makes every to-do list.

[00:00:47]Okay, trousers are doing their job then.

[00:00:49]Thank you.

[00:00:50]Last one. Look at my whole outfit. Do I look like I'm heading to a movie premiere after this?

[00:00:59]Appreciate it.

[00:01:02]What you just did is called thin slicing. In maybe around 30 seconds, you guessed my whole life story based simply on what I'm wearing. Whether we like it or not, our clothes tell a story before we even open our mouths.

[00:01:20]There's a famous study on something called enclothed cognition, which is just a fancy way of saying our clothes change how we think.

[00:01:31]Researchers gave two groups of people the same white coats. They told the first group it was a doctor's coat, and they told the second group it was a painter's smock.

[00:01:42]Studies ended up revealing that people the group who thought they were wearing a doctor's coat actually performed better on tests. They were more focused and careful. The coat didn't change, but their brains did. We don't just dress for other people. We dress to tell ourselves who we want to be today.

[00:02:02]Even in a school uniform, the way you roll up your sleeves or accessorize with a watch says a lot about who you are as an individual.

[00:02:12]How about a small break? I'll name a color and I want anyone from the audience to raise their hand. I'll pick anyone with their hand raised to tell me what vibe they get from that color.

[00:02:23]Ready?

[00:02:24]Red.

[00:02:29]Black.

[00:02:31]>> Oh, weird.

[00:02:33]>> Mint green.

[00:02:38]Okay. Psychology says you're right.

[00:02:42]There's something called the red effect, which basically says that athletes wearing red are more likely to win because red signals power to the human brain. Black can feel serious and intimidating. Red, sorry, mint green can feel calm and reliable. We're basically hacking our social lives every time we pick a color.

[00:03:04]Moving on. Let's all be honest here. We all have a closet full of clothes and yet we stood there on an ordinary morning saying, "I have nothing to wear." Hey, that isn't true. You have clothes. What you're actually feeling is a belonging crisis. A recent study showed us that one in six young people actually don't repeat outfits if it's already been seen on Instagram or TikTok.

[00:03:34]We aren't just dressing for the weather anymore. We're dressing for the algorithm.

[00:03:41]And the fashion industry recognizes this. Today, we buy about 80 billion new pieces of clothing every single year.

[00:03:49]That is around a 400% increase, and our planet pays the price. It takes around 2,700 L of water to make a single cotton shirt. To put that in a perspective, that's enough water for a single person like you or me to drink in 2 and 1/2 years. We may be thirsty for likes, but we're draining our planet dry trying to get them.

[00:04:17]This brings us to our theme, navigating new frontiers. In the past, the frontier of fashion has always been about following the latest trend, but okay, that way of thinking is over now.

[00:04:32]The new frontier is inside us, and navigating this frontier means having the courage to be an authentic leader.

[00:04:40]It means choosing clothes you actually like instead of just what's trending. It means realizing that sustainability isn't just a cutesy trend people follow.

[00:04:50]It's how we save our future. In the past, our ancestors dressed to survive the wild. We have to dress to ensure our planet survives. So, don't just get dressed tomorrow. Be the director of your own story. Follow your own path.

[00:05:08]Navigate your own frontier, and make sure your story is one worth telling.

[00:05:13]Thank you so much.