The body senses are basically one of the most important deciding factors that we have when it comes to making a decision. In the fashion industry, appealing to all senses is incredibly important, especially for our: sight and touch. As consumers in the fashion industry, we tend to make our decision based on how we see something and how it feels against our touch. This is why the shopping experience is determined by those two senses. In stores, or when it comes to designing a specific product, the way a product is presented is very crucial. 

Color, organization and other factors can make or break a customer’s decision-making. Another important factor is touch; when a customer gets to touch something physically, the texture and hand-feel of the product will determine whether a consumer chooses to invest and spend in that product. These senses are very important in not just the fashion industry but many other markets as well. However, there is a sense which is also very important but often neglected. And that sense is smell. But how can smell be important in the fashion industry when most purchase decision-making involves touch and sight? Smell is very important and has become the most important sense when it comes to aromatherapy wearable garments and aromatherapy-created fabrics. 

Aromatherapy in fashion has become quite known in our modern time, especially when more and more people are starting to appreciate mental wellness while remaining fashionable. Natalie Kay, a writer for Sustainable Chiq defines aromatherapy as “the practice of using natural oils to better your health.” When people think of aromatherapy, most don't really picture wearing a garment that is embedded with fibers to keep and project a therapeutic smell but quite recently, it is becoming more demanded than we would think. When one suffers from a specific traumatic or very mentally exhausting situation, the last thing that a person would think of is dressing up to help with the anxiety and stress produced from certain situations. That is not to say that people don't find comfort in fashion as a way of coping, which they do, but most don't think of fashion as the way to solve problems in a direct health-involved manner. 

That is the beauty of aromatherapy in fashion because when a person wears a garment with aromatherapeutic construction, the scent released from the garment fabric directly impacts the sense of smell in the wearer. Depending on the certain mentally stressful situation or illness that aromatherapy will be used to help the wearer, according to Tori Rodriguez from Women’s health.com, there is a special and personal scent used for each specific situation such as lavender which helps with easing levels of stress and to obtain a better amount of sleep, clary sage to reduce blood pressure, peppermint to help keep awake, orange to decrease anxiety, rosemary to help enhance brain power, cinnamon to boost focus, lemon to improve mood, etc. 

These are some of the essential oils that help with certain conditions but when these scents are combined with fabric then the effects are quite strong for the wearer. Most may be wondering, how can scent be made into textiles? Well, the use of micro-encapsulation technology contains active particles that can be embedded into specific fabrics and textiles, creating aromatherapy products that can enhance mental health and mood as well.

Fashion is all about senses, in the fashion industry we are taught to always have an eye for decorations and style and the ability to determine specific hand-feels from fabrics and garments as successful or not. But with aromatherapy, we can see that although sight and touch are crucial for the industry because it influences consumer shopping behaviors, we have seen that scent also plays an important part for the mental health of the consumer, which in my opinion is important to protect and help, and aromatherapy garments help with this. In fact, aromatherapy garments are very complete when it comes to appealing to the senses because the garments can be pleasing to the eye and touch while pleasing to the sense of smell which in the long run will help consumers who choose this specific class of garments to have a better enhanced mental health and mood.