Eredien's Journal

for me, dressing up in "dress clothes" always made me itchy and overly warm

This used to be true for me; it is rarely true now that I am choosing my own dress-up clothes and the occasions on which I wear them. As lotusbiosm says, I find that what I'm wearing (like many other aspects of my environment) affects my state of mind. When I was a kid, those clothes told me I was being made to do something I didn't want to do. Now, they tell me that this is an occasion that I have chosen to note as important and worth extra preparations (which also provide time for the corresponding mental transition), be it serious or celebratory (generally different clothes!). I still wind up overly warm occasionally, though, as I am fond of velvet. :) In any case, the associations exist in my head, and some of them are useful, and with effort I can edit them.

I don't know whether you *want* to take a different attitude towards dress-up clothes, but if you do, picking or making some that you find physically comfortable out for yourself, and wearing them to events you enjoy and/or value might be somewhere to start.