Effect of clothing colour on body image perception

• Clothing colour extremes had no impact on young females perception of their own body image.
• Young females overestimate their body size when asked to amend a larger self-image.
• The use of computer-based self-images provides a simple, easy and quantifiable method to examine body image perception.

The aim of this study was to examine the influence of clothing colour on body image (BI) perception in university aged women. Twenty-six healthy, active females had their photographs taken while wearing tight fitting white, black and bright coloured clothing costumes. Photographs were both enlarged and reduced by 20% with participants asked to digitally manipulate the chest, waist, hips, thigh and calf regions of their own photographs to achieve their perceived BI. Satisfaction with their current BI was assessed using the original photograph and a Likert scale. All participants reported high current BI satisfaction. BI perception, assessed in absolute and relative terms, for all body sites and whole body was similar for white, black and bright coloured clothing. However, BI perception was overestimated for the enlarged compared to the reduced image format. These results demonstrated that image format, and not clothing colour, significantly influenced BI perception in healthy females.