I love waking up in the morning and picking out my outfit. I definitely think that dressing well increases self-esteem—if you pick out an outfit that you feel reflects your inner self and makes you feel confident as you walk down the street, I think that makes you feel overall more confident and happy. This could be, like you said, a result of our ego and our need to receive praise and attention from others. But I think reverse causation also plays a role. When I wake up and am in a bad mood, I often won’t have the energy to pick out an outfit or I won’t feel compelled to look good, so I will just throw on some sweatpants and a sweatshirt and walk out the door. I usually dress well when I already feel confident and happy in the morning and dress poorly when I feel down on myself and sad. So my experiences in how I dress and how I feel shows that dressing well leads to positive self-esteem, but also negative self-esteem can lead to dressing ourselves worse, which can in turn lead to lower self-esteem.