Dopamine Dressing: Dress Yourself Happy
If, like me, you’re the kind of person who has ever sent a “What are you going to wear?” text to a friend before attending any kind of social event, then I’m fairly sure you too have been seeing endless articles forecasting post-lockdown trends and ‘must-have’ garments of the season. Online musings as to whether we should dress up and make up for lost time or double down on our expanded collection of comfies and stick to the stuff we know are everywhere. Online retailers capitalising on jokes about the nation having collectively forgotten how to dress ourselves to encourage us to shop to excess are starting to wear thin.
Truth be told, I have been sucked in by a lot of this online rhetoric. Turning to some external source with ready-to-shop links and swipe ups to tell me how to dress for my first night-out is seductive. It almost feels like it could diminish some of the nerves I feel surrounding getting back out and about (when it is safe to do so). The reality, however, is that there is so much conflicting advice that by the time I’m done with the “post-lockdown outfit” rabbit-hole search, with the contents of my wardrobe strewn around the room, an online basket full of items I’m not really sure I even want. The things I’m looking for in an outfit are the same as before I started: I want it to fit, I want it to be relatively comfortable, and I want it to make me feel good.
Post-lockdown fashion discourse seems to be dominated by two extremes - so-called ‘revenge outfits’ and hyped casualwear. This dichotomy would have you believe that we can all be neatly categorised as one style or the other. Revenge outfits centre frivolity, dressing up for the sheer hell of it, indulging the performance of glamour and excess even if you’re just popping to Tesco to grab dinner. Hyped casualwear gives a stylised way of taking the tracksuit chic looks, so many of us have been sporting at home out into the streets. Even if you want to denounce this dichotomy and have it all, fast fashion trend cycles make it almost entirely impossible to keep up with the ever changing ‘it’ items.
Having been inside for so long with no one to dress for but ourselves (aside from the need to make your upper body business appropriate for work zoom calls, of course). Many people have found that their relationship with fashion has changed entirely, both generally and on a more personal level. For me, one of the biggest things that prompted a little shake-up of my wardrobe was the fact that some of my clothes just didn’t fit the same by the time it came to getting out and about again. In the interest of comfort and feeling good, I have absolutely indulged in some retail therapy. Honourable mentions include a pair of ultimate comfort leggings, to a rather impractical lilac corduroy boiler suit and an incredible pair of platform brown leather boots. A lot of “what to wear” articles don’t tell you, though, that even having a wardrobe full of clothes that you like and that fit you well won’t always hold off that nervousness you might feel when getting ready to go somewhere. They also don’t tell you that sometimes you’ll wear a cracking outfit that was completely and utterly wrong for the occasion (aforementioned impractical but brilliant lilac corduroy boiler suit for drinks in the park past the closing time of the public toilets, for example).
For those of us whose bodies and styles and maybe even sense of self has changed over the past year, I think the trend of ‘dopamine dressing’ is the most relevant. The trend itself dates back to around 2012, but as we shift away from the comfort dressing of 2020, the part-mindfulness, part-fashion approach seems relevant. Less about a specific aesthetic or list of items to covet, dopamine dressing is about making yourself feel good for yourself. Dressing yourself happy is not a one size/style/outfit fits all solution. Dopamine dressing would have you pulling on your cosiest jumper on a rainy afternoon when you’re feeling a bit fragile one day and another day, it would have you reaching for your favourite boldly coloured dress and getting glammed to the nines for a not-so-special occasion, wearing something outlandish and brilliant to feel powerful and confident just because you want to. Centring yourself and your mood in your dressing can be done without buying any new clothes at all. Shopping your wardrobe, swapping clothes with friends, donating what no longer works for you and buying things you truly love and will get a lot of wear out of are ways to work towards dressing yourself happy. It also employing mindful fashion habits as an ethically and economically responsible consumer.
Written by Hannah Coom
Hannah is a postgraduate with an MA in Issues in Modern Culture from UCL. Recently she has been working in e-commerce selling model planes, trains and automobiles. Outside of that she enjoys pottery, roller-skating and is honestly just trying her best.
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