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Dopamine Dressing
Have you heard of dopamine dressing yet? This summer, one of the key trends is dressing loudly and proudly and having fun expressing ourselves with colours, prints and accessories. Like a dopamine rush, we can feel joy from what we wear!
Where did this trend come from? Trends are always a reaction to life around them. It’s been a pretty bleak couple of years and only recently have we been allowed out of the house going to places and seeing people again. A little bit like the roaring 20’s emerging after the First World War…we’re celebrating in a post-lockdown world.
I don’t know about you but many of us stopped ‘dressing up’ entirely during that strange period. We are craving opportunities to look good and make an effort again now. If you look around you, people are enjoying putting together outfits and lots of people have emerged more colourful and stylish than ever – just check out TikTok!
Designers are reacting to this by producing clothes we can fall in love with and share with the world. Our shopping habits are starting to change as well. People are buying less and making smarter purchases. We’re choosing clothes we believe we’ll enjoy forever and ‘getting our money’s worth’ with them as my dad would say. This hopefully means less clothes are being thrown away too.
A few years ago, stylists and ‘fashionistas’ (gross word) used to tell us of all these rules associated with dressing. You can’t wear pink and red together, you can’t wear socks and sandals blah blah blah. Fashion has become a lot more creative, free and individual since then. You can express yourself by what fabrics, colours and textures you choose to put together. The only rules you should be following are more personal. It’s about what flatters your skin, body, personality. What works for your lifestyle and budget and most importantly what makes you happy.
If you want to wear an outfit with all sorts of out-there clashing fabric combinations go on, be free. You can even get a rush of dopamine wearing black if that’s the colour that works for you. All I’d recommend is that you pick shades that look good against your skin. On a Colour Analysis with me, I’ll help you find which green makes your skin glow and help you know the exact blue hue to avoid by finding your Seasonal Palette.
It’s been proven since ancient times that being around certain colours can improve our moods and even our health. We associate shades with emotions such as yellow with happiness, blue being calm and red with love and passion. Our favourite colours are pretty subjective though. You may think you don’t know which colours you like but all you need to do is look around you at how you decorate your house, what photos you’re hearting online and even what colour phone case you use – colour is all around us!
Another ‘stylist tip’ from back in the day is to stand in front of the mirror before you leave the house and take one accessory off. A nice sentiment but if you’re a maximalist this may not make you feel as happy and confident. Some people love layering up many accessories and expressing themselves this way. I’d only really stop you doing this if they aren’t flattering you as much as they could.
Choose your accessories wisely and then you won’t need to remove any of them. Everything you put on your body should have some reason whether that’s you loving the piece, feeling value and emotional connection from it or it makes you feel confident.
Smaller framed people may look a bit overwhelmed and therefore even smaller in lots of big and chunky jewellery. You can still wear a lot of jewellery if you like but just pick less bulky pieces to layer up.
If you’re a top heavy body shape, wearing many big necklaces may also make your body appear to have more volume where you don’t want it. Wear your dopamine in other places such as on your wrists, ankles head and ears. Even a funky bag or interesting belt can inject some fun into an outfit. Just keep your torso simple.
As a Personal Stylist, my goal is to make people feel happy and confident in their outfits. Dopamine dressing at it’s core is about making the person wearing the item feel that rush of happiness in it, however they may get it. I hope that I can hope encourage everyone I work with to buy things that they feel amazing in and will continue to wear and feel that way in.
I can give you a more personalised experience and help you find your own formula for fashion happiness. Discover your best palette to have fun clashing and figure out how to accessorise your looks with joy on a Colour & Body consultation. Take your own wardrobe and do new and creative things with it on a Wardrobe Edit with me and book a Personal Shopping trip so I can introduce you to new and exciting pieces hot off the hangers that you’ll feel fantastic in and keep wearing and wearing.
Get in touch and let’s have a chat about your Personal Style on a free discovery call!