Jan 13
Dopamine Dressing with Whering for a Week
Also known as the chronicles of a girly who only owns black clothes trying to figure out why she's always sad and trying to fix it by wearing different shades of beige instead. For a week.
So we’ve been talking a lot about how the clothes you wear can have a direct impact on how you feel (both in general and about different things), and we decided to put this to the test.
The Christmas period came and went with record speed, and before we knew it, we were back in front of our laptops on January 3rd. For something that’s been in my calendar for months, the expected felt extremely unexpected, and the last two weeks have been such a drag.
I considered adding a SAD light to my Amazon basket, or taking a little walk over to Holland & Barrett to buy every vitamin under the sun, but in the end decided I’m actually going to save those for another article. Instead, let’s try to fix everything with cute outfits — for now.
According to Colour Psychologist, Tash Bradley for Stylist, “The theory behind Dopamine Dressing is that the clothes you wear can boost your mood.” She goes on to discuss how different colours have particular effects on our emotions, and highly saturated tones are said to boost your energy the most. However, for my fellow black-loving girls, gays, theys, and everyone else, fret not — Tash assures us that it’s nonetheless important for everyone to pick colours they personally connect to and have positive associations with, as no person is the same as another.
This was a sigh of relief for me, as somebody who owns a total of 5-6 colourful items in my wardrobe. The goal for me was to wear outfits I love and outfits I know make me feel amazing, to make me all the more excited to crawl out of bed every morning.
When I was still in school, I used to always save my favourite outfits for the days I had shared classes with my crush, and now I’m realising it’s such a shame to always wait for that special day when that special day could be today (cringe). Anyways, let’s get into it!
MONDAY
The week started off extremely safe, the only slightly colourful piece in my outfit being the little leaf person on my hat (I actually illustrated the art on that hat 4 years ago!). Nevertheless, I recently discovered that I really like myself in baseball caps and for some reason have always felt really awkward actually wearing them out. It’s like I feel like they never really fit my head quite right.
TUESDAY
On day 2, I realised I was playing it a bit too safe, so I decided to spice it up a little. The goal was to wear outfits which make me feel great, and these boots I always borrow from my flatmate have never failed to make me feel amazing. This skirt, albeit fairly new, sits exactly how I want it to sit, so it felt like a no brainer. And the hat makes a comeback.
WEDNESDAY
By day 3, I was just excited to see what I would come up with. I went back for the boots (making the most out of this borrowing session) and this dress I fell in love with (and bought at our secondhand September pop-up). I decided to pull more from the black and green accents with a surprisingly perfectly matching balaclava and my go-to leather jacket.
THURSDAY
Note: I don’t know why I look like I’m falling over. I’m not.
By Day 4 I decided I probably need to stop relying on skirts and dresses and try to layer up- a bit. After rinsing my black oversized blazer to the grave, I decided to reignite my love affair with my plaid blazer a few months ago- and it’s been going great! We’re very happy together, and I feel very put-together every time I wear it.
FRIDAY
*old photo you've probably already seen because I took the easy way out
And by today, everything was kind of falling apart, the weekend was within an arm-stretch’s reach and I was feeling very hungover (I know way too many January Capricorns) and not particularly inventive so a safe choice was the way to go. THE green dress and brown boot combo could never fail me.
CONCLUSION
All I can really say for myself is that I’ve made it out of my flat at least 10x more this week than I would have any other week. I really felt like putting on my silly little cute outfits actually made me so much more willing and excited to get out of my bed cocoon and go into the world to do stuff. And as the week went on, it just started feeling so much more normal and so much less like a trial-challenge.
I don’t think I’ll be doing this every week, especially because it feels like breathing in London is charged at £5 per inhale, but it’s reassuring to know that I always have this pick-me-up on the backburner if I ever need the motivation