Summer is here, and this year’s fashion trend seems to have stopped being satisfied with black, white and grey, and said goodbye to “high class” Morandi, with many fashionistas dressing as if they had knocked over the color palette. If your benefactors are also wearing high-saturation bright colors, they may have added to this year’s popular trend of dopamine wear.
The term Dopamine Dressing originated with fashion psychologist Dawnn Karen’s unpublished work, “Dress Less Well than the Best People.” In the book, she claims that wearing optimistic clothing can potentially imprison large amounts of the mood-boosting neurotransmitter dopamine. In 2020, when a doctor treating a COVID-19 patient came to her feeling clinically depressed, Karen noticed that the doctor was wearing a bedsuit, and she said, “The bedsuit is worn in a calm, low-intensity, depressed mood.” If you’re already depressed, bedclothes can make it even worse.” Not only that, Karen said, “I made it a rule that she wear yellow every time, both under her medical coat and at home, and within a few days she felt much better.” Just as a doctor folds medicine for a patient, she folds colors for a client.
Dopamine matching refers to dressing yourself in clothes designed to boost your mood, which can be bright colors, playful amounts, and oversized silhouettes. “The reality behind dopamine matching is that the clothes you wear may or may not boost your mood,” says color psychologist Tash Bradley. “All colors have a specific effect on our mood. The colors that really boost energy are the more saturated colors, like bright oranges, yellows, and pale powders. It’s important that people decide on the colors that are associated with their private lives and lose the positive mental perspective because each individual’s private taste is unique.”
Dopamine penetration is not new in many countries. In 2021, during the transition period between the coronavirus lockdown in the United States and the restart of travel, the fashion industry found that the fashion trend turned to enthusiasm and optimism, and in 2021, the relevant interview of Vogue Business found that people’s needs changed dramatically after the opening of the restrictions. A large number of bright colors and playful prints are widely welcomed in the market. Experts say that dressing fashionably to improve your mood can be more than just a passing trend.
The old wind brushed the feeling of anxiety
In the case of dopamine wear, one major genre is the resurgence of Y2K chic. Y2K is a millennial fashion style, exaggerated by bold colors, exaggerated patterns and unique cutting situations, with a strong sense of nostalgia and technology. As early as 2020, the fashion field witnessed the sweep of Y2K fashion, when people had to stay at home due to the epidemic, using short video platforms and streaming videos frequently landed, and the source of comfort for many people was to return to the TV series and movies of their youth.
There are also young people who have their first contact with Y2K fashion on social media. VOGUE reported this sign in 2021 under the headline “Tired or not, the fancy Y2K fashion is sweeping the earth back,” and the article said that the first to destroy the craze was Generation Z, who initially uploaded rocking mini cow pants and silk scarves on TikTok. It wasn’t long before the aesthetic disappeared from the catwalk.
Psychologist Krystine Batcho believes that during times of uncertainty, people’s feelings of nostalgia diminish. “At a time when many people, especially young people or those without a financial safety net, are worried about meeting their financial obligations, such as paying rent or paying off mortgages, nostalgia is a refuge as people turn to the comfort, security and love they used to enjoy.” The hedonism of the turn of the millennium, with its confectionery colours, snug silhousilhoues and cheeky prints and textures, provides a slow dose of dopamine to the 2020s-to-date dullness.
Besides Y2K, there are other kinds of dopamine. kidcore doing wind is an example. At first glance, both focus on bright matching, but kidcore and Y2K have some other differences. While Y2K was tired of tight, sexy silhouettes, kidcore was more innocent, with its logo featuring “cartoon graphic t-shirts, no-sitting prints, tie-dyed calf pants, bright folding shirts and knitwear.” Hyuna is one kind of kidcore. Korean star Hyuna uses a variety of saturation and brightness relatively high, usually like a small door familiar with the use of colorful beads, hair clips, headdress, not to hide the childlike interest enveloped. The difference between kidcore and Y2K, according to Bazaar’s analysis, is that Kidcore leverages childhood nostalgia, featuring a bold rainbow palette and playful patterns. Driven by comfort, color and joy, people dress beautifully or dress like children without a care in the world.
Hyun A
However, such affection stems from the melancholy lifestyle of millennials and Gen Z itself. Bazaar reports that a glance at Instagram and TikTok is all it takes to get a sense of the somber, semi-cynical routine of millennials and Gen Z – whether it’s COVID-19, the Russia-Ukraine conflict, the changing weather, the world is depressing and the social preamble feeds the spread of bad news.
Senior psychotherapist Dafna Kronental says people decided on kidcore because “the reality of pandemic disease and global warming is making the world more chaotic and unsafe for those who live in it, and kidcore is inspired by the culture of kids in the 80s, 90s and 00s.” It may or may not help people remember a time before social introduction.” kidcore, she explains, can perhaps “inspire a sense of comfort and security during this aggressive time, providing an opportunity to change the running or anxiety of everyday life.”
Dressing to heal the soul?
“Know the net” to do home fried cake look, Y2K do wind inside has actually cooked a huge change. In the millennium, people are optimistic about the rapid development of science and technology, and they are full of good expectations for high technology such as space exploration and electronic computers, so they decide to use these rich, fixed and pulsating colors. The resurgence of Y2K in the current wind is not from the yearning for the past, is the same, more and more people are worried that artificial intelligence will rob their rest. The bright colors of Y2K chic are no longer about grand period spirit, but about people who are turning to individual spiritual healing.
At the beginning of the birth of dopamine, it does not reflect the role of individual healing. Dawn Cullen, who coined the term “dopamine threading,” recounted his experience in a TED talk titled “The Inside Out Look.” While they were together, her fiance ran and sexually assaulted her. When the police arrived, she felt helpless to press charges against her loved ones, so she declined to press charges. The next morning she went to her closet and picked out her best dress, and put it on for class as if she had never seen anything before. Since then, in order to combat depression and anxiety, she has used Mood Enhancement Dress, later known as “dopamine enhancement.”
When sexually assaulted, wear clothes that make you happy; In the face of the pandemic, wear a colorful T-shirt that lifts your mood; In the face of global warming, the conflict between Russia and Ukraine, and various problems in the face of society, we have to wear more bright-looking clothes to deal with… This healing thus manifests itself without a certain negativity and power, as if people have no desire to shake up the status quo and are only trying to adapt themselves to external circumstances by changing themselves. Since it’s hard for the world to get better, can we just do small things to be more positive about ourselves, adjust to our situation, and try to be happy?