Before you get dressed again, read this
These aren't fashion tips, but they might help you understand why you like to dress the way you do.
Hey! So sorry I haven’t written to you for a couple of weeks, I was in Adelaide for the Fringe Festival and to be honest didn’t have anything prepared for you.
There’s something about the concept of dopamine dressing the last newsletter (dressing loud and colourful to put you in a better mood) that I couldn’t shake. Thus, I present:
The problem with dopamine dressing
This is a headline that sounds like clickbait, and I’m sorry. Regardless, let’s talk about a few things regarding dopamine and happiness.
Dopamine is the chemical in our brains that triggers when we get a “reward”. When someone shares this email with a friend, for example, I am very happy.
But dopamine also is quite addictive, and is responsible for why we love getting Instagram likes so much. It’s a good feeling! Let’s get more likes!
As such, we’re always chasing the feeling of dopamine, which disappears as often as it enters our brain.
The time spent between getting our dopamine hits, is in search of getting another dopamine hit.1
So dopamine dressing can be fun in the same way that it’s fun to get a notification on your phone or hear the beep on an EFTPOS machine when you buy another pastry.
But once that’s gone, what do you have? A need to find another noisy outfit?
Dopamine dressing doesn’t lend itself to long-term delight or satisfaction
This is not to say that dressing colourfully is, therefore, bad — it’s great! Do it more! But doing specifically to get a dopamine hit is perhaps eroding one of the more precious ways we have to get contentment. Dressing yourself can usher in so many other mindsets that aren’t just the same trigger that gets people addicted to pokies machines.
So, what’s the best way to dress yourself?
The answer is “it’s up to you” but that’s not very concrete or useful. So here’s a guide.
I’ve tried to wear the same pants in a lot of these images to show different styles with the same things.
If you start your day off at a -10/10, maybe dressing differently will make your day into a -9/10. Just small wins. Anyway, there are a lot of studies around this.
1. Pyjama-core will make you feel chillaxin’ to the maxxin’
Why this works
This is referred to “as style without suffering” because it asks you to reject the whole “suffer for fashion” ethos.
Taking care of picking out your comfy clothes - approach it the same way you’d approach how you dress to leave the house, but with comfy clothes.
By being intentional and adding “out of home” things like jewellery, you’ve given yourself a bit more attention to start the day.
How to do it
Baggy pants, linen, silky fabrics, and loose v-necks are the place to start. When you’re ready, undone button-up shirts will take that chillaxing to the true max.
By adding accessories like jewellery, a hat, sunglasses, the outfit becomes intentional.
Find items of luxury — things that feel a little bit more special. For example, I knitted these shorts which cost about $10 but took me a month to make. They’re pretty special.
2. Analogous clothes will make you feel cool, calm, and collected
Why it works
When you put colours together that are already close on the colour wheel, they create a calming, serene feeling.
Sunsets are typically one of the most serene things we see, so why not also be a gradient, just like sunsets?
How to do it
Take a look at your wardrobe and see what colours you have most of. Say, green. Do you have anything yellow, or blue? Put them together.
Do the same with red, for example. Do you have anything purple, or perhaps a lovely orange? Do that. That’s an outfit.
3. Monochrome outfits will make you feel entirely put together and coordinated
Why it works
Uniforms are generally the same colour for a reason - it gives you a sense of unity.
To give your entire person a sense of unity, dress in the same colour, and give yourself a feeling of being put together.
This one is particularly helpful when you have a long list of things to get done in the day.
How to do it
There are two main ways to do this:
Dress in different shades of the same colour. Personally I own a lot of green, so I’ll do that. This also lends itself to that serenity found in analogous fits.
Dress in exactly the same shade. This feels much more like a uniform, and will make you feel like you’ve got your shit together.
4. Complimentary will make you feel brighter
Why it works
This is where dopamine dressing can come in, but give it a bit more meaning! Use it to create a brighter, more sunshiney mood.
Using opposite colours on the colour wheel will make each item stand out against the other. It’ll make each colour feel more vibrant than it might usually.
How to do it
Here are the complementary colour pairings to get you started:
Yellow + purple
Pink or red + green
Blue + Orange
And a colour wheel for all the colours and tones in between.
5. Muji for when you just want to be present but not much else
Why it works
Muji the name of the store, but also a way to describe a ground that is plain, solid, and unpatterned. The philosophy of muji seeks out the beauty in simplicity.
Muji (the store) knows that muji (the concept) works - Muji (the store) saw $5.4 billion revenue in 2019.2
Muji seeks the beauty of the plain and unadorned: quiet.
How to do it
Wear things that don’t have any pattern.
They should be neutral or gently coloured - not vibrant.
Linen or cotton are best for these, with a loose fit.
Neutral or deeper colours will tonally match, so put them together.
Your clothes are the easiest way to influence what surrounds you every day
There isn’t a perfect way to dress, but there are ways to pull in things that we naturally like and harness them to feel more content.
I hope you can either chillax, be calm, feel put together, have a new vibrancy, or simply exist with this guide!
Much love,
Sam
You can see this documented in a no-nut November series wherein I tried to wean myself off the dopamine hits based on online shopping, to which I am addicted.
Though Muji is shutting down across Australia so...