Dopamine Dressing

I was asked to write a feature about ‘Dopamine Dressing’ for a women’s magazine, I think because our namesake shade, Baker Miller Pink was ‘scientifically proven’ (in the ’70s) to slow the heart rate, so much so that they painted the inside of prisons that shade to calm down the inmates.

I went off the phrase ‘scientifically proven’ when every cold cream in the land said it would definitely erase wrinkles and didn’t. So frankly, since I wasn’t there for the experiments, I’m loathe to say that Baker Miller Pink is a shade that is 100% guaranteed to calm you down/cheer you up.

Dopamine dressing most often refers to wearing colours that boost your mood triggering the release of the ‘feel-good’ hormone dopamine. Every fashion season, dopamine dressing is used as an excuse to encourage us all to wear bright colours with a flamboyant, devil-may-care attitude. Lime green? Sure. With tangerine? Oh go on. It’ll boost your dopamine. Ummm…

Here’s the rub. What if you prefer black?

What if…your moment of perfect calm comes when you’re head-to-toe in Goth gear plus eyeliner. Or maybe you just love pristine white, layered with ivory and cream. Or all over grey. Or navy, with stripes.

So I had to answer the magazine editor with this; what we wear might help us feel confident, boost our energy, put fat smiles on our faces but it’s entirely subjective. You want to wear rainbows – do so, if it floats your boat. Or polka dots. With gingham. In yellow. I don’t have your memories or your experiences. What if, when you were five, a dinner lady insisted you eat that entire bowl of strawberry blancmange, or else.

Personally, I love pink. In fact, I love Baker Miller Pink. So much so that I painted two rooms in my house that exact colour and the inside of a cupboard. I like it’s energy, it’s slightly cheap and cheeky connotations (bubblegum, iced donuts, strawberry milkshake) and on a subconscious level it probably reminds me of dressing dollies and eating popsicles. And because, by association, it’s a rather cheap and transient colour, I love it in cashmere. It’s so wrong, it’s right. It makes me very happy.
That amount of thought doth not a feature make.