Good Vibrations

Call it Dopamine Dressing. Consumers are using a universal language of sunny colours and Smiley faces to lift their spirits and send a message of optimism to others

- Rosana Lai

Fashion psychologist Dawnn Karen, the first black female professor of psychology at the Fashion Institute of Technology in New York and author of recently published book Dress Your Best Life, counsels many people, from politicians to parents, on the relationship between well-being and being well-dressed. While her services are in high demand even in normal times, she has seen a huge surge of interest this year from clients who are wrestling with a more modern problem brought on by living for weeks or months in quarantine in a time when it rarely seems worth getting dressed up. In fact, a physician who treats Covid-19 patients came to her because she felt clinically depressed.

“I prescribed wearing the colour yellow in every one of her life uniforms, whether it was under her medical jacket or at home, and within days it brightened her mood,” says Karen, who prescribes colour just as a medical doctor would a drug.