Day 2 - Psychology of Fast Fashion

Today we will be looking at how fast fashion affects our wellbeing. Yes, that’s right, it does!

According to the new study by Lovables Australia, people buy more clothes just to enhance their self-esteem, and at first sight it sounds right, the better you look – the better you feel.

We get that!

However spending thousands of pounds on clothing every year just to feel a little better sounds quite expensive. And there are so many downsides when you, when you look at what fashion really costs in the long run it does not make you feel better about yourself anymore.

Things such as mass consumerism, environmental issues, labour exploitation and toxic waste don’t sound so good. That new dress might be nice and it might be cheap, but is it worth it for something that might be worn just once?

With all that being said, however, there is a reason why we keep on buying, and fast fashion retailers know that too. Only too well. Let’s have a look at some facts:

Our brains feel pleasure from buying stuff. Our brains release dopamine (a neurotransmitter associated with pleasure, rewards & happy feelings) while shopping and, apparently, if we don’t know if we are going to find something good, it releases even more dopamine. This also happens with online shopping as our brains respond to the process of waiting for the products to arrive without knowing if they will look like the picture or will fit well.

When you’re shopping and you see something you like, the pleasure parts of your brain are active, but other two parts also become active – the prefrontal cortex which is associated with decision-making and also insula which is associated with processing pain. So, psychologists say, is that your brain combines the pleasure of buying and pain of spending money. This is why fast fashion is so easy to buy because when prices are not high it becomes very easy to stimulate only the pleasure part of the brain. Obviously, this is also a reason why switching to slow fashion could be so hard. - Often the prices of slow fashion are higher. Before making a decision to get something, for example for a £100, both parts – decision making as well as pain part of the brain are stimulated and so we get completely different shopping experience. (Robert Sapolsky, cited by Weinschenk 2015)

Since we know how our brains feel about fast fashion, let’s talk about our wellbeing.

Psychologist Dr Kate Baechers says: “Adopting a style in clothing that mimics a trend but not the individual can lead to an erosion of the individual’s sense of self-belief and understanding of who they are themselves. It no longer becomes an expression of personality but rather, a reflection of ‘expectation’ – and this dissonance can cause internal distress.”(Mindfood, 2018)

We believe that the best way to promote your confidence with clothing is to have your own style which would express your personality, not the latest trends.

That’s the bad news - loving dark deep shades but wearing pastels just because they are in fashion this Spring won’t make you feel better. Only by following your own body shape and size you can create a style which makes you feel comfortable mentally and physically.

We understand that buying slow fashion can be less convenient or more expensive, and now we know that it can be very painful to our brains, too! But you don’t have to buy new pieces every other week. Well looked after slow fashion clothing can last decades (which also works out much cheaper in the long run). If it doesn’t sound affordable at the moment, there are many amazing second-hand shops all around, so why don’t you give it a try? (We’ll have more info about second-hand shops in future detox articles)

Wear clothing that YOU like. Wear outfits that have some deeper meaning for YOU. Don’t just follow the latest trends on social media.. STOP chasing little dopamine doses while shopping for fast fashion and find an eternal confidence with your own, UNIQUE style, because:

fashions fade, style is eternal – Yve Saint Laurent.

Today's Task:

Go through your pictures and try to notice what clothes suits you the most, try to remember what clothing makes you feel the most confident and comfortable, what colours highlights your features the most, what jewellery makes you feel great.

Once you find it, write it down and try to remember it every time you put something completely different in your shopping bag. And we'd love to hear all about it.

- Gertruda Eimutyte

References:

• Mindfood (2018) Is Your Wardrobe Harming Your Wellbeing? [online]. Available at: https://www.mindfood.com/article/confident-clothing/ [accessed: 19.03.2020]

• Weinschenk, S. (2015) Shopping, Dopamine, and Anticipation [online]. Available at: https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/brain-wise/201510/shopping-dopamine-and-anticipation [accessed: 19.03.2020]