BY RACHEL DOVE / JUNE 11 '21

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After the year we’ve just had, the message from the catwalks is clear: it’s time for a heavy dose of optimism. Rachael Dove could not be any happier about this.

"But in dark times, is the hit of dopamine dressing actually real? According to professor Carolyn Mair, a behavioural psychologist and author of The Psychology Of Fashion, it is as much to do with our perception of our clothes as it is to do with the clothes themselves. ‘When there is a strong belief in the symbolic meaning of an item, it can influence the wearer’s behaviour,’ she says. Perhaps it’s no surprise, then, that pieces that literally have joy written all over them have become best-sellers. How can you be sad wearing JoosTricots’s sell-out smiley-face jumper or Stella McCartney’s impossible-to-get-your-hands-on knit, strewn with rainbows and the word ‘SMILE’? ‘Expecting something good to happen when we wear something can give us confidence and this comes through in how we interact with others,’ says Mair. ‘It’s the same as believing in yourself, a self-compassion mantra.’