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Switching half our clothes in each of our wardrobes to pre-loved could prevent carbon emissions equivalent to those produced by 261,000 flights from London to Greece, Oxfam have suggested. So what is the allure of buying brand new clothes, when we know it’s worse for the environment? Well, there’s a reason we refer to shopping as ‘retail therapy’. Whether it’s a going-out top grabbed on your lunch break or a designer bag you’ve had your eye on for months, fashion acquisitions in particular have the power to lift your mood, thanks to the chemical dopamine. “Dopamine is known as the reward agent,” said cognitive psychologist and business consultant Dr Carolyn Mair, author of The Psychology of Fashion. “We produce more dopamine when we’re on the hunt for something that’s going to give us a positive outcome or make the situation we’re in at the moment more easy to bear. “It can become an addiction, certainly, because the same neurotransmitters and same behaviours are involved.” And buying an on-trend outfit provides more of a thrill than loading up a supermarket trolley because it satisfies our desire to fit in. “It’s a fundamental psychological drive that we want to belong to communities – part of the way we do that is through the way we dress,” said Mair – who is working with Oxfam for the launch of its Second Hand September campaign – but it’s a double-edged sword. “Fashion can do wonders for us in terms of highlighting or concealing parts of our bodies that we love or don’t love so much,” Mair continued. “But it can also be quite damaging when we feel that we have to join in with other people’s ideas about what’s fashionable.” Peer pressure can have a powerful effect, as can the boredom. “We get bored with what we’ve got, and we’re also very much influenced by fashion trends, celebrities, social media and so on,” said Mair. “There’s quite often a temptation to join in with those trends and be part of that… It can be quite difficult for people to resist that.” Even, that is, when we know that the fashion industry is hugely detrimental to the enviroment in terms of carbon emissions and unwanted garments going to landfill. “I think the huge majority of people already know [the environmental impact],” said Mair, and yet fast fashion brands continue to churn out millions of items a year and consumers lap them up. Instead of telling people to quit clothes shopping altogether, she said to ask ourselves: “How can we get the pleasure from fashion by not buying brand new, but by buying something else?” That’s why she encourages fashion fans to make more sustainable choices, starting with ‘shopping your wardrobe’. “You can make something you’ve already got feel new by upcycling it or changing it a little bit, if you’re creative. We can swap with friends, because then it’s ‘new to me’.” Hunting on sites like Vinted, eBay or Depop is a great way of “finding treasures so that’s giving us the dopamine hit and we’re saving money”, she added. If the proceeds are going to a good cause you’ll get an extra altruistic boost as welll. “We know from positive psychology that one of the best ways to feel good about ourselves is to do good for someone else,” said Mair. “Whenever we buy secondhand from a charity shop we know that our money is going towards doing good.” She’s also a big fan of rental sites like HURR Collective, Hire Street and By Rotation that offer premium pieces to hire for a fraction of their retail price. “Rental sites are great, particularly for special occasions when we think ‘I need to buy something new,’ because that’s the social norm,” she said. “Rental is a great way to keep an item of clothing in use for longer so it’s worn by more people and looked after.” Read More Charity boss speaks out over ‘traumatic’ encounter with royal aide Ukraine war’s heaviest fight rages in east - follow live How can I improve my teenager’s low mood? Drinking alcohol does not make people look more attractive, study suggests Maya Jama and Stormzy: Can you make it work with an ex?

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Police in Ireland are trawling through 6,000 hours of CCTV footage as a major investigation into riots in Dublin’s city centre continues. The violence in the Irish capital on Thursday – which involved far-right elements and saw Garda cars, buses and trams set alight and shops looted and damaged – flared after a knife attack on three children and their care assistant outside a school in the north inner city. There were a small number of arrests on Friday evening as gardai mounted a significant security operation around the O’Connell Street thoroughfare to avoid a repeat of the violent scenes from the night before. Amid criticism of the Garda response to the riots, government ministers met and heard that legislation to facilitate the use of body-worn cameras by police officers will be fast-tracked. Justice minister Helen McEntee also told colleagues that officers are trawling 6,000 hours of CCTV footage and vowed that further arrests would follow the 34 already made. She also insisted that the police force has all the resources necessary to keep people in Dublin safe over the weekend, including securing the use of two water cannons from the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI). Ms McEntee also rejected a call from Sinn Fein leader Mary Lou McDonald for her and Garda commissioner Drew Harris to resign. She said: “If Sinn Fein wish to debate law and order, if Sinn Fein wish to debate how we can support the gardai, I have no problem in standing over Fine Gael’s record of law and order, Fine Gael’s record of supporting members of An Garda Siochana. “I do not believe Sinn Fein can stand over their record.” Ms McDonald said there had been “an unacceptable, unprecedented collapse in policing” and that a problem leading to Thursday’s riot had been “building for months”. Damage to public infrastructure in Dublin from the disorder could cost tens of millions of euros to repair, Irish premier Leo Varadkar said. He added that the knife attack and the violence which followed had brought “shame on Ireland”. A five-year-old girl injured in the knife attack outside a school remained in a critical condition in hospital on Friday while the female care assistant, in her 30s, was in a serious condition. The two other children, a five-year-old boy and a six-year-old girl, suffered less serious injuries. That girl remained in hospital on Friday but the boy has been discharged. Gardai said a man who sustained serious injuries at the scene is a person of interest in their investigation. Politicians and police have hailed as heroes members of the public who intervened to halt the attacker at the scene on Parnell Square East, including a Brazilian Deliveroo driver. Read More Labour has to be ‘diverse’ to form successful government says Rayner Helpline for the elderly is more important than ever, Dame Esther Rantzen says What the papers say – November 25 Geologist dons trainers for final marathon of 30 before 30 challenge Sharp cut in fuel prices after retailers given ‘good prod’ by regulator, AA says Rwanda plan ‘not the be all and end all’, says James Cleverly