Outfit Recycling
Posted by: Laura Cassidy on Jan 12, 2009 at 03:00PM
6 Comments
What’s your take on outfit recycling? What I mean is, when you feel like you’ve made a genius combo of skirt, top, shoes, and accessories or what-have-you, do you then wear that ensemble into the ground (when I was living in New York in my twenties we called these repeated ensembles “outfit #1”s; indicating that they had a certain stability and could be counted on if nothing better was dreamt up), or do you feel like you’ve got a one-night-stand with each great outfit?
I have one friend who subscribes to the one-night-stand theory; she really won’t wear the same thing, in the same way, twice. Then I have another who said to me, “Oh no, it’s so French — just wear it again and again, two or three days in a row… who cares!?,” when I brought this fashion puzzle to her.
The reason I ask is that I am wearing today, to work, the same thing I had on last night, at a show at Neumo’s (pictured here). Normally I wouldn’t do this—something very vain in me somehow thinks that I shouldn’t. Particularly because my friend and co-worker Andrew was at the same show last night—he saw me wearing my striped and shrunken military-button jacket with a vintage Wrangler denim vest and this odd paisley 60s dress over leggings and trusty, trusty Frye boots. But you see, I woke up a little late, and glanced at my calendar and realized I have an after-work engagement. With no time to formulate something new and appropriate (I had been thinking Monday Casual: jeans, a sweater, ankle boots), I went with what was draped across the chair in my bedroom—and sent Andrew an email telling him to keep my secret safe.
So tell me, how ridiculous—or reasonable—am I being?
Tags: What's Your Take On...
so you have outed yourself.
personally:
i do not have disposable outfits. actually, when i buy an article of clothing, i think about all the different things i can wear it with, because i’ll only buy it if i can wear it all the time and with lots of stuff i already own. when i buy shoes, i think about ones that will look good old. when i buy anything to wear, i basically plan on never throwing it away.
i have a lot of “hiphop” friends who subscribe to the opposite policy. they buy a hat, wear it once, and then “put it on ice.” same with shoes. sometimes they buy shoes and just leave them in the box forever.
To be clear, I’m certainly not advocating that anyone would or should put a piece of clothing on ice. I’m talking outfits here—so the idea is not that I’ll never wear this dress again, just that next time I wear this dress, it’ll be in a whole new way. And hopefully it won’t be twelve hours after the last time I wore it.
ah, i see. i’m kind of in the middle on this one. i repeat-wear articles fast, but try not to do the same outfit twice in a week.
well, i don’t blame you for having “number 1’s.” since i’m often going from work to happy hour or other evening engagements, i try to wear something that can transition. my office is extremely casual, so whatever i wear to work is always fine. i never really think in the traditional terms of “day to night” wear, like adding jewelry or swank coats. i just wear the whole outfit.
one of my old go-to’s was a skirt, tights, casual t shirt outfit that i wore all the time to work and out. after a while i just got sick of it. i think it’s all about the detail, though. i love wearing bracelets, and since i make (almost all of) my jewelry, i try to wear it as much as possible. i mean, take a look at emanuelle alt…she has a uniform of sorts (black,black,black and amazing heels), but it’s all in the detail of texture and cut.
i couldn’t wear the same thing the same way if I tried, even though i do wear the same garments often. somehow it’s never quite the same. but i say wear the same pieces as many times as you feel good in it or until people start covering their noses.
I liked that outfit so much, I kind of wish you were still wearing it.