The Style Files : Repeating an outfit, fashion faux pas or fashion savvy? 

I’ll admit it: I am a repeat offender. I just don’t view fashion in a disposable way. While celebrities have all the means and modes to fill their closets with the latest styles, even they choose to repeat clothes! 

Fashion high priestess Anna Wintour, Kate Middleton, Kim Kardashian, Priyanka Chopra, Alexa Chung and Cara Delevingne are just a few of the celebs who have rocked—and re-rocked—pieces in their closet on more than one occasion. 

Anna Wintour 

Social media fuels the rise of the wear-it-once movement. Being "tagged" online wearing the same dress twice, at two consecutive parties, is considered an unforgivable fashion faux pas, in some circles. 

In others, the concept of wearing something just once is sad. It indicates a lack of style, confidence, and it misses the point of what fashion is about. 

The Duchess of Cambridge 

There is a theory now that fashion has become like fast food, fast fashion. With the fashion cycle now incorporating inter-seasonal collections into the main two seasons, consumers are inundated with new trends and new styles with the lifespan of a couple of months. 

That white silk shirt that you’ve worn three times this month. Those black jeans you lived in on the weekend, because hey, who is going to notice (they're jeans, right?). Or that perfectly cut little back dress you wear out practically every Friday night. It would seem that repeating a look is a conscious choice to step off the relentless trend treadmill that fast fashion creates. 

Kim Kardashian 

So how soon is too soon to wear the same thing? (After all, even the Duchess of Cambridge got trashed by designer Vivienne Westwood for "recycling" her clothes too often, even though she usually waits a couple of months before repeating a look.) 

It is absolutely okay to obsess over a new item and wear it more than once in a short period of time around the same people. If the look is “you” and makes you feel confident, by all means, wear it and wear it proudly. If the Duchess of Cambridge can, well then why shouldn’t you? 

By Minoli Ratnayake