What I Wore When I Rewore My Favorites

“Oh look, you’re wearing that same outfit on your Instagram last week.” A new acquaintance had pulled up my social media account after learning what I do for a living. And there I was wearing the exact same outfit 5 days later. Busted. I could feel my cheeks heating up and turning crimson.

I felt a flood of excuses surging up. “Well I was actually wearing something different today, but one of my girls wiped her chapstick all over my sweater just as I was leaving to come to this, so I quickly changed into this outfit because it was so fresh in my mind from last week, and I felt really comfortable and confident in it, and I always feel so uncomfortable in these meet-new-people situations that it made me feel better to wear something I knew I’d feel great in rather than come up with a whole new outfit that I may end up questioning the whole way over here because I haven’t taken it out for a test drive and then I would be doubly uncomfortable here, and that’s why I’m wearing the same outfit twice in 5 days.”

There seems to be this idea that as a style blogger I’m not allowed to repeat outfits, but folks, I do. I have my favorites, the ones that I just love, the ones that make me feel super comfortable or super confident, and I’m not going to NOT wear them just because the whole interweb will know. This whole concept of excess equaling affluence is very much an American idea. Where did it come from? Most other countries in the world don’t operate this way.

Let’s take many of the European countries. They are some of the world’s best dressed people. They value quality over quantity, they buy the best they can afford, their wardrobes are cohesive, they have a defined style, and they wear their items over and over (which is why they need good quality items). It’s basically a capsule wardrobe, but they don’t call it that. They don’t call it anything. It’s just their clothes. It isn’t a craze or a trend, it just IS. And it always WAS.

In the United States we act like we invented the concept of a capsule wardrobe, but it’s how wardrobes have been since Adam and Eve got their first fig leaves. Because once human kind abandoned leaves, clothing became highly laborious to make, and therefore expensive. Mass production and cheap labor have made cheap, disposable clothing and large wardrobes a possibility, but at a high price to everyone.

My mother grew up in an affluent family, and every season she got 5 blouses, 5 skirts, a pair of shoes, and new socks, even though they could afford much more. She still dresses this way. She has a core wardrobe of pieces that she wears over and over again. It suits her life and her style. She’s not a minimalist, she’s just doing what she has always done, what most of the world has always done.

My closet is full of a lot of basics, and I have a few uniforms that I wear over and over. There are only so many possible variations on these without getting crazy. This week I decided to pull 7 of my favorite outfits and wear them all in the same week. It was like Christmas! I got to play with all my favorite toys! It also made my week so easy. No creativity required. All I had to do was put on an old favorite.

If you hate coming up with new outfit combinations, The Stunning Style Spring Wardrobe Guide is your solution to looking effortlessly put together and stunning. It is a collection of 34 classic pieces and all the shopping links, along with 100 outfit combinations. All you have to do is pick one and get dressed! It can be a stand-alone capsule wardrobe or a foundation to a larger wardrobe. You never have to go to a store!

I’m not judging you if you enjoy having a large wardrobe. I have more than 34 pieces in my spring wardrobe. I’m saying that if you feel the pressure to have more than you want, to wear something different every day, let’s just let that go. Wear what you like. Wear your favorites over and over. They are your favorites for a reason. If that means you repeat outfits every 7 days, do it.

Do you have favorites that you wear over and over again? Do you worry that someone will notice? Do you try not to repeat outfits because of social pressure or because you enjoy the variety?

Here is what I wore when I rewore some of my favorites.