I Repeat
For a long time, mini-paragraphs just like these two below were my biggest pet peeve about In Style-ish magazines.
“Ryan Phillippe loved the Stretch Cotton T’s from Santa Monica-based brand Dune A4 that he bought one in each of the line’s 95 colors.”
Or.
“Gwyneth Paltrow is such a fan of the ultra slimming Dario jean by Dan & Ann Tan that she bought an 8th house in London for no other purpose than to store the 7,000 white pairs of the denim that she swears she was born to die in.”
It seemed gratuitous and wasteful and also sorta boring to purchase (and then wear) any clothing item in such bulk-like quantities. And, for a long time, any time I ever loved something enough to buy even a second version of it – just a year or two later I’d be on to some different fit, fad, or aesthetic mission and feel like I’d wasted my money not just once, but twice or, oh God, thrice.
But now that I’m older, and sorta smarter, and more settled in my self and style, more and more of my wardrobe is made up of reliable repeats that I love wearing in any and all of the colors/sizes/styles I have them in.
Most of my multiples are cheap and chain store-ish, but I suppose that’s what cheap, chain stores are really best for. (Although the Levi’s Vintage 1950s T’s run a pricy $90 per pop, which seems expensive even for a CW tv celebrity; but the fit and fade is so yesterday that I can’t help having a ton of them today.)
After all, guys are about twice as persnickety about clothes as gals, and when you find a piece that you find yourself slipping into Sunday straight through Saturday you know you’ve officially found your sartorial sweet spot. And it becomes quite sensical and not too In Style-ish to stock up on such items and build up a stable of staples.
I’d still recommend not to ever go all Phillippe on any one item though. Three or four wardrobe repeats seems sage still, but beyond that you’re just begging the fates for boffo buyer’s remorse somewhere down the road.
January 12th, 2012 at 11:49 am
the cutie is back