Recently, Arianna Huffington spoke at HR Tech World in Amsterdam wearing the same dress she’s worn at other conferences and the same dress she intends to repeat later in the week at another conference. Her wardrobe choice was intentional as she raised the question, “Why do women feel they need to buy a new outfit for every event?”
Huffington regularly reposts pictures on her Instagram celebrating women that repeat their outfits under the hashtag #stylerepeats
For men the perception of outfit repetition is seen as a power move, emulating efficiency; whereas on women it is often perceived as lazy and lacking effort. Janhvi Kapoor recently came under fire for repeating a dress one year apart.
Ishaan Khattar was spotted wearing a grey long sleeve on multiple occasions but received no media attention.
This is not to say that it is all bad news. Stars are speaking and acting out against these unrealistic standards. The most notable example of this is Tiffany Haddish re-wearing her now iconic $4000 Alexander McQueen dress.
Jahnvi Kapoor is cool and matter-of-fact as she says “How can you keep spending so much money on clothes? One should repeat clothes. Please, repeat clothes.”
The notion that repeating clothes isn’t something that should be looked down upon is refreshing and sends a positive message to young girls and women everywhere to not worry and be self-conscious about how we are perceived.
There are a million different ways to wear one outfit! Take a note out of Tiffany Haddish’s sartorial playbook and accessorize! Makeup, hair and beauty make all the difference. A change of your shoes can take a look from daytime to nighttime. If we’re keeping it real; laundry day is a lot more effort than buying new clothes each time so let’s be proud to be outfit repeaters!