If you're the kind of person who can afford to wear a completely new outfit everyday, then (a) this post is NOT for you so go away and (b) reading my blog will likely give you an aneurysm, anyway. Haha.
As for the rest of you, read on! I have no qualms about wearing the same shoes, bag or whatever over and over again. It's about conservation and innovation for me. It's commendable to care for what you have and to look for ways to reuse as opposed to constantly replacing similar items with newer similar items or just hoarding clothes and accessories for the sake of having the latest shit. Further, it takes creativity and skill to breathe new life into an "old" garment and make it look new time and time again with different styling. This post concerns that latter element (i.e., how to make old look new).
Outerwear is probably one of the easier garments to work with, though colors can really screw you over. Haha. By that, I mean, the brighter the coat (or the more patterns it has), the more memorable it is in people's minds. So, they tend to remember it when you wear it and, if you wear it often, they know that, too. ;) So, I'm using a bright red coat as an example. I've worn this coat a ton of times and each time I always try to use the red color to my advantage. I try to celebrate its brightness, but also use different colors and/or patterns to draw the eye to other places. So, for some people, they may think: 'Oh, she's wearing that coat, again, but wow look at the way she did ______' or ' Wow, that color combination is really ______.' I just try to steer the conversation to other parts of the outfit, if that makes sense. :P
Rompers give the impression that there's only one way to wear them, but that's not the case! I've stuffed them into pants and skirts with great success. Haha. If you're not that brave, however, there are other things you can do to make those rompers feel like new, again. In the photos above, I'm wearing a romper in the traditional way. You'll notice that, in the first photo, I used neutral colors. That's the safest thing, but I did add a little twist in the back. ;) For the second wear, I stepped things up by adding some bright colors and patterns. Again, I'm just trying to redirect the eyes, while still using the color of the romper to my advantage. As long as you avoid the same color/pattern pairings (and leave a good amount of time in between wears), most people won't care that you wore the same piece.
The same goes for this red romper. I punched up the color in both outfits, but still managed to create completely different styles and for two different seasons! Sometimes, it's really just the top that you choose to wear underneath that can make all the difference. Also notice that I'm wearing the same shoes and bag in both photos, but each outfit is interesting enough that it really doesn't matter. There are more exciting things to look at. ;D I try not to wear similar clothing items within the same week, but I'm not always successful. Sometimes, the urge to wear something you really like just completely takes over and that's OK! I mean, in that regard, you shouldn't care about what people think, anyway. :P
Finally, I wanted to give a little advice on how to wear crazy patterns more than once. These houndstooth pants are pretty loud. I know that people will remember them every time I wear them. So, there's extra pressure to create something unique and avoid doing the same styles with it. I think people might have a tendency to say, 'Oh, I can only wear this with black' or 'I had better stick to solid colors, if I wear this.' They automatically limit their options, because the print is totally wacky. While that line of thinking is reasonable and safe, I want to encourage people to try to stretch their limits a little bit.
If they can do that, they'll get more wear out of other clothes in their closet and they're bound to come up with some amazing, eye-catching outfits. :DDD In this regard, having an eye for color and pattern coordination becomes very important. Also, you have to be a bit of a risk taker. Hehe. Fashion is trial and error, IMO. Just keep trying stuff and see what happens. Some of it will be great and some of it won't be. Admittedly, I struggled with how to wear these pants in multiple, unique ways. Houndstooth is a difficult pattern for sure, but it just takes a little extra thinking (and a forgiveness of imperfection hehe).
Did you notice that I wore the same bag and shoes multiple times in the photos above? I even wore the same shoes with the houndstooth pants like three times. Haha. As long as you put together something that is aesthetically interesting, those kinds of details just fall to the wayside in people's minds, IMO.
So, yeah. There are lots of ways to show how thankful you are for what you have. One such way is by thoughtfully reusing your garments to get the most out of them. 'Tis the season to give thanks! ^_^
Happy Thanksgiving! Thanks for reading! <3