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Ah, the art of repeating outfits without getting noticed. It's an ancient craft, dating back to the time when cavemen only owned one loin cloth. Ancient Romans, too, only owned one toga, so you bet they rocked that thing everyday.
Clearly, I'm kidding around--but seriously, how have we evolved as a society if we've made repeating outfits taboo? It should be totally acceptable to wear the same thing twice--what am I the Queen of England and have an endless closet? Oh wait, she repeats outfits, too.
In all honesty, I wish we could go back to a time when it was more socially acceptable to own only one pair of pants and a couple of shirts and rotate them. Nowadays it's so hard for us ladies to get away with wearing the same shift dress to work twice in a month. Rude!
If you're like me and don't have a bottomless closet, you need to know how to repeat outfits without having it be *so* obvious. Here are the tips:
[Photo: Damsel In Dior]
1. Get creative with your combinations. If you always wear the same dress with the same necklace, cardigan or shoes it will be especially obvious that you're repeating. Throw your co-workers off the trail by wearing a totally different combination--different colors will even bring out different hues in the clothes you're repeating. That red dress will look more yellow when worn with green, or more pink when work with blue.
[Photo: Viva Luxury]
2. Start building a capsule wardrobe. Some stylists actually subscribe to the rule that less is more, and that you should have a core collection of versatile pieces that you can wear in endless combinations together. This means that you can create even more looks from fewer items, and that "repeating" is totally acceptable.
[Photo: Brooklyn Blonde]
3. Know your audience. It's perfectly fine to wear the same thing twice in a short window if you're going to be around entirely different people. Know your audience. If you wear it to work on Friday, you can even wear it to brunch on Saturday (provided that none of your work friends will be there).
[Photo: Walk In Wonderland]
4. Don't make it your profile pic. If you have a favorite dress, resist the urge to use a photo of yourself as your profile pic on social media or dating apps because it will become especially obvious to friends and acquaintances that that's your *signature look*. Every time you wear it, everyone will be all like--oh, that's the dress you always wear.
[Photo: Tamira Jarrel]
5. Change your hair and makeup. Do what celebs would do on the red carpet and change up your hair and makeup to create a totally different look. Wearing pigtails with a top can make it look coquettish, but the same top can look sexy with big voluminous waves. A cat eye changes everything.
[Photo: Gal Meets Glam]
6. Follow the 3-to-1 rule for repeating solids versus prints. You can repeat solid clothing three times as often as you can get away with signature prints and patterns. They are just more noticeable (duh).
[Photo: A House In The Hills]
7. It's always okay to repeat jackets. Outerwear and shoes are (almost) exempt. You can wear the same jacket and coat, as long as it's appropriate to the weather outside and the season (i.e., jean jackets are best in spring/summer, moto jackets are great for fall, fur is good for winter). Shoes you can repeat often, but you need to be mindful of the extra wear and tear that comes with wearing the same pair daily.
[Photo: Frankie Hearts Fashion]
8. Don't wear the same pants twice in a row--they need a break to retain its shape. Clothing that contains stretch and things like bras should not be worn twice in a row because they need a day or so to go back to their shape. Otherwise, you start stretching them out permanently.
[Photo: Viva Luxury]
