IF it’s good enough for the Queen, the Princess Royal and the prince of pop himself, Robbie Williams, maybe the rest of us should dig out our cast-offs and follow suit.
While many people wouldn’t be seen dead - or alive - in a garment straight from the back of the wardrobe which was the height of fashion ten years ago, it seems the rich and famous live by other rules.
Despite signing an £80 million record deal,
with which you would imagine he could renew his designer clothing every month, Robbie was last week spotted sporting a pullover which first began its public life in 1995 when he wore it to an after-show Oasis party.
Seven years on and Robbie was proudly wrapped up against the winter elements last week in the cosy jumper while in Paris.
The Queen is also a hoarder of old garments, reportedly saving beads and sequins removed from old dresses to be sewn on to new gowns, and keeping many of her most expensive clothes for a quarter of a century or more.
And Princess Anne, well-known for her creative recycling of ancient clothes, has a whole cache of favourite oldies which reappear from time to time, with a tuck here or there, or a different set of accessories.
At last year’s Save the Children Festival of Trees in London, she wore a bubblegum pink satin top with a black and pink skirt, first worn at the 1985 Bafta Awards.
It was the third public appearance for the ensemble, which had also been worn in 1987 for a trip to the theatre, although this time with white gloves and a black choker. For its third outing, the princess had it altered, trimming the previously bouffant sleeves to bring it into the 21st century. At Royal Ascot in 1998, she donned a yellow hat worn 17 years earlier for her daughter Zara’s christening and, in 1999, she wore a blue silk crepe evening dress, designer-made for her in 1973, to the Sports Writers’ Association golden jubilee dinner. A lilac and lavender chiffon twin-set first worn to the film premiere of Absolute Beginners in 1986 reappeared in 2000.
One thing’s for sure: money isn’t the issue. The Queen is not what you could call strapped for cash, and saving sequins to save a bob or two is hardly something she is forced to do out of economic necessity. So what is recycling antique - or antiquated - garments all about?
Is it a healthy respect for belongings and valuing their worth, or a sentimental attachment? Is it a case of wise conservation and wanting to get value for money and plenty of wear, is it for the sake of nostalgia or posterity, or is it just a miserly hoarding of prehistoric goods? Some people may yearn to wear their first evening gown or dress trousers again a generation later and reignite a few memories from their carefree (and flab-free) youth, but the option may not always be there.
The Princess Royal has maintained her trim size ten figure over the decades, but for many people, a slim reflection in the mirror is an equally slim memory. Twenty years later and ten sizes bigger, keeping old clothes may not be feasible for anything other than a disheartening trip down memory lane.
So, forgetting the rich, famous and blue-blooded, who keeps their old clothes and why do they do it?
Anne Hunter, who runs her own interior design business in Leith, admits she has a treasure trove of ageing items hanging from the rails of her wardrobes - including one item which is 22 years old.
"I’m a bit of a hoarder when it comes to clothes and shoes, hats, bags," she confesses. "You kind of think it might come back in fashion. There are certain favourite items that you just can’t bear to part with - that special pair of shoes that you’re convinced one day will actually go with something, that you spent a fortune on and think: ‘I’ve got to keep them, regardless of whether they’re still in fashion or not’. They’re like pieces of art to me.
"It’s not thriftiness, because if I was thrifty I’d be flogging them. There’s a few scary items that people mock me for: a bright pink jacket with shoulder pads springs to mind. It’s a Donna Karan 1980 number that I refuse to part with. I lived in Hong Kong and got it wholesale.
"There’s an attachment to them because there’s either good memories or I’ve just always really liked it and I can’t bear to part with it. There’s some things that you either think: ‘I’ll shrink into it one day’, or ‘I just like it too much to get rid of it’."
She adds: "All the old stuff’s come back in - big shoulder pads, platforms, flares, hipsters. It’s all going to come back in eventually."
Anthea Wilson 23, works for Ster Century Cinemas in Leith and can’t imagine ever throwing out any of her clothes. Her oldest item is a ten-year-old jumper. "I keep everything," she says. "I just can’t throw it out in case it comes back into fashion, or I find something that goes with it and then I’ve thrown it out and it’s a waste. I always like everything I buy so I end up keeping it all. I don’t have any wardrobe space left. I’ve got a built-in wardrobe, another wardrobe and three sets of drawers’ full.
"I have to shop at least twice a week - I always come back with something. I spend half my income on clothes. I’ve got over 70 jumpers. Some are really old, but you never know when you might want to wear it. I always buy something new, but I always have my old favourites. What’s the point in buying loads of new things that cost you a fortune and then throwing them out? If you look good in something, what’s the point in getting rid of it?"
IT’S not a gender thing, either. Peter Ellen, managing director of Fopp, says there is one particular garment that he will never get rid of.
"I have got a cardigan that’s 15 years old that I bought on holiday in Paris when I was a student," he laughs. "It’s made of silk wool and it cost £40, which was a fortune at the time.
"It’s such good quality, it still looks as good as the day I bought it. I’ve got eight cardigans. I don’t give a monkeys what anyone says; cardigans have got their rightful place in the world and should be respected. If you buy decent quality stuff, it lasts. If you buy rubbish, you end up chucking it out."
Jane Davidson, meanwhile, who runs an eponymous exclusive boutique on Thistle Street with her daughter, Sarah, agrees: "When I first opened the shop 32 years ago, I had a Jean Muir cardigan from one of the first collections I got into the shop. I kept that because I wore it the day I brought Sarah home from hospital after she was born.
"It’s a real classic and I still wear it. It’s a special item. Jean Muir died and they don’t do that sort of thing now. As soon as it came into the shop, I thought it was a really ‘me’ piece, because it was easy to wear, it was brightly coloured and it always made me feel good. I would never throw it out.
"I’ve also got an evening dress that cost a fortune 25 years ago. I wore it to a one-off Christian Dior do in the Borders. It was a heavily-beaded silver chiffon column. I wouldn’t be able to get into it now, so I can’t throw it out. Some things will fall into vintage fashion eventually, but I would never sell them. Fashion is such a personal thing. I like things to become like old friends. If it’s quality, then it’s fine."
Derek Preston, director of Klownz hairdressing in Edinburgh, says: "I keep the things that I really like. It’s because I love it and I want to keep it. You keep stuff that you think you’re going to get back into again - size-wise and fashion-wise. I’ve got stuff from the 70s and the 80s. I’ve got bootleg trousers and a couple of pairs of baggies and I’ve kept my favourite jackets. It’s a bit like taking a photo album out and going: ‘Oh my God, remember when I was like that?’ and you can have a good giggle about it. I’ve got stuff in the attic and bags."
So blue blood or blue cardie, keeping old clothes is like safeguarding a relic of history and, when pressed, it seems most of us have something we would never want to throw out.
Mind you, pink satin bouffant sleeves are an entirely different matter.
The full article contains 1558 words and appears in Edinburgh Evening News newspaper.
