My secret to being well-dressed

I don’t expect any sympathy from you but I suffer from the rare misfortune of having some extremely stylish friends. One is the editor of Vogue, one used to be, and another is often named in best-dressed lists. When I visit their houses, there’ll be models, designers, stylists – the beautiful people. Boo-f…ing-hoo, you might say. But please, stay with me on this.

This is a problem because I’m in a rut. I don’t know what to wear any more. I’m in my mid-30s and I do like being trendy, but I’m really over mindless consumption. I’m also over having a wardrobe stuffed to the brim with clothes I hardly wear but hold on to in case I lose weight, gain weight, go to a ball, play tennis …

It’s true that I am well dressed. And I can make that statement without feeling self-conscious or as if I’m abandoning all humility because there is a team of people who buy clothes, make sure they fit me and then style them before I wear them on TV. Then mostly I just copy the look elsewhere.

But I’m torn between growing up and staying “youthful”. Between minding my consumption and keeping up with what’s current. Between an all-black-everything capsule wardrobe and a stretchy pink Barbie dress. I need help curating my wardrobe but I’m so sick of having influencers ram fast fashion down our throats via our phones.

Aforementioned former Vogue Australia editor Kirstie Clements has seen and been around the most fashionable people in the world over her decades working in magazines. While we were all baking and eating our way through lockdowns, Kirstie wrote a book, Why Did I Buy That?

Her advice on building a sustainable but chic wardrobe is simple. “Consider a percentage of your clothes, say 75 or 80 per cent, your capsule wardrobe made up of all the things you wear time and time again, like jeans, T-shirts, blazers, camel sweaters, boots, whatever it is you love and feel good in. Then spend the other 20 per cent on ‘fashion’ pieces to update your look, like a cool new shoe, or bag, sunglasses, vintage items or jacket or dress in a new colour that’s on trend. Then you will still feel fashionable without wasting money.”

So we get the all-black-everything capsule wardrobe and the stretchy pink Barbie dress? Sign me up.

It’s sad that we now rely on influencers to shepherd us through the fashion fog more than magazine stylists and editors who can consider matters like wastefulness and who have encyclopaedic knowledge of the market.

I think we could also learn a thing or two from Dame Helen Mirren, who apparently doesn’t pack anything when she goes on holidays. She travels with a carry-on bag and then stops at a charity shop wherever she lands. Once she’s done, she donates it all back before she leaves. I don’t mind wearing second-hand clothes at all, but I do mind smelling like mothballs and I really mind looking like I’m going to a costume party.