How long between wearings of an outfit?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I had a bitch of a time finding something to wear today and the main reason was that I felt that everything I owned had been worn far too recently. After giving this some thought, I realized that I actually have guidelines for this (yes, I am female) and I wondered if I’m being weird about this all by myself. The rules are:
I cannot wear an outfit this week if I wore it last week.
If I can get two weeks between wearings, that would be ideal.
I can wear parts of the outfit (the same black skirt as last week, but not with the same pink sweater.)
Then there are some lesser rules which may be broken, such as: Don’t wear black pantyhose two days in a row, or: Don’t wear the same pair of shoes more than twice a week. Also, underwear color should not clash with outerwear color.

I mean, really! What’s the worst that’s going to happen here? Someone at work might think that I’m not rich enough to own a different outfit for every day of the year? I know one woman who has only about five different outfits, and I never think any the less of her. In fact, I like her more than anyone else at work. Yet I cling to my little obsessive/compulsive Laws to Get Dressed By. Do you do this too, and do you have different standards?

2

I wear the same things over and over (never the same combination twice in a row), and I’m sure people think I have a very small capsule wardrobe, whereas in fact I have a ludicrous amount of clothes. I do have rules about not wearing the same pair of trousers too often, but I imagine other people are unaware of this, as they all tend to be very similar.

Socks (never seen, as I wear boots in winter and bare legs in summer) MUST make some kind of color statement (clash, coordinate or complement) whatever else I’m wearing.

I notice that more and more, I’m inclining towards unrelieved black every day, just to avoid wrong-color-sock anguish.

3

I am just thankful that I am a)male and b) a college student
I wear whatever I first grab after I drag myself out of my bed, coordinating is difficult, since I tend to be bleary-eyed until I have consumed my first coffee of the day. When you’re eating cold pizza of indeterminate age from a box you found on the floor, under a pile of beer bottles, looking good is secondary :slight_smile:

4

well Hybrid_Dogfish

I guess i’m your antithesis.

I’m
A) male
B) a college student
C) I can cook!

I have similar rules to yours dung_beetle. My wardrobe is decently sized I suppose for a guy. But I happen to enjoy having nice clothes. oh and D) I like to shop!
e) yes I am straight.

5

Looks like Martha Stewart may not need to worry about her wardrobe for a while. Hope she likes orange.

I used to work in offices and shops but now I work at home, so I don’t even have to get dressed unless I have to leave the house for some reason. In the cooler seasons when walk the kids back and forth from school my coat covers whatever fashion atrocity I may be wearing.

Nevertheless, one of my mommy friends turned to me and said as we were watching over our kids in the playground, ‘You know, you make the rest of us moms look like piles of laundry.’ That’s one of the nicest compliments I’ve ever had. I’m not pretty and my figure is far from perfect. I think I might be one of those people who can go into the closet, throw something on and look like I made an effort. My friends often ask me to shop with them, I thought this was because I was good company. Turns out they like my fashion sense, perhaps because I spent many years working clothing stores dressing others and doing store displays. (I’ve dressed manikins too.)

I’m not so concerned with re-wears of outfits or matching my undergarments. Here are my wardrobe standards:

Fit is everything. Properly fitted undergarments beneath prevent ugly lines and bulges. I don’t buy clothes that are too small hoping to lose that five pounds. Comfort is important but it doesn’t mean you have to look sloppy. If your clothes are the right size, you will be comfortable.

Wear colours that suit you. Not everyone looks good in black. Have your ‘colours’ done. Fashion colours can be incorporated into the wardrobe, just make sure to choose the ones that suit your colouring.

Style is important. Buy a few fashionable pieces every season and fit them into last year’s wardrobe. Chose new styles that make a statement that is you – flambouyant and fun or understated and simple.

Classics and basics are important. Make sure to have these as the foundation of your wardrobe.

An ‘outfit’ doesn’t have to worn intact. Mix and match.

Accessorize. Depending on your personal style accessories will be simple or make a strong statement. You can vary your outfits from week to week by changing shoes, jewelry, stockings, belts, hairstyle etc.

Update your closet. If you haven’t worn a garment for 2 years, put it away or give it to charity. Don’t go out of the house in hot styles from 5 or 10 years ago. If you have gained a few pounds, put the ‘thin’ clothes away out of reach.

Wear styles and cuts that suit you and that downplay your imperfections while emphasizing your good features. Top-heavy women will wear different cuts than bottom heavy women. Overweight women can get away with bold patterns and fashion statements that thin women can’t carry off. Older women should cover up more but otherwise, they can be fashionable if they wish.

Above all you want people to see you, not your clothes. They are an outward expression of you. If you are noticing repeated outfits on a woman or just the fantasitc dress she had on, she hasn’t succeeded in making her clothes work for her.

6

At the very least, a month. I prefer and usually stick to a six week cycle, though, but I don’t always make it to the cleaners as often as I’d like to.

I may wear the basics, namely black or tan pants/skirt or a white/blue button-up shirt again within the cycle, but never more than twice and always with a different top/bottom than when I wore it the first time.

7

My rules are pretty much a clone of yours, Dung Beetle, except I have a two-week minimum and generally shoot for three weeks. This is based entirely on “who’s seen it,” though, so if I come up with a particularly fetching combo for work, I have no qualms about wearing it on a date a few days later. (I was able to do a month in California with one smallish suitcase based on this premise – I wasn’t in any one place for more than a few days, so kept repeating the same basic combos over and over.)

One of the annoyances of my broken ankle (the cast came off this morning! woo hoo!) is being stuck in pants for six weeks – I ordinarily wear skirts to work. Luckily I’d bought two new pairs of jeans a couple of weeks before the break, so one week I’d wear the black jeans M-W-F and the blue jeans T-Th, then swap it the next week. It was driving me batshit that I couldn’t switch the bottoms more, but I compensated by wearing a different sweater just about every day for the whole period. (Yes, I own a ridiculous number of sweaters.)

8

In case it matters, I’m female.

If I can get more through the week without repeating an outfit, I’m pretty happy.

My wardrobe is really, really small.

But the consolation I give myself is… I work with a bunch of men, who don’t care and/or don’t notice. And if I feel self-concious, I try to remember what one of my coworkers wore yesterday.

I never can. And I figure, neither can they.

9

Exactly, I forgot that part.
Damn, JuanitaTech, you are living the dream! Can you remember six weeks worth, or do you just know by what’s still clean?

10

Usually I can remember as I try to stick to ‘theme weeks’. Last week was ‘tank under a blouse with only two or three buttons buttoned week’. The week before that was ‘ugly-ski sweater’ week. The week before that was turtle/cowl-neck week.

When I’m not sticking to a theme, I can pretty much go by memory and, yes, by what’s clean or not in a cleaners bag. Keeping the clothes in the cleaners bag with the dated ticket on it helps tremendously.

My mother can–and does–go a whole season without repeating anything. Including shoes. I aspire to be her one day…

11

I’m female.

I have a devil of a time finding clothes that fit well (6’ tall, long legs, short torso, very overweight), so my wardrobe is very limited. I don’t think that I’d be a clothes horse even if I were a common size, though.

My rule for work is to try to avoid wearing any top or bottom twice in the same working week. I’ll also try to avoid wearing something on Monday that I wore the previous Thursday or Friday. Otherwise, I just endlessly cycle the same five pairs of pants and ten tops, most of which match most of each other. (Black, blue, and grey trousers, and a pair of jeans for Friday; blue, green, grey, and purple shirts, mostly in dark shades, plus a single red patterned shirt - a lucky find! - that is just the right shade to not wash me completely out.)

I’m even more boring when it comes to accessories. I have two pairs of virtually indentical black loafers, and a pair of blue. Combined, they cover all of the above outfit combinations. I carry a black leather purse until it wears out and then get a replacement. Black leather jacket unless it’s way below freezing. I always wear my wedding band (plain, titanium), and platinum and sapphire butterfly necklace that my husband gave me.

Of course, for special events, parties, client meetings, etc., I do have some other stuff - I just don’t bother for the day to day.

12

It’s been my expereince that most people remember first what top you wore, then bottoms, then shoes. (Unless one of them is memorable for whatever reason, like a bright pattern or something that you normally don’t wear. For example, people will notice and comment when I wear heeled boots, since that is something I don’t normally wear: and those boots will eclpise their memories about what else I was wearing at the time.) So they’ll be more likely to notice if I wear a shirt twice in a row as opposed to wearing the same jeans twice in a row.

Therefore, I’ll try to cycle through my shirts in such a way to avoid repitition for as long as possible but I have no qualms about wearing the same slacks twice (or more!) in a row, so long as they’re still clean. Shoes have only the barest attention paid to: I’ll keep them from clashing with the outfit, but else I normally don’t go out of my way to wear different shoes.

(I’m female, for basis of comparison.)

<< There is no spoon. >>

13

I’m a female college student, and I think I lack the clothing care gene. I attempt to not wear the same shirt to class twice in the same week (I only have class twice a week, so that’s generally not hard), but that’s it. A exceedingly large percentage of my wardrobe is old work tshirts, and shirts that they give you for doing various athletic events.

I went to the mall last week (first time in a year) and bought another shirt. A big occasion. I have two pairs of jeans that I switch between, depending on what’s clean. For big occasions, I can dig out a pair of pants I graduated in (2 years ago) or a skirt I bought for a formal party (3 years ago). I can look at clothes, and figure out what would be stylish, and how to pair things to look good, but in general I just really don’t care. And I have other things I would much rather spend my dollars on than clothing.

14

I’m with you, Risha. I do well if I can avoid wearing the same things twice in one week.

I’ve got about 5-6 pairs of slacks and 4-5 skirts I rotate through, along with 4 suits for special occaisions. I have about a gazillion different tops though and it seems like I can never find one that looks right with the bottoms. grawr. I make things easy though by only buying clothes in black/brown/grey/beige. Real exciting, I know. woo.

15

Like Risha and XJETGIRLX I seem to lack the clothes gene. I have the same 7 or so pairs of pants and a one or two dresses and skirts (which I wear pre-emptively so the boss can’t complain that I don’t look “professional”). A lot depends on what’s clean, but since it’s mostly khaki/navy/black most of my shirts just change up. I don’t particularly like shopping for clothes, so if I find something comfortable, I’ll buy several in different colours.

StG

16

I’m a male college student and I’m halfway between hybrid_dogfish and the gay g… I mean Harmonix. I can happily wear the same jeans or khakis or shorts for three straight days, but I’ll only rewear a shirt two days in a row if I only wore it for a couple hours the first day.

90% of the time I wear jeans, sandals, and buttondowns with the sleeves rolled up, so coordinating my wardrobe is hardly an issue. I do ensure my belt and shoes match, though.

17

Maybe the problem is my walk-in closet… Clothes expand to fill the space available.

I have dozens of shoes, sweaters, tops, skirts, pants, jeans, maybe a dozen dresses… near 100 pairs of socks. I won’t even get into my bras and panties etc. The funny thing is I don’t even have to put on clothes to go to work!!! Plus when I get all dressed up, one of my little ones invariably mucks me up with peanut butter, dirt or marker pen.

I do love clothes and I live by the ‘who’s seen it rule’ too.

For those of your who keep a simple wardrobe: sometimes I’m envious, for instance when the bottoms that go with several tops become worn and I have nothing else to wear them with. Or when I get tired of pumpkin or mustard or periwinkle or whatever fashion colour was in at the time. More power too you.

However, I have a friend who often buys two of the exact same style of sweater or top in different colours. Bad move. Totally breaks the ‘who’s seen it’ rule. I know her wardrobe off by heart. While I’m certain she’s just not into clothes, I think part of the problem is body image. She used to be very tiny and slim until she developed a thyroid condition. In a way I think she’s still hoping to return to her old size. She skimps on the wardrobe telling herself that her added weight is a temporary condition. It appears to be an extended temporary condition. In my opinion she should dress for who she is now, not who she was.

18

Hmm, let’s see what’s in my wardrobe:

A few pairs of jeans, mostly blue, mostly regular style but a few with carpenter pockets. A couple of baggy cords also, in varying shades of brown. I tend to wear the same pants for a couple days at a time.

One pair of dark red boots that I wear 95% of the time. One pair of sneakers I got for my new kali (stick fighting) class. One brown and one black pair of leather dress shoes. One pair of super shiny black leather shoes I wore at my wedding, and to other people’s weddings. One pair of leather sandals for bumming around, and one nylon and rubber pair for going rafting in.

An arbitrarily large number of T-shirts. I can wear a different one every day for longer than the age of the known universe.

A similar number of white athletic socks, in slightly different styles that I have to carefully match or my feet feel weird. A few dress socks, mostly plain colors and a few argyle.

Boxers of various shades, all loud. If I stand still you can hear them.

Miscellaneous outerwear.

So I guess I’m a typical guy, except I can cook better in the kitchen than on the grill. Chicken thighs give me lots of trouble.

19

I used to go by the old “who seen it” rule, but I’ve been losing a lot of weight lately (woohoo) so old rules/clothes no longer apply…

Right now I have a dressy/sporty clothes dichotomy going on. Usually I’m more casual on M-W-F and a little dressier on T-TH… I’m a student, so I see different people on different days. Plus, it’s easier to categorize casual/dressy and remember what I’ve worn from both groups. (It’s a little bizarre b/c the people in my MWF classes think I’m laid back and my T-TH classmates treat me as if I’m more conservative. It’s funny, actually.)

But I’m holding off buying more clothing until I know my weight is going to stop dropping. So right now I have 5 pairs of decent-fitting pants, a couple sweaters, a few shirts. I’m going to have to break the back for summer stuff…

20

Love this thread! Female here…

I remember when I started college I tried to go as long as I could without wearing the same thing twice. I don’t remember how long, but it was a loooong time before I repeated anything (except probably undergarments). I was very image-conscious.

Now, I guess I’m an old fart because I don’t care very much. I try to take good care of my clothes. I’m always seeing different people every day, so if I’m not going to be seeing the same people today that I saw yesterday, I purposefully wear the same outfit I wore the previous day (unless it stinks or something), except for panties and socks. It’s just easier that way! Otherwise, I’ll wear the same item (probably mix- and matched) once or twice a week on non-consecutive days. I used to do a lot of travel in my previous job, and no way am I going to bring 5 pairs of pants for 5 days!

I learned the wonderful 2nd-day-wear technique from the president of my company, a man. A woman at the office criticized him for wearing the same shirt two days in a row, and I thought, eureka!

Plus, I’m very cheap=small wardrobe.