Fashion Investments or Fashion Recycling?

[Balenciaga 08]

What are fashion investments? A trench coat..blah, blah blah. Yes, these are items that have withstood the test of time but even Vogue was recently accused of being predictable and boring.

We're talking about those special pieces that add that "that's what I'm talking 'bout" to your wardrobe.

Hint... Did you buy Pradas lipstick skirt of 2000? The one featured on Charlotte in Sex and the City? Yeah! Poor you, but not so fast. Miuccia Prada has just re-released the print for 2009.
Question #2- did you buy the Louis Vuitton graffiti bags? Yep, re-released. If you didn't throw away either one of the above items, you can smirk and act like you knew all along that they would return.

Did you buy the bowling bag? Another classic! so does this mean you should buy the new Prada "Trembling blossoms"? Whew! this is super hard work, I tell ya!

Alber Ebaz 2003 tulle necklaces... they are back, completely recycled by the designer.

How to predict a long-laster? How should we know? All previous pleated Armani pants are waiting for Mr. Armani himself to decide if we all need to add on a few pounds at the belly. Here's fool proof shopping (well, almost fool proof).

Buy what you absulutely fell in love with. This way if it sits in your wardrobe for ever, you will still love it. Kind of like a pet.

Buy Rick Owens, Halston, Ann Demeulemeester, Dries Van Noten, Marni and you too can look tres smug. Anything these designers make never seems to fall out of favour.

Don't buy anything that is a MUST-HAVE for this season! They are not called must-haves for fun. They are must-have today, cause you might not want tommorrow!.

Usually anything that was big for Fall of the previous year works street wise the following fall e.g a futuristic Balenciaga dress, for instance, or a caped jacket from Rick Owens. Pieces like Haider Ackermann's tough leather jacket or Fendi's funnel-collared furs command confidence and typically dictate that they will return.

Reconsider stuff that looks moderately eccentric on the runway, perhaps some of the Superhero stuff by . They will look normal in a few years. Wait till they are marked down seriously and if you want to consider them as a purchase, only then. You might consider yourself a smart fashionista in a few years.

All these collections, whose elements seemed a bit "out there" or eccentric when they were first shown, have become "normal" over time. That's because they've been so copied, of course. The moral, though, is that only the originals have survived to look great (their cost forgotten). It's the cheap copies that have by now literally turned out to be a crying waste.