How I Learned to Love Refashioning My Clothes Like Princess Anne
A few months ago when Princess Anne stepped out for an official engagement wearing a purple suede jacket onced owned by her late mother, Queen Elizabeth, I started to think about how many of my own favorite pieces once beloved to my grandmas and my family line beyond that. Princess Anne isn't just one of the hardest working members of the royal family, she is also probably the one who makes her clothing work the hardest. Sure, there are plenty of royals who repeat looks (as they should), but there's no one quite like Princess Anne setting the standard of keeping outfits in rotation for decades. She really is proof that a good tailor makes all the difference (and can keep your clothing wearable for years longer than you might think).
This of course reflects an old school approach to personal style, when trend cycles weren't rounding out in a matter of weeks and fast fashion wasn't quite as quick. Princess Anne has has quite literally walked the walk of shopping her closet for decades. Take, for example, all the times she has been photographed wearing her blue fur-lined coat (pictured above). She was originally spotted in the piece in 1976, and often wears it to Christmas at Sandringham, almost always accessorized the same—proof that sometimes you can let a good outfit be good, repeating ad infinitum. Another favorite look of Anne's is a pink satin gown, first worn publicly in 1984, but she has since modified to have different sleeves.
It was only in the last few years that I started to be more intentional about my own purchases, with an attitude akin to Anne's in mind. It would seem that the quote by William Morris, "Have nothing in your house that you do not know to be useful or believe to be useful," has become my style mantra. Just as Princess Anne re-purposed her mother's suede jacket, I've been wearing or finding ways to update pieces that I have inherited from my family in one way or another.
For example, for my Grandma Rosie's impressive scarf collection has found a new life as I'm tying them on my bags, or wearing them as tops during the summer (which I assure you she would hate), and I'm even considering having two of them framed to use as artwork in my room. I've also started to wear them as scarves! Let me tell you, the snooziest outfit imaginable can be made fresh by cleverly tying a scarf around your neck in a variety of ways. Honestly, the whole premise has helped evolve my taste to the next level.
By contrast, if I can't find a way to wear pieces that been handed down to me, instead of letting them languish in my closet, I've started to intentionally re-fashion my heirlooms. Last fall, I had my jeweler take a necklace that my grandmother gave to me as a child and make it into a pinky ring. And just like that, a piece that was gathering dust in my jewelry box because I don't wear necklaces everyday, was pulled of retirement. I wear my little emerald teardrop ring right next to her mother's carnelian cabochon, which is still in its original setting. The Princess of Wales was rumored to have done some similar a few years back with her late mother in law's famed Saudi suite, and I really do think that this is a wonderful way to both carry the stories of those who wore them prior, but also meld tradition with modernity.
I've also made a point to increase the lease on the life of some pieces I've nicked from my mom over the years, whether that means wearing her watch with a different band, or taking a beautiful, but moth-eaten, double-ply cashmere sweater to Eva Joan, my very favorite place for repairs and modifications in NYC, to embroider daisies over the holes. Better than mended, that piece now feels whimsical, fresh and more me. Down the line, when it gets a little bit colder in the fall, I intend to finally give a gorgeous (though dated) black and red wool coat from back when my grandparents lived in Moscow in the late '50s, a bit of a 21st century touch.
Something to note about incorporating vintage pieces into your wardrobe a la the royals, is that it is a great way to establish a signature style. In a world of Amazon-primed taste and trends with hard expiration dates, I have hand-me-down pieces that no one else will be able to exactly copy. And this keeps the people and stories who shaped me along for the ride, but also serves as a reminder of my own unique story, too.
This mentality, by the way, doesn't just apply to pieces you can wear. I have my great-grandmother's velvet chair in my apartment, complete with faded century-old velvet and cigarette holes that allegedly got there from laughing too hard at I Love Lucy (in spite of the fact that she didn't speak a lick of English.) I'm already dreaming of ways I can give this lovely little chair an update that preserves the evidence of who owned it before me. I love this ritual so much, I'd almost call it a hobby. If that isn't practical style as Princess Anne showed us how, I don't know what is.
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