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Now there’s a thing: Anna Wintour, editor of American Vogue, running about all over the place in — wait for it: THE SAME DRESS. The style empress, the woman who makes fashion designers quake in their Cuban heels and lays waste to entire collections with a single tilt of her military bob, has been photographed in no fewer than three different locations (Milan, London, Paris) wearing a Caroline Herrera dress festooned with indeterminate blooms.
In global fashion terms, this is momentous, bigger even than David Beckham’s boxer shorts. What adds to the sense of shock(and, in some quarters, outrage), is that she wore the dress in exactly the same way each time. This was not Wintour living out one of her own “Three ways to work the same piece” features; this was Wintour simply putting the same dress on, with the same accessories, three times in the same week. In other words, behaving like any other busy working woman with a limited wardrobe and a finite budget. How do we explain the inexplicable? Here are some suggestions:
- The zip is stuck and she’s too embarrassed to ask for assistance because she’s wearing Spanx.
- She lost her luggage flying into Terminal Five. Her other clothes are in lost luggage in Birmingham, which is not at all the sort of treatment they are accustomed to.
- She is channelling all our pain and working a new credit-crunch chic, in which one is simply sewn into one’s new clothes at the start of each new season and they are worn until they finally disintegrate (or become welded to the flesh).
- She has been the editor of the world’s fashion bible for so long that she has transcended all three-dimensional sartorial constructs and is now operating on a fashion plane so elevated that ordinary mortals cannot see it. It’s a bit like The Matrix, only with more sequins.
- It’s not her, it’s some crazed former fashion assistant who had to collect one batch of dry-cleaning too many. After years of painful plastic surgery, she has remodelled herself and is now setting about destroying Wintour’s reputation. The culmination of her evil plan is to appear in public wearing easy-fit slacks. The real Anna Wintour is languishing in a basement in Brooklyn. Quick, someone alert the fashion police . . .
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Read Fashion Babylon, not for the story because it's tat, but for how the fashion industry works (and you'll never buy anything at full price again), then you'll know Colin Coghlan's comment is correct, but maybe not the exact figures involved-maybe it's more.
ted, london, uk
Hey, it's a great dress. Wish I owned it.
Lili, Chicago, USA
Has life become so meaningless and shallow in the West that a person wearing a dress three times is newsworthy!!!
Tinu Adeshile, Battersea ,
Lucky her-she has found (or been given)the perfect frock for any woman not wishing to show acres of thigh. Long enough and pretty but not cloyingly so. A rare go-anywhere dress in this era of ubiquitous smocks, minis and shorts. Let's hope that this look filters down from Designer Heights soon.
Hilary H, London,
Maybe she just really, really likes it and doesn't care what anyone thinks. Just an idea ...
Angela, Epping, Australia
If she has three, I will take one of the ones she has already worn. Would be perfect for summer!
Amy, Joetsu, Japan
She got the dress for free. If she wears it twice, she earns $250,000. If she wears it three times she earns $500,000. And then she donates it to charity for the tax right-off. Declarable value for the IRS $750,000.
Colin Coghlan, Ramsey, NJ, USA
My Granny had a sofa covered in something like this years ago.
Roge Wheeler, Vallarta, Mexico
Maybe she just likes it!s
Sara Lee, west sussex,
Maybe it is her way to promote recycling. The hottest trend finds its way into fashion...Don't buy new when the old one is in good condition!
Christina, Athens, Greece
surely people are allowed to wear the same outfit more than once....
abbey, london,
"The style empress, the woman who makes fashion designers quake in their Cuban heels and lays waste to entire collections with a single tilt of her military bob - wearing a Caroline Herrera dress festooned with indeterminate blooms.
I thought "The Devil Wore Prada" !!
Rogerk, Briouze, France
People in the fashion industry are having massive coranaries.She has an unlimited clothing budget and a salary of 1.5 million dollars a ....month .Why oh why ? would you wear the same dress 3 times ? There has to be some fascinating explanation....But in the meantime Herrera is SAYING THANKS..
william, Kigali, Rwanda
Only the 'fashion world' could think this matters!
Nigel, Lincoln,
She loves the dress so much she has 3 of them.
jackie miles, warwick, uk
This is a fab frock , maybe she's trying to be sustainable :)
Sarah, London,
I think this is her equivalent to my jeans; throw it on and go. On the bright side, she looks much better in this dress then I look in my jeans. Maybe I should replace my jeans with a great floral dress ?
Faith, Portland, Oregon/USA
Gorgeous dress - I'd wear it lots too!
Barbara, Flackwell Heath, UK
She is going green -- congratulations to her.
The ultimate contribution fashionistas can make is to re-use.
A well made garment should be good for 40 to 50 wearings.
Keith S, Winnipeg, Canada