This recent example of recycling fashion exhibits how trends of the moment may become trends once more decades down the road.

Fashion is never stagnant. It is difficult to keep up with current trends, as they change from season to season. Just as soon as designers present their spring/summer collections, they have to think about how to be new and revolutionary for the next fall/winter season.

As an employee of a local boutique, I hear on a nearly daily basis from women over 30, “I remember wearing this when I was (insert age here).”

As a child of the ‘80s I have become old enough to recognize trends that were first seen in the late ‘80s and early ‘90s. I do not think that makes me old, but rather cognizant of the fact that over the past 70 or so years, fashion has become recycled.

It was just 20 years ago when Herve Leger designed skin tight “bandage” dresses, a style which has not only resurfaced through the original designer, but also through the likes of Proenza Schouler in recent runway showings.

This recent example of recycling fashion exhibits how trends of the moment may become trends once more decades down the road. I thought of how my mom’s old Frye boots, popularized in the ‘70s, have made a revival, and wondered if I keep them long enough, will they be popular in years to come for my future daughter to wear them? The recycling of fashion has made it possible for multiple generations to wear the same articles of clothing.

The late Nan Kempner, socialite, fashion editor and design consultant, had her clothes auctioned off by Christie’s auction house the first week in October. Perusing through the pages and pages of outfits once owned by the woman who coined the phrase “you can never be too rich or too thin,” the fact is, many of the clothes up for auction seemed anything but outdated.

This woman, who spent much of her life keeping up with fashion, amassed a collection of clothing that is relevant and classic.

I love fashion, and I truly believe in fashion as a form of art. Sometimes, however, I become disheartened with each passing season full of “new silhouettes” and “fresh ideas” when if you look in the closet of one of the most revered women in fashion history, you will see that it has all been done before.

Or maybe that is the beauty of fashion, and trends which were once outdated and stodgy can have life breathed back into them to be made new and exciting. So do not throw out your old clothes when you have stopped wearing them because at some point down the line you will probably be able to wear them once again (only this time they will be vintage).

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