The fashion remainers: Meet the stars who have defiantly stuck to one successful look for decades

From her swishy gold-striped mane to her favorite color palette of neutrals that showcase her impressive tan, actress Jennifer Aniston’s look is unchanging.

After following the same style rules for over 25 years, she takes the ‘If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it’ approach to personal style quite literally.

Nigella Lawson is another who found her “look” decades ago and stuck with it: Vivienne Westwood hourglass dresses for the camera and for the red carpet, and her favorite black jeans and cashmere knitwear off-duty.

Perhaps the most staunch advocate of unchanging style, however, is Elizabeth Hurley, with her uniform of plunging necklines, glossy lips and tousled hair, while tight white jeans with heels were her favorite casual attire.

Like Jen, Liz’s enviable figure seems untouched by time, still as nimble in her own little bikinis as when she stormed the stage in that safety pin dress in 1994 on Hugh Grant’s arm for the premiere of Four Weddings And A Funeral in that dress with safety pin .

It’s easy to spot at first. Isn’t it just boring to essentially wear the same clothes and wear the same haircut year after year? And why are the women who do that so afraid of change? Is it a refusal to acknowledge the passing of time?

But even full-on “fashion” folk — Vogue Editor Anna Wintour and models Cindy Crawford, Elle Macpherson, and Kate Moss — tend to favor the same basic silhouette over the years, with minor adjustments to the edges as the seasons change. come and go.

It begs the question: if even these pioneers find a style and perpetuate it, should we commit to ever-changing trends? Finally, a recent study claims that many of us give up being “trendy” once we’re 35, feeling overwhelmed by various fads that grace the fashion pages and our social media feeds.

Although my hairdresser long ago persuaded me to stick with a choppy cut, claiming that nothing else would fit my thick, wavy hair, when it came to clothes, I tried not to fall into a rut. Why would you want to stay the same, I thought.

It wasn’t until I finally developed my own signature style that I began to appreciate its wisdom.

I realized that in the past I made haphazard decisions based on the words of distant fashionistas (or thoughtless exes) rather than how fabric and color really worked on my body.

After all, when successful men repeat the same outfit day after day — Steve Jobs’ black turtlenecks and Mark Zuckerberg’s gray T-shirts are the most obvious examples — this is widely seen as a sign of strength, a step up. way to ‘being’ iconic’.

In contrast, many women I know try to dress for several roles at once. A man in a suit is simply ‘a man’, but women should be endless combinations of mother, boss, wife, girlfriend, project manager and, if it’s okay with her, flirt. When we get dressed, it’s less of a question of ‘What should I wear today?’ then ‘Who should I be today?’ It is tiring.

And let’s not forget the cunning marketing campaigns and the relentless social media influencers who make their living pushing us towards unrealistic and often inappropriate clothing and accessories.

Like many women, I also treated shopping as an emotional outlet, buying new clothes on bad days, good days and everything in between. I’d buy a skirt because I saw someone whose physique didn’t look like mine, looked good, or a dress I saw on an actress on a TV show I liked.

It wasn’t until I read Lauren Bravo’s excellent book, How To Break Up With Fast Fashion, that I realized I wasn’t the only one who so often sought the thrill of buying something new, rather than the item itself.

I tried to treat myself, seduce, flatter, comfort myself with my purchases, and what they looked like was last on the priority list.

I ended up being well over 40 when I finally tried to find my own style uniform by stripping my wardrobe of the things that just don’t work for me (for example, Cate Blanchett-esque jewel-toned suits and floral dresses).

After relentlessly unloading most of my wardrobe, I then had to find what looked good while accepting that my body, like most, has changed over time. Age, childbirth and peri-menopause leave their mark on us mortals in a way that they apparently don’t have on A-listers.

Hours of painful, sweaty, twisted strides followed. But it finally paid off, and I now have a wardrobe where I look and feel good.

In doing so, I discovered something that many women have for me; making the choice not to be a devoted follower of fashion is empowering.

Knowing that the clothes on your back fit you will increase your confidence and sense of well-being. It’s also one less decision to make. With research suggesting we are called to make 35,000 choices a day, it’s no wonder psychologists have identified “decision fatigue” as a modern-day problem.

Having a wardrobe set in stone like this eliminates choice — and stress.

As behavioral psychologist Professor Carolyn Mair, author of The Psychology of Fashion, puts it: ‘Sticking to a signature style can open up cognitive space for [what the wearer considers to be] more urgent issues.

“When we feel psychologically comfortable in our clothes, we tend to appear more confident and potentially more expressive. As a result, we may get better responses from those we interact with.’

So perhaps the sartorial fortitude that Liz and Jen showed off wasn’t due to a lack of imagination (or denial about their age) after all, but a sign of robust confidence. A powerful marker for knowing who you are, what you stand for, what works for you – and a desire to think less about clothes and more about what’s important.