In my immigrant family, rewearing clothes is hardly a revolutionary act. Sustainability was never the crux of the issue; my parents were teaching me lessons that I have carried into adulthood. The first, never to be afraid to repeat an outfit and the second, that a life event doesn’t require new clothing for it to be meaningful.

Every couple of months, my older cousin would visit with bags of clothing, and my sister and I would take our pick of them. We could wear these clothes throughout high school and even into college, though they were second-hand. We’d style them differently or wear them in ways our older cousin hadn’t, in turn making them our own. It wasn’t charity, it wasn’t poverty, it was a masterclass in the art of rewearing clothes.

In spite of this, I inevitably fell into the trap of over-consuming fast fashion in recent years. Fast fashion, social media, TV and celebrity culture have greatly impacted our relationship with clothing. Somewhere along my journey, rewearing became a glaring faux pas. Our fast fashion-obsessed brains told us that after maybe three wears – or three washes – an item was dead and we needed something new. It didn’t help that influencers were promoting fast fashion with huge hauls; our favourite celebrities are rarely seen in the same look twice.

What to wear for party season, without buying anything new