Style inherited: These are the heirloom garments we treasure from our parents

Five faces from the world of fashion share their family heirloom treasures with Irene O’Brien

Five creatives chat about their family heirloom garments, their inherited style, and their relationship with sustainability today.

As a stylist, I am constantly asked by people what they ‘should’ be wearing. In the same breath as they ask how I am, they start covering their body with their arms cartoon-style, imploring that I don’t look at them, apologising profusely for the state of their outfit. They tell me they desperately need some ‘new bits’ and beg me to divulge once and for all exactly what width their jeans leg needs to be.

I think it’s a hangover from the chatter of ‘must-haves’ and ‘hot-or-not’ lists that we have unwittingly over-consumed since fashion retail’s breakneck seasons began dictating tastes. What we ‘should’ be wearing, of course, is what makes us feel good. What we ‘could’ be wearing, I suggest, to slow down the devastating impact fashion production is having on our planet, is what already hangs in our wardrobe; arguably the most sustainable items available to us are those we already own. Or, perhaps, those that someone we love already owns.