Little black dress, move over; other gowns deserve reprise

Keira Knightley may have been branded "thrifty" by sneering fashionistas for making her Chanel haute couture wedding dress a "Little Black Dress" equivalent for a third public appearance. But by breaking the pricy, one-off Hollywood mold, the actress lived up to designer Coco Chanel’s guiding principles.

“In order to be irreplaceable, one must always be different.”  Ms. Chanel once said.

To be “different” does not necessarily mean wearing something different at every public appearance, but being different, standing out by celebrating both a gorgeous, versatile design and her new marriage. It’s a classic example of how the fashion mavens send us mixed messages of “Wear a little black dress for any occasion” and “Never wear the same thing twice.”

This also reminds me of all the kids who ever wore a Buzz Lightyear costume or a princess dress 24-seven until the next feel-good fashion came into their lives. Hollywood has an enormous impact on our kids from the time they are small and want to be the characters in their favorite films right up through adulthood when we want to be the actors who played them.

The examples set by celebrities resonate through our families every day via images of stars dictating of what “trendy” and “happy” look like.

When a star steps out, the public has come to expect them to be going to monstrous expense and to be clad in something different every single time.

I suspect this comes from the fashion media who seem to take it as a personal slight when someone wears a repeat because they are left with nothing to do but snipe about being "thrifty” as if it were on a par with war crimes.

“Keira Knightley Wears Her Chanel Haute Couture Wedding Dress on the Red Carpet for the Second Time!” howled the headline on E! News about the dress worn to the Serious Fun gala in London on Tuesday, Dec. 3.

Apparently, fashion is more serious than fun to those reporting on it exclusively.

Fashion reporters need to step off the red carpet, sit down, and re-read some of the things Ms. Chanel said in her lifetime.

“Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening,” Chanel said.

When I saw the story about Ms. Knightley I called my mom in New Jersey because in our family, fashion news is always phone-call-worthy on a par with birth, marriage, and death.

My mother is a retired New York fashion designer who told me bedtime stories about her visits to the Paris collections in the ‘50s.

Mom visited the original Chanel shop in Paris right after the collections were shown there in 1953, 1955, and other years while Ms. Chanel was still living.

I have always kidded Mom about her almost familial attachment to the “French navy wool Bouclé ( a kind of novelty yarn)” Chanel suit with the gold Chanel buttons and the gold chain fixed to the silk lining of the skirt to weigh down the hem.

Mom bought the suit, which was a sample, for $250 and tells me it is worth close to $5,000 today.

“I still wear it every chance I get,” Mom told me when we were discussing Knightley’s repeat of her own dress. “It’s a classic and it reminds me of Paris.”

There it is. The truth about fashion is that it takes both design and emotional attachment to create a classic look that never gets old.

My mother is 83, but when she puts on that suit she is 25 again in Paris.

“The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud.” Ms. Chanel said. From her lips to Hollywood’s ears.

I think we should teach our kids to follow Ms. Knightley’s fashion-forward trend toward wearing what we love as often as we like.