fashion

The only 8 pieces of clothing you'll ever need, according to Vogue's fashion director.

Christine Centenera knows fashion.

She knows what works on her, she knows what works on the most well-known of celebrities (or the most, if Kim Kardashian’s your number one) and she knows, probably, what looks best on you.

As Vogue Australia‘s fashion director – formerly Harper’s Bazaar’s fashion editor – Centenera’s reputation in the fashion industry is an excellent one. In 2011, she served as the styling consultant for Kanye West‘s women’s collection. She has dressed the likes of Cate Blanchett, Naomi Campbell, Cara Delevingne, Gisele Bundchen, Kim Kardashian, Miranda Kerr, Lara Stone, Kate Upton and Gemma Ward.

Kim Kardashian has very publicly sung her praises.

“She really just knows every accessory to tie an outfit together. Sometimes people can be really simple and look great. She has definitely accessorised and just puts different things together that you wouldn’t think of but they just look so good on her,” she said in 2015.

So you’d imagine when someone like Christine Centenara releases a clothing line, the fashion world sits up a little straighter.

Indeed, that’s what they’ve done.

This passing week, Centenera and her partner of 10 years, Australian fashion designer Josh Goot, launched Wardrobe.NYC. The idea behind the brand, the duo told The New York Times, is for it to be like the antidote to the world of fast fashion we currently live in.

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The collection only has eight pieces for men and eight for women, and customers can buy them in packs of four or eight. They are, the duo say, the only pieces you’ll ever need.

Listen: Why Edward Enninful’s appointment at Vogue is so important. Post continues after. 

“What we’re trying to say is, this is less, and it’s really well done, and it will last you a really long time, and it will never go out of style,” Goot told The New York Times.

“These pieces are forever. What’s so great and different about working this way is that it’s not about the excess production, or the excess styles that everyone designs in conventional models. It’s also people’s time.”

So what exactly are the pieces?

  1. An a-line black coat
  2. A well-structured black blazer
  3. A black knit
  4. A blouse
  5. A good white shirt
  6. A black skirt
  7. Black trousers/leggings
  8. A t-shirt

While the pieces aren’t exactly cheap – the eight-piece wardrobe will set you back $4,000 and the four-piece $2,000 – the concept is a good one. We don’t actually need this much stuff, and in fact, most people just wear the same pieces from their wardrobe anyway. Every season, the duo will design a new ‘wardrobe’ together.

So whether it’s the line itself you buy, or the concept behind it that you draw inspiration from, it seems like Centenera and Goot are marking a new era in fashion: One punctuated by appreciating longevity.