Hopelessly devoted to fashion

Isaac Hindin Miller, left, sports his beige trousers at last month's Air NZ Fashion Week Designer announcements, with Huia Ngapo. Photo / Norrie Montgomery

Monday: black. Tuesday: black and black. Wednesday: black on black. Thursday: black again. Friday: you guessed it, black. For some this may sound something a little bit like sartorial hell, wearing the same thing day after day, week in, week out. But for others, it's is a way of life - and they like it that way.

It may not be a penchant for wearing only black of course - perhaps they wear only 1950s dresses or beige pants or solid blocks of colour. Maybe floral prints are the constant throughout their wardrobe, or maybe they'll only ever wear Karen Walker.

Whatever the ensemble of choice, these are people who have defined and developed their sense of style so well that they wear a variation of the same thing every day.

I'm fascinated by these people, so strict and loyal to a specific style that they wouldn't dare being seen to be all over the place.

Tatum Savage is often, if not always, seen in head-to-toe black - because she loves it and also because of a strict workplace uniform policy.

As the New Zealand marketing manager for M.A.C, Savage must follow the M.A.C code and wear "professional black" at all times.

The same goes for all those who work for the cult makeup brand: shoes must be black, no bright-coloured jewellery is allowed and makeup must be meticulously applied at all times.

"Anything goes as long as it's black and fashionable. They can express themselves as much as they want. They can wear a tutu ... as long as it's black," says Savage, who says she wears the dark hue even on her days off.

"It becomes ingrained in your personality; it's a weird thing. M.A.C. is a weird thing, you end up living it, breathing it. It becomes a part of you."

And though Savage acknowledges the policy may sound strict, it's not as totalitarian as it may sound.

"I've always worn black. As much as it is 'you must wear black', it's actually really liberating. I don't ever feel in the morning 'oh God, what am I going to wear?' ... I always feel excited about what I'm going to wear that day." She always looks good too - pulled together and fashionable.

"[Wearing black] unifies you. We might go out for head office team meetings and people look up and they're a bit like 'woah'; it's like a flock. We love it. When you're in a group, it's quite a bold statement."

Fashion blogger Isaac Hindin-Miller is another fashionable Aucklander with a very defined sense of style - and a love for sweaters and a pair of beige Little Brother pants.

"I build absolutely everything around these pants," says Hindin-Miller, who first bought them four years ago but only began wearing them often this year.

"Probably two times a week I'll wear different pants and go to walk out the door and just be like 'nah, I've got to put my beige pants back on'."

This fascination with specific garments is not a new thing - his sartorial obsessions have evolved from a pair of black Ksubi jeans teamed with something maroon to a black suit jacket to bowties to sweaters.

He's often seen in his maroon Comme Play sweater, but owns several from the likes of Lacoste and Kate Sylvester.

"I guess in a way what I wear was a reaction to the grunge thing that everyone was doing, because I'm really not into that style. I wanted to wear stuff that was really clean and really tailored, preppy kind of, and geeky.

"I find something and it suits what I'm wearing so well or I feel like it looks so good that I just can't bring myself to change it. I think 'how could I find something that works as well as this?"'

Hindin-Miller is clearly not alone in thinking this - think of American Psycho's Patrick Bateman's yuppie suits, Karl Lagerfeld's devoted sharp collars and monochrome palette, Arnsdorf designer Jade Sarita Arnott who often wears varying tones of one shade head-to-toe and Alber Elbaz in his ubiquitous dinner jacket, bowtie and glasses.

The Lanvin designer once told The Guardian, "I have things I have worn again and again, but over the years I alter them, I make them longer, shorter, I change the armhole, I change the shoulder.

"One of my biggest fears is arriving to the airport and checking in my suitcase because I never know if I will get it back. I wear the same clothes, you see, day and night, winter and summer."

Vogue's style director Alexandra Kotur is another with a sense of strict style. When she's not wearing all black she is, as a recent New York Observer profile described her, almost always in an "impeccably ironed white blouse, dark slacks, flats and no makeup, a thoughtful little smile on her pale face, her coif parted precisely down the middle and neatly pulled back".

And while that may sound just a little bit control-freakish - doesn't Kotur, or any of these people, ever want to break out and wear something a little bit different, a little bit crazy? - there is something to admire and learn from those who have such defined and strict style.

No fashion mistakes, no regret purchases, and, more importantly, no bowing to flash-in-the-pan trends.