by 
When choosing her outfit for this year’s National Television Awards, Cat Deeley combined sentimentality and environmental awareness.
The co-host of ITV’s This morning wore a vintage Saint Laurent bodycon dress, the red twin of the dress she wore to her 2012 wedding reception.
“I saw it on an Instagram page and it’s almost like wearing a nightgown,” she said The Telegraph before the ceremony on Wednesday evening. “The dress does all the work.
“I knew it would work because I had already worn it at my wedding… it’s done and finished, I will love it forever.” This morning Although he didn’t come home with an award, Deeley’s performance was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the evening.
Although she often wears high street and designer pieces on TV, Deeley still loves browsing second hand shops and finding that perfect vintage diamond in the rough to add to her growing second hand collection.
The presenter usually finds the best vintage items by shopping locally rather than online, and she stressed that this happens when she is not looking for something specific.
“It’s difficult when you’re looking for something, and I think that’s the problem a lot of people have,” Deeley explained.
“When you’re looking for something, you very rarely find it. My approach is always this: go out, browse around, see what treasures you can find, and when you see something, take it… If all the stars align and luck is on your side, you’ll find something absolutely exquisite.”
This year, the presenter is at the forefront of Oxfam’s Second Hand September campaign, which has been encouraging people to buy second-hand clothes since 2019 to help reduce the environmental impact of the fashion industry.
Deeley said she had recently had her eyes “opened” to the extent of the carbon footprint of the fashion industry, particularly fast fashion.
“Because I have my own style, I have the attitude of either buying things that I keep and reuse… or I find something secondhand, something vintage and secondhand,” she said.
“Sometimes I buy it and think, ‘Okay, this is from the 1920s, so I don’t know if I can wear it twice, it’s tied to a hope and a prayer.'”
One of her favourite items in her wardrobe is a decades-old pair of River Island ballet flats that probably couldn’t have cost more than £20.
“I’m going to keep them forever, they weren’t a lot of money but I’m going to keep them. Just because I don’t pay a lot for something doesn’t mean I’m not going to keep it, it doesn’t matter if I like it or not,” she insisted.
The former star of the successful US talent show So you think you can dance revealed that her love of shopping at thrift stores stems from visiting antique fairs with her mother during her childhood.
“We always liked to have a little pottery around and in it we had everything from old perfume bottles, jewelry to plates, cups and pictures. I loved it as a little girl,” she said.
Deeley also revealed that she will select some used items to wear This morning and insisted that no clothes would be worn that would only be worn once and thrown in the trash after the show.
“It’s definitely not disposable,” she said, adding, “I only choose pieces that I love.”
This attitude to fashion “transcends all seasons,” explained Deeley, and at 47, the star finally knows “what suits me and what is good for my body.”
Her style has become more about “feeling comfortable in her own skin” than following the latest trend.
“It’s like what you wear for a day is your armor that you put on to face the day,” she said.
The presenter also joked that she could “never buy shoes” because of her large feet, lamenting: “I can never buy shoes because my feet are so big! I’m always jealous of my friends with small feet because I can never buy shoes.”
More recently, Deeley’s love of secondhand shopping has evolved into being more environmentally conscious when choosing her clothes.
“I think we’ve all become a lot more environmentally conscious, like everyone else… it’s a slow process, but I feel like we’re slowly educating ourselves. I’ve just learned it as I go along,” she said.
“We no longer operate in these individual bubbles. We are much more aware of the world around us and doing the right thing and how we impact the world around us for future generations.”
A new analysis by Oxfam has found that buying just one pair of jeans and a T-shirt second-hand instead of new could save the equivalent of 20,000 standard bottles of water.
Lorna Fallon, the charity’s retail director, said: “It’s clear from these statistics that we are drowning in fashion. With the world running out of fresh water due to climate change, the water-intensive costs of clothing production could be significantly reduced if we replenished our wardrobes with second-hand purchases.
“By putting our clothes back into circulation – buying second-hand, wearing them and donating them – we can help reduce the demand for new clothes.”
Deeley said: “I love anything from a car boot sale to Oxfam to Christie’s – I love the whole range of second hand items.
“You just never know. That’s the thrill of the hunt.”
To join Oxfam’s Second Hand September campaign or to find out more, please visit: https://www.oxfam.org.uk/get-involved/second-hand-september/
