As time goes by, we all outgrow clothing. This could mean regretting a fleeting trend, entering a new phase of your life or, you know, that the offending garment simply doesn’t physically fit you anymore – we’re not here to judge. To Kondo or not to Kondo, that is the question. Or rather an interpretation of the actual query sent into us this week by one reader.

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_How do you let go of a piece of clothing that’s really great, that you love, but never wear anymore? _

From @adailyrebellion, via Instagram

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I have a confession. I should have owned up to my editor when I said yes to answering this week’s very of-the-moment question: I’m perhaps the least qualified to lend advice. I hoard clothes, justifying to myself that there will be a situation some way down the line that will call for these forgotten friends, called to action when they least expect it. There’s that beautiful Burberry shirt that I found, totally by accident, in a charity shop, in the midst of a break-up, that was a small nugget of cheer in a miserable week. It’s love-worn now, and the chances of it fitting are as slim as I was back then. There’s the smoking jacket I got as a gift, which isn’t my style currently, but it’s extremely handsome and I imagine myself in a drawing room one day down the line, swapping bon mots with a brandy in hand.

So, yes, I understand a certain romantic attachment to clothes that makes it hard to close the door on them. Your query comes at a time when two opposing zeitgeisty forces are telling us how to dress. One is the ruthless Ms Marie Kondo approach: ship out anything that doesn’t bring you joy; streamline, minimise and feel less cluttered. It’s an appealing prospect, and they’re wise tenets to live by, even if they are a more Instagram hashtag-happy update on the old adage by Mr William Morris that you should never have anything in your home that isn’t beautiful or useful.

The opposite to this is the 2020 focus on not throwing things out, but instead revisiting and repurposing our old clothes rather than adding to fashion’s massive waste problem. Ms Kondo might want you to cull, but there’s a big argument for “keep” right now. Mr Patrick Grant, the creative director of historic British tailoring house E Tautz, recently told me upon revealing his new collection that uses 50 per cent recycled materials from fabric supplier Astco: “I’ve learned to darn again, and we need to focus on fixing our clothes instead of buying new ones. I have things that are old and worn, but I think that adds a certain lovely patina to them and I love wearing them because it adds a kind of spirit.” Sounds a whole lot nicer than soulless consumerism, doesn’t it?

The question doesn’t mention why you don’t wear this piece anymore, even though you love it. Is it really ready for retirement? Even if it’s something from, say, your student days and you’re a working professional now, can it be smartened up with a neutral suit or laid-back basics? A trippy shirt that’s a blast from your Glasto past could look like something current from Dries Van Noten – the Belgian designer combined psychedelic patterns with sharp tailoring in his last winter collection – with a minimalist black suit.

If it’s a handsome coat that’s wearing a bit, it’s worth freshening it up via a restoration service – a stained, tattered but otherwise perfectly fine Mackintosh I dug out of retirement has had a new lease of life thanks to such a treatment. It definitely has an aged look now, but I still rather enjoy it – I just make sure that I wear it dressed down with jeans and sneakers instead of a smart suit. This way, it fits in easily as opposed to looking like the weak member of the team letting the formal side down.

Finally, if it really is time to part ways with your old faithful, do so in a way that continues its shelf life. It’ll give you comfort to know that someone else is getting as much enjoyment out of it as you once did. Donate to charity, or if it’s tailoring and you have such an initiative near you, look at organisations that provide suits for job interview applicants who can’t afford to dress smartly themselves – suitedbootedcentre.org.uk and suitedforsuccess.co.uk are two great British-based charities. Once you’ve donated it, make sure you replace the item with something that will give you equal amounts of pleasure and longevity, using great fabrics built to last, like a classic suit or great coat in traditional wools.