The idea of a “timeless” wardrobe is one of fashion’s longest-running myths. A well-cut blazer, a little black dress, a pair of leather loafers—these are the supposed building blocks of personal style that will carry you through every era, immune to shifting trends.
But if that were true, why does the definition of “timeless” seem to change every decade? Even the concept of “quiet luxury”—once shorthand for discreet wealth—has morphed into a full-blown trend, as likely to be found in an influencer’s “old money aesthetic” TikTok as it is in an actual generational heir’s closet.
Still, there’s a reason the industry keeps circling back to minimalism and longevity. After years of ultra-fast fashion and microtrends with a two-week shelf life, people are exhausted. Nobody wants to feel like they’re chasing an impossible cycle, which is part of the reason why the capsule wardrobe has gone from a niche concept to a mainstream aspiration. “Investment dressing” is the new fashion gospel. Even brands that once thrived on trend cycles are now trying to convince shoppers that this time, their designs will last forever.
But if true timelessness is possible it’s not because of a specific silhouette or color palette—it’s because of intention. The brands that get it right are doing more than just selling restraint as an aesthetic, designing for real longevity through precise tailoring, considered fabric choices, and silhouettes that work beyond the confines of a single season. Safiyaa, the demi-luxury brand founded by Daniela Karnuts, is one of those brands operating in a space that values construction over gimmicks, quality over churn. The question isn’t whether timeless fashion exists—it’s whether the industry will let it be more than a marketing tactic.
Capsule Wardrobes, Minimalism, and the Reinvention of Luxury
A decade ago, capsule wardrobes were the stuff of niche fashion blogs and Marie Kondo acolytes—an aspirational but somewhat extreme approach to dressing that meant paring your closet down to a set number of pieces. Now, they’ve gone mainstream. Minimalism has become not just a personal style choice but a status symbol, repackaged as “quiet luxury” or the “old money aesthetic,” with an emphasis on neutrals, tailoring, and the kind of effortless polish that suggests generational wealth. The irony, of course, is that what we consider timeless—camel coats, wide-leg trousers, crisp white shirts—still follows a trend cycle. In 2013, the capsule wardrobe was about Marie Kondo-ing your life; in 2024, it’s about dressing like Gwyneth Paltrow’s courtroom wardrobe.
Safiyaa is one of the rare brands that actually understands this shift rather than just repackaging minimalism for the algorithm. Its silhouettes are precise, its materials intentional, and its ethos rooted in craftsmanship, not marketing spin. Plenty of labels have latched onto the language of investment dressing, but Daniela Karnuts has made sure that Safiyaa delivers on it. Instead of treating quiet luxury as an aesthetic, it refines and modernizes classic design principles, designing with longevity in mind rather than chasing a viral moment.
But Karnuts’ vision is an exception. Overconsumption and the breakneck speed of fast fashion have made people hyper-aware of their shopping habits, forcing luxury brands to reframe themselves. Trading the logos of the 2010s for subtler, more refined design codes is one approach, but it doesn’t automatically translate to longevity. “Investment dressing” has become the industry’s new favorite phrase, but not every brand can pull it off. A beige color palette isn’t a guarantee of timelessness, and true luxury isn’t about paring things back until they feel sterile—it’s about knowing what deserves to be there in the first place.
Sustainability and the Business of Permanence
Fashion—and practically every other industry—loves to talk about sustainability these days, but the industry’s dirty secret is that true sustainability is about making clothes that don’t need to be replaced. More than just using organic cotton or recycled polyester, the most sustainable garment is the one you keep wearing, and yet most brands are still operating under a model of planned obsolescence where even “investment pieces” are subtly designed to feel outdated within a few years.
Safiyaa, however, does something almost unheard of in modern fashion: it only makes what people actually buy. Instead of churning out inventory and hoping it sells, the brand operates on a made-to-order model, meaning every piece is cut, sewn, and finished only when a customer places an order. No overproduction, no warehouses full of unsold stock, no seasonal leftovers dumped into landfills. It’s a surprisingly simple fix for one of fashion’s biggest problems, which makes you wonder why more brands don’t do it. (Spoiler: because selling the idea of sustainability is more profitable than changing the system.)
Also Daniela has also seen to it that Safiyaa makes clothes the old-school way—each piece is constructed by a single artisan in the brand’s London atelier, using tailoring principles borrowed from Savile Row. This isn’t fashion that exists to be content; it’s fashion that exists to be worn. And not just for a season, but for years. While other brands build planned obsolescence into their designs—flimsy fabrics, trendy cuts, pieces that somehow feel outdated six months later—Safiyaa rejects the idea that newness is the only thing worth buying.
That’s the thing about timeless fashion: it’s not about sticking to a strict uniform of neutrals or investing in a little black dress just because some fashion editor says it’s a wardrobe essential. It’s about buying pieces that make sense beyond a single moment, ones that can move through different phases of your life without feeling like artifacts from a past self. A lot of brands claim to be designing for that. At Safiyaa, Daniela Karnuts actually does.
