When a woman dresses up for an occasion, the man should become the black velvet pillow for the jewel.
—John Weitz (1923–2002) German-born American Fashion Designer, Novelist, Historian
Good clothes open all doors.
—Thomas Fuller (1608–61) English Cleric, Historian
The beauty of the internal nature cannot be so far concealed by its accidental vesture, but that the spirit of its form shall communicate itself to the very disguise and indicate the shape it hides from the manner in which it is worn. A majestic form and graceful motions will express themselves through the most barbarous and tasteless costume.
—Percy Bysshe Shelley (1792–1822) English Poet, Dramatist, Essayist, Novelist
Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, but not expressed in fancy; rich, but not gaudy, for the apparel oft proclaims the man.
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616) British Playwright
Persons are often misled in regard to their choice of dress by attending to the beauty of colors, rather than selecting such colors as may increase their own beauty.
—William Shenstone (1714–63) British Poet, Landscape Gardener
They may talk of a comet, or a burning mountain, or some such bagatelle; but to me a modest woman, dressed out in all her finery, is the most tremendous object of the whole creation.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
Nothing goes out of fashion sooner than a long dress with a very low neck.
—Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French Fashion Designer
A rich dress adds but little to the beauty of a person; it may possibly create a deference, but that is rather an enemy to love.
—William Shenstone (1714–63) British Poet, Landscape Gardener
For women… bras, panties, bathing suits, and other stereotypical gear are visual reminders of a commercial, idealized feminine image that our real and diverse female bodies can’t possibly fit. Without these visual references, each individual woman’s body demands to be accepted on its own terms. We stop being comparatives. We begin to be unique.
—Gloria Steinem (b.1934) American Feminist, Journalist, Social Activist, Political Activist
As the index tells the contents of the book, and directs to the particular chapter, even so do the outward habit and garments, in man or woman, give us a taste of the spirit, and point to the internal quality of the soul; and there cannot be a more evident and gross manifestation of poor, degenerate, dung-hilly blood and breeding, than a rude, unpolished, disordered, and slovenly outside.
—Philip Massinger (1583–1640) English Playwright
We sacrifice to dress till household joys and comforts cease. Dress drains our cellar dry, and keeps our larder clean; puts out our fires, and introduces hunger, frost, and woe, where peace and hospitality might reign.
—William Cowper (1731–1800) English Anglican Poet, Hymn writer
Every time a woman leaves off something she looks better, but every time a man leaves off something he looks worse.
—Will Rogers (1879–1935) American Actor, Rancher, Humorist
In civilized society external advantages make us more respected.—A man with a good coat on his back meets with a better reception than he who has a bad one.—You may analyze this and say, what is there in it?—But that will avail you nothing, for it is a part of a general system.
—Samuel Johnson (1709–84) British Essayist
An emperor in his night-cap would not meet with half the respect of an emperor with a crown.
—Oliver Goldsmith (1730–74) Irish Novelist, Playwright, Poet
The plainer the dress with greater luster does beauty appear.—Virtue is the greatest ornament, and good sense the best equipage.
—George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax (1633–95) British Statesman, Writer, Politician
The body is the shell of the soul, and dress the husk of that shell; but the husk often tells what the kernel is.
—Anonymous
As you treat your body, so your house, your domestics, your enemies, your friends.—Dress is the table of your contents.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet
Great men are seldom over-scrupulous in the arrangement of their attire.
—Charles Dickens (1812–70) English Novelist
How to dress? When the money is going from you wear anything you like. When the money is coming to you, dress your best.
—Common Proverb
Next to clothes being fine, they should be well made, and worn easily: for a man is only the less genteel for a fine coat, if, in wearing it, he shows a regard for it, and is not as easy in it as if it were a plain one.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
Those who think that in order to dress well it is necessary to dress extravagantly, or grandly, make a great mistake.—Nothing so well becomes true feminine beauty as simplicity.
—George D. Prentice (1802–70) American Journalist, Editor
Out of clothes, out of countenance; out of countenance, out of wit.
—Ben Jonson (1572–1637) English Dramatist, Poet, Actor
Two things in my apparel I will chiefly aim at—commodiousness and decency; more than these is not commendable; yet I hate an effeminate spruceness, as much as a fantastic disorder.—A neglected comeliness is the best ornament.
—Anonymous
There is much to support the view that it is clothes that wear us and not we them; we may make them take the mould of arm or breast, but they would mould our hearts, our brains, our tongues to their liking.
—Virginia Woolf (1882–1941) English Novelist
A loose and easy dress contributes much to give to both sexes those fine proportions of body that are observable in the Grecian statues, and which serve as models to our present artists.
—Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–78) Swiss-born French Philosopher
We act the way we dress. Neglected and untidy clothes reflect a neglected and untidy mind.
—Unknown
Beauty gains little, and homeliness and deformity lose much by gaudy attire.
—Johann Georg Ritter von Zimmermann (1728–1795) Swiss Philosophical Writer, Naturalist, Physician
She wears her clothes as if they were thrown on with a pitch folk.
—Jonathan Swift (1667–1745) Irish Satirist
Judge not a man by his clothes, but by his wife’s clothes.
—Thomas Dewar, 1st Baron Dewar (1864–1930) Scottish Businessperson
It is not every man that can afford to wear a shabby coat; and worldly wisdom dictates the propriety of dressing somewhat beyond one’s means, but of living within them, for every one sees how we dress, but none see how we live unless we choose to let them.
—Charles Caleb Colton (c.1780–1832) English Clergyman, Aphorist
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