Women thrive on novelty and are easy meat for the commerce of fashion. Men prefer old pipes and torn jackets.
—Anthony Burgess (1917–93) English Novelist, Critic, Composer
Fashion is not something that exists in dresses only. Fashion is in the sky, in the street, fashion has to do with ideas, the way we live, what is happening.
—Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French Fashion Designer
Before we set our hearts too much on anything, let us examine how happy are those who already possess it.
—Francois de La Rochefoucauld (1613–80) French Writer
Nothing is so hideous as an obsolete fashion.
—Stendhal (Marie-Henri Beyle) (1783–1842) French Writer
He alone is a man, who can resist the genius of the age, the tone of fashion, with vigorous simplicity and modest courage.
—Johann Kaspar Lavater (1741–1801) Swiss Theologian, Poet
Of all the passions of mankind, the love of novelty most rules the mind. In search of this, from realm to realm we roam. Our fleets come loaded with every folly home.
—Shelby Foote (1916–2005) American Novelist, Historian
Fashion is gentility running away from vulgarity, and afraid of being overtaken by it.—It is a sign the two things are not far asunder.
—William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English Essayist
Nothing goes out of fashion sooner than a long dress with a very low neck.
—Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French Fashion Designer
An old thing becomes new if you detach it from what usually surrounds it.
—Robert Bresson (1907–99) French Film Director
We worship not the Graces, nor the Parcae, but Fashion. She spins and weaves and cuts with full authority. The head monkey at Paris puts on a traveler’s cap, and all the monkeys in America do the same.
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–62) American Philosopher
The difference between a man of sense and a fop is that the fop values himself upon his dress; and the man of sense laughs at it, at the same time he knows he must not neglect it.
—Earl of Chesterfield (1694–1773) English Statesman, Man of Letters
Be careless in your dress if you must, but keep a tidy soul.
—Mark Twain (1835–1910) American Humorist
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
Dress shabbily, they notice the dress. Dress impeccably, they notice the woman.
—Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French Fashion Designer
Her hat is a creation that will never go out of style; it will just look ridiculous year after year.
—Fred Allen (1894–1956) American Comedian, Radio Personality
A little of everything and nothing thoroughly, after the French fashion.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
Women’s sexy underwear is a minor but significant growth industry of late-twentieth-century Britain in the twilight of capitalism.
—Angela Carter (1940–92) English Novelist
We act the way we dress. Neglected and untidy clothes reflect a neglected and untidy mind.
—Unknown
The new always happens against the overwhelming odds of statistical laws and their probability, which for all practical, everyday purposes amounts to certainty; the new therefore always appears in the guise of a miracle.
—Hannah Arendt (1906–75) German-American Philosopher, Political Theorist
In matters of principle, stand like a rock; in matters of taste, swim with the current.
—Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) American Head of State, Lawyer
Fashion should not be expected to serve in the stead of courage or character.
—Loretta Young (1913–2000) American Actress
So dress and conduct yourself so that people who have been in your company will not recall what you had on.
—John Newton (1725–1807) English Clergyman, Writer
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
Woman’s first duty in life is to her dressmaker. What the second duty is no one has yet discovered.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
Fashion condemns us to many follies; the greatest is to make ourselves its slave.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
I have heard with admiring submission the experience of the lady who declared that the sense of being perfectly well dressed gives a feeling of inward tranquility which religion is powerless to bestow.
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–82) American Philosopher
Fashion is an imposition, a reign on freedom.
—Golda Meir (1898–1978) Israeli Head of State
The difference between style and fashion is quality.
—Giorgio Armani (1934–2025) Italian Fashion Designer
It is the rule of rules, and the general law of all laws, that every person should observe the fashions of the place where he is.
—Michel de Montaigne (1533–92) French Essayist
You couldn’t tell if she was dressed for an opera or an operation.
—Irvin S. Cobb (1876–1944) American Humorist, Writer, Columnist
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