Nothing is more obstinate than a fashionable consensus.
—Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) British Head of State
He never chooses an opinion; he just wears whatever happens to be in style.
—Leo Tolstoy (1828–1910) Russian Novelist
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
The custom and fashion of today will be the awkwardness and outrage of tomorrow — so arbitrary are these transient laws.
—Alexandre Dumas pere (1802–1870) French Novelist, Playwright
Where’s the man could ease a heart, like a satin gown?
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American Humorist, Journalist
Dress shabbily, they notice the dress. Dress impeccably, they notice the woman.
—Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French Fashion Designer
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
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 must be forever new, or she becomes insipid.
—James Russell Lowell (1819–91) American Poet, Critic
Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900) Irish Poet, Playwright
It is the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory of fashion that heralds your arrival and prolongs your departure.
—Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French Fashion Designer
It’s not that I don’t want to be a beauty, that I don’t yearn to be dripping with glamour. It’s just that I can’t see how any woman can find time to do to herself all the things that must apparently be done to make herself beautiful and, having once done them, how anyone without the strength of mind of a foreign missionary can keep up such a regime.
—Cornelia Otis Skinner (1899–1979) American Actress, Playwright
He was a tubby little chap who looked as if he had been poured into his clothes and had forgotten to say “when!”
—P. G. Wodehouse (1881–1975) British Novelist, Short-story Writer, Playwright
I hold that gentleman to be the best-dressed whose dress no one observes.
—Anthony Trollope (1815–82) English Novelist
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
Know, first, who you are, and then adorn yourself accordingly.
—Epictetus (55–135) Ancient Greek Philosopher
You know, one had as good be out of the world, as out of the fashion.
—Colley Cibber (1671–1757) English Playwright, Poet, Actor
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
Fashion is architecture: it is a matter of proportions.
—Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French Fashion Designer
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
Fashion is the science of appearances, and it inspires one with the desire to seem rather than to be.
—Edwin Hubbell Chapin (1814–80) American Preacher, Poet
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
Model. Two mobile eyes in a mobile head, itself on a mobile body.
—Robert Bresson (1907–99) French Film Director
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
Nothing goes out of fashion sooner than a long dress with a very low neck.
—Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French Fashion Designer
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
Eat to please thyself, but dress to please others.
—Benjamin Franklin (1706–90) American Political Leader, Inventor, Diplomat
Fashion condemns us to many follies; the greatest is to make ourselves its slave.
—Napoleon I (1769–1821) Emperor of France
My weakness is wearing too much leopard print.
—Jackie Collins (1937–2015) English Romance Novelist
A fashion that does not reach the streets is not a fashion.
—Coco Chanel (1883–1971) French Fashion Designer
Clothes make the poor invisible. America has the best-dressed poverty the world has ever known.
—Michael Harrington (1928–89) American Socialist, Writer, Political Activist, Academic
You couldn’t tell if she was dressed for an opera or an operation.
—Irvin S. Cobb (1876–1944) American Humorist, Short Story Writer, Columnist
In an age when the fashion is to be in love with yourself, confessing to being in love with somebody else is an admission of unfaithfulness to one’s beloved
—Russell Baker (1925–2019) American Journalist, Humorist, Television Host
Brevity is the soul of lingerie.
—Dorothy Parker (1893–1967) American Humorist, Journalist
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 Humorist, Radio Personality
We at Chrysler borrow money the old-fashioned way. We pay it back.
—Lee Iacocca (1924–2019) American Businessperson
People ask how can a Jewish kid from the Bronx do preppy clothes? Does it have to do with class and money? It has to do with dreams.
—Ralph Lauren (b.1939) American Businessman
An old thing becomes new if you detach it from what usually surrounds it.
—Robert Bresson (1907–99) French Film Director