QUOTES

"Oh, never mind the fashion. When one has a style of one’s own, it is always twenty times better."

• Margaret Oliphant (1828-1897), British novelist and historian

"The principle of fashion is . . . the principle of the kaleidoscope. A new year can only bring us a new combination of the same elements; and about once in so often we go back and begin again."

• Katherine Fullerton Gerould (1879-1944), U.S. author

Fashion “. . . should be fun, foolish, and almost unwearable.”

• Christian Lacroix (1951 - ), French fashion designer

Fashion “. . . is not for philosophy – it’s for life.”

• Issey Miyake (1939 - ), Japanese fashion designer

Fashion “. . . is of great importance to the morale.”

• Elsa Schiaparelli (1890-1973), Italian-French fashion designer

“`Style’ is an expression of individualism mixed with charisma.  Fashion is something that comes after style.”

• John Fairchild (1927 - ), Publisher Women’s Wear Daily

“Fashion is shrewd to detect those who do not belong to her train, and seldom wastes her attentions.”

• Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), U.S. essayist, poet, and philosopher

“The first thing the first couple did after committing the first sin was to get dressed.  Thus Adam and Eve started the world of fashion, and styles have been changing ever since.”

• “Gilding the Lily,” Time magazine, Nov. 8, 1963

“If one considers how much reason every person has for anxiety and timid self-concealment, and how three-quarters of his energy and goodwill can be paralyzed and made unfruitful by it, one has to be very grateful to fashion, insofar as it sets that three-quarters free and communicates self-confidence and mutual cheerful agreeableness to those who know they are subject to its law.”

• Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900), German philosopher

“Even in the centuries which appear to us to be the most monstrous and foolish, the immortal appetite for beauty has always found satisfaction.”

• Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), French poet and critic

“Antifashion, a recurrent theme in the history of dress, was probably first taken up as a sign of status by the nobility, perhaps originally out of necessity.  Impoverished, threadbare noblemen could take pride in their lack of style while middle-class upstarts were deeply considering the cut of their coats.  This strain in artistocratic style persists.  The essential presumptuousness of fashion – its constant pushiness, its middle-class mobility – is one of the things that make people hate and fear it, especially very radical and conservative people.  The constant dress-reform movements of the nineteenth century in England and America were attempts, in different modes, to resist and even abolish fashion . . . . If elaborate fashion was the outward sign of bourgeois prosperity, antifashion had be invented as a necessary means of indicating objections to existing social, economic, and sexual standards.”

• Anne Hollander (1930 - ), U.S. art historian

“The idea which man forms of beauty imprints itself throughout his attire, rumples or stiffens his garments, rounds off or aligns his gestures, and, finally, even subtly penetrates the features of his face.”

• Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), French poet and critic

“The same costume will be Indecent 10 years before its time, Shameless 5 years before its time, Outré (daring) 1 year before its time, Smart, Dowdy 1 year after its time, Hideous 10 years after its time, Ridiculous 20 years after its time, Amusing 30 years after its time, Quaint 50 years after its time, Charming 70 years after its time, Romantic 100 years after its time, Beautiful 150 years after its time.”

• James Laver (1899-1975), British art critic and author

“The past is interesting not only for the beauty which artists for whom it was the present were able to extract from it, but also as past, for its historical value.  The same goes for the present.  The pleasure which we derive from the representation of the present is due not only to the beauty in which it may be clothed, but also from its essential quality of being present.”

• Charles Baudelaire (1821-1867), French poet and critic

“Fashion is born by small facts, trends, or even politics, never by trying to make little pleats and furbelows, by trinkets, by clothes easy to copy, or by the shortening or lengthening of a skirt.”

• Elsa Schiaperelli (1890-1973), Italian-French fashion designer

“The erogenous zone is always shifting, and it is the business of fashion to pursue it, without ever catching it up.”

• James Laver (1899-1975), British art critic and author

“Fashion, by which what is really fantastic becomes for a moment the universal.”

• Oscar Wilde (1854-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright

“Fashion is nothing but an induced epidemic.”

• George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950), Irish dramatist, literary critic, and social spokesperson

“Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy,

But not expressed in fancy, rich, not gaudy,

For the apparel oft proclaims the man.”

• William Shakespeare (1564-1616), British dramatist and poet

“Compared to Imelda [Marcos], Marie Antoinette was a bag lady.”

-   Stephen J. Solarz, U.S. Congressman, on viewing the elaborate wardrobe left

behind by the wife of the overthrown Philippines president, NY Times, March 9, 1986

“I base my fashion taste on what doesn’t itch.”

• Gilda Radner (1946-1989), U.S. actress

“In words as fashion the same rule will hold.

Alike fantastic if too new or old:

Be not the first by whome the new are tried,

Nor yet the last to lay the old aside.”

• Alexander Pope (1688-1744), British essayist, satirist, and poet

“Ere you consult your fancy, consult your purse.”

• Benjamin Franklin (1842-1914), U.S. journalist and short-story writer

“Art produces ugly things which frequently become beautiful with time.  Fashion, on the other hand, produces beautiful things which always become ugly with time.”

• Jean Cocteau (1889-1963), French poet, novelist, and director

“Every generation laughs at the old fashions, but follows religiously the new.”

• Henry David Thoreau (1817-1862), U.S. essayist, poet, and naturalist

“FASHION, n. A despot whom the wise ridicule and obey.”

• Ambrose Bierce (1842-1914), U.S. journalist and short-story writer

“Fashion is a tool . . . to compete in life outside the home.  People like you better, without knowing why, because people always react well to a person they like the looks of.”

• Mary Quant, (1934 -  ), British fashion designer

“Fashion is the science of appearances, and it inspires one with the desire to seem rather than to be.”

• Edwin Hubbel Chapin (1856-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright and novelist

“Fashion is not frivolous.  It is a part of being alive today.”

• Mary Quant, (1934 -  ), British fashion designer

“Fashion is what one wears oneself.  What is unfashionable is what other people wear.”

• Oscar Wilde (1856-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright and novelist

“Fashions fade, style is eternal.”

• Yves Saint Laurent (1936 - ), French fashion designer

“I never cared for fashion much, amusing little seams and witty little pleats:  it was the girls I liked.”

• David Bailey (1938 - ), British photographer

“In difficult times fashion is always outrageous.”

• Elsa Schiaparelli, (1890-1973), Italian-French fashion designer

“It is only the modern that ever becomes old-fashioned.”

• Oscar Wilde (1856-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright and novelist

“It pains be physically to see a woman victimized, rendered pathetic, by fashion.”

• Yves Saint Laurent (1936 - ), French fashion designer

“Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months.”

• Oscar Wilde (1856-1900), Anglo-Irish playwright and novelist

“Fashion is only the attempt to realize art in living forms and social intercourse.”

• Francis Bacon (1561-1626), British statesman, essayist, and intellectual reformer

“Today, fashion is really about sensuality – how a woman feels on the inside.  In the eighties women used suits with exaggerated shoulders and waists to make a strong impression.  Women are now more comfortable with themselves and their bodies – they no longer feel the need to hide behind their clothes.”

• Donna Karan (1948 - ), U.S. fashion designer

“If you are not in fashion, you are nobody.”

• Lord Chesterfield (1694-1773), British statesman, diplomat, and wit

“Fashion is what you adopt when you don’t know who you are.”

• Quentin Crisp (1908-1999), British author

“There is a level of cowardice lower than that of conformist:  the fashionable non-conformist.”

• Ayn Rand (1905-1982), Russian-born U.S. writer

“Beauty of style and harmony and grace and good rhythm depend on simplicity.”

• Plato (428 BC – 348 BC), Greek philosopher

“I dress for the image.  Not for myself, not for the public, not for fashion, not for men.”

• Marlene Dietrich (1901-1992), German-born U.S. actress

“It is fancy rather than taste which produces so many new fashions.”

• Voltaire (1694-1778), French philosopher and writer

“Fashion is made to become unfashionable.”

• Coco Chanel (1883-1971), French fashion designer

“The customs and fashions of men change like leaves on a bough, some of which go and others come.”

• Dante Alighieri (1265-1321), Italian author and poet

“Fashion condemns us to many follies: the greatest is to make ourselves its slave.”

• Napoleon Bonaparte (1769-1821), French general, politician, and emperor

“Only great minds can afford a simple style.”

• Stendhal (1783-1842), French writer

“It is the unseen, unforgettable, ultimate accessory of fashion that heralds your arrival and prolongs your departure.”

                            -   Coco Chanel (1883-1971), French fashion designer